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Apple announced the Watch Series 9 this morning and it comes with a handful of new features, but the most exciting one has to be the double tap gesture control. This is exclusive to the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2. As it requires use of the neural engine in the brand new S9 chip that comes on those two watches. Which means if you want access to it, you will need to upgrade.
The first time we saw something like this from Apple was with the Apple Vision Pro headset. In its announcement videos earlier this year, people can be seen using the Vision Pro with simple hand gestures like tapping their fingers together. That’s really not too unlike how the double tap gesture control works. You tap your thumb and index finger together twice, and just like that your command is complete.
Apple doesn’t seem to have a definitive list on what you can do with this gesture. However, there are tons of different uses shown off in the announcement video. And all of them seem to be relatively useful controls. Not just one-offs that will get minimal use and then be lost to the sands of time. No, the double tap gesture controls appear pretty robust and actually quite practical. And it definitely seems like this will change the way people use their Apple Watch.
Double tap gesture controls arrive for Apple Watch Series 9 in October
The feature will no doubt be widely used once it arrives. Having said that, it won’t officially be available until October. Apple has confirmed that double tap gestures are arriving as part of a software update that comes out next month. So once it does drop, users can update their watch and then enable the double tap for all kinds of stuff.
This includes pausing and resuming playback of movies, TV, and music. In addition to stopping timers, answering and ending calls, and a whole lot more. It can launch the smart stack, and then scroll through widgets with another double tap. There’s even a double tap function for snapping a photo using your iPhone’s camera.
All of these are very practical uses and Apple thinks people will use them all the time. And it’s probably right. This is potentially just the tip of the iceberg too. As more functions will probably be added overtime. Apple Watch Series 9 arrives on September 22.