The two newest Apple Watches, the Series 9 and the Ultra 2, are quite similar to last year's models. One thing that separates them is Double Tap: a feature that allows you to perform simple tasks on your Apple Watch by tapping your thumb and index fingers together twice.
The idea for Double Tap is simple. If your non-Apple Watch hand is occupied, maybe you're holding a cup of coffee or walking your dog leash, you can still perform quick tasks without touching the screen. You can answer a call or text. Snooze an alarm. Pause your music. There are a bunch of little things like that.
The catch, however, is that Double Tap hasn't been available, even though the Series 9 and the Ultra 2 were been out in the world for over a month. But that just changed.
As of yesterday, Apple has rolled out watchOS 10.1 and brought Double Tap to the masses. We've been playing around with it for some time (thanks to the public beta) — here's what you need to know.
What can you do with Double Tap on your Apple Watch?
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You can access your Smart Stack
The main thing that Double Tap does is it accesses your Smart Stack — this is the stack of widgets you see when you scroll up on your Digital Crown. When you're not in an app or doing anything on your Apple Watch and you use Double Tap, it'll bring up your Smart Stack. If you keep using Double Tap, it'll scroll through all your different widgets. This makes the widgets that populate your Smart Stack ever more important.
The Smart Stack is "smart" because it learns what apps you use at different times of the day and then populates them in the Smart Stack accordingly. However, you can manually add and remove widgets from your Smart Stack — which I recommend doing. It's simple.
- Scroll up on your Digital Crown to bring up your Smart Stack.
- Long-press on one of the widgets.
- Select the "+" icon to add a new widget or hit the "–" icon to remove a widget.
- Select Done when satisfied with your widget layout.
My only real complaint with using Double Tap to access the Smart Stack is that you can only scroll through the different widgets — if you want to click into one of those widgets, you have to use your other hand.
You answer and end phone calls
If your iPhone is in your pocket or out of reach, you can use Double Tap to quickly answer a call. It works well, but just know that you'll be taking the call on your Apple Watch (which is a little uncomfortable unless you're wearing AirPods). You can then use Double Tap to end the call. The only bummer is that you can't use Double Tap to immediately decline a call.
You can view and answer messages
When you get the Message notification, a quick Double Tap gesture will prompt you to replay if it's a short text. If it's a long text, each Double Tap gesture will scroll down allowing you to read the text in increments. The last Double Tap gesture allows you to reply via voice dictation.
This will work on most messaging apps, so you can do the same thing if you get a message through WhatsApp.
You can control timers and stopwatches
You can use Double Tap to control timers and stopwatches. When you ask Siri to start a timer, a Double Tap will pause that timer and then another Double Tap will start it up again. The same is true for a stopwatch; you can ask Siri to open a stopwatch and when it does, a Double Tap can be used to start and pause it.
The downside here is that if you get a notification when running timer or stopwatch, that timer or stopwatch will disappear (while still running in the background) and you'll have to manually open it back up.
You can snooze an alarm
If your alarm goes off while wearing your Apple Watch, a quick Double Tap will snooze it but not stop it. If you want to completely end your alarm, Double Tap won't save you.
You can play/pause music and podcasts
If you're listening to music or a podcast, you can use Double Tap to play and pause your music. You can't use it to skip or repeat tracks, however. This will work with whichever music service you subscribe to, be it Apple Music or Spotify or anything else.
You can use as remote control for your iPhone's camera
You can use Double Tap to take a photo with your iPhone's camera, too. All you have to do is ask Siri to "take a picture" or "open your camera" and then your Apple Watch will turn into a little viewfinder for your iPhone. From there, a Double Tap gesture will start a three-second timer and snap a photo. (You can use the Digital Crown to adjust zoom.)
You can switch to Elevation View while using the Compass app
When using the Compass app on your Apple Watch, a Double Tap will switch it to the new Elevation View where you can see more of a 3D map of where you are. If you Double Tap again it'll switch back to the traditional Compass View.
Yes, you can disable Double Tap if you want
You might not want to ever use Double Tap. Or you might find that you're triggering it too often by accident. If that's the case you can turn it off.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Select Gestures.
- Select Double Tap.
- Toggle Double Tap off.
