Speaker 1: When the new Apple watches were announced, the biggest thing for me was the double tap gesture. Apple made a new way to interact with the watch, double tapping with your thumb and finger instead of touching the screen. Now I thought for sure double tapping would be the hot new flex, but maybe that was a stretch. The double tap feature has been out for three weeks and it dawned on me the other day that I have not found myself using it in everyday life, but I was so excited about it. Why am I not utilizing it [00:00:30] like I thought I would? We are in the early days of thinking about this motion as a new way of controlling future technology. So is this just my brain needing reprogramming or am I not using it because it's not as useful as it could be? In this week's, one more thing, I will go over the ways to use double tap and we will tap into what other reviewers are thinking and where this gesture could be expanding into.
Speaker 1: Next. I'm Bridget Carey, and this is one more thing. The [00:01:00] Double Tap gesture rolled out in watch OSS 10.1, but only for this year's Apple Watch series nine and the Apple Watch Ultra two. When you double tap any finger and thumb together, it selects the primary action on the screen at the moment and it works for a limited number of apps and notifications. Now you could do it to answer or hang up a phone call. If you get a notification, double tap will pull up the message and you could double tap again to reply with voice dictation, I'm filming [00:01:30] the show. Double tap can end a timer, snooze an alarm, or pause music. If you are in the camera app, you could take a photo with a double tap that's handy if you want to be in the photo. You can also start or stop a workout if you get a reminder.
Speaker 1: Sometimes if you get a notification from a third party app, you can also double tap to dismiss it. And the point of all of this, the real purpose here is that you can still use your watch if your hands are full. You can keep life flowing along without resorting [00:02:00] to using your nose to touch the screen. Now, before you run to the comments to say, well Bridget, this is not new. It was an option under accessibility in other watches. Yes, that is called Assistive Touch and it was originally designed in older watches as an option for people with mobility issues so that a person could navigate the Apple Watch with one hand. But double tap is the next evolution of this concept. Apple baked double tap into the main user experience. It's for everyone and it's always working [00:02:30] without draining the battery. The new watches have a more powerful chip.
Speaker 1: It's called the S nine and double tap Detection is being handled by a four core neural engine. It processes data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor with machine learning to always be looking for when the fingers are doing the tapping motion. Apple says these chips are more accurate at detecting the double tap and it's able to do it using less power. Tapping as a computing gesture [00:03:00] is weaving its way into other Apple products, specifically the Vision Pro, but the headset is different. It is detecting the movement of your fingers with its many cameras that are tracking the hand. It's looking for you to make a single or a double tap, and that is how you would click something in a program. The Apple Watch is kind of our baby step into thinking about navigating computers with gestures. The iPhone pioneered the pinch to zoom and perhaps it is the Apple Watch that will make tapping [00:03:30] fingers together a form of control that becomes the norm.
Speaker 1: Of course, apple did not invent hand gestures for control. HoloLens used one finger pretending to click for what it calls Air Tap. Lots of companies have tried to figure out this puzzle on best ways to basically turn our hands into a mouse cursor with different trackers, but Apple is right now taking us down the finger. Pinchy Pinchy Path. Double tapping will not do something in every situation or [00:04:00] app. It depends on what is currently on the watch screen. When double tapping will not do something, it's going to show you a little double tap symbol and it shakes a little back and forth as if to say, Nope, I see you tapping, but it's not happening today, buddy. Now I have found the watch is really good at recognizing the tap. It just may not have something it can do at the moment with it, so there's a lot of user experimentation and learning going on.
Speaker 1: Right now there is one double tap feature in particular that is clumsy and not [00:04:30] useful to me. At least when you are on the main watch face, it will pull up a smart stack of widgets that you could scroll through, but doing this motion over and over again isn't how I like to browse. Now, double tap has been really helpful for me when I am driving so I can easily answer a call and I also often use hands-free features like dictating a message when I'm on the road, but I really have to think about double tap to get into the habit of using it. It's just muscle memory for me to reach for the watch. What about [00:05:00] our other CNET experts who have been testing Apple watches? Lisa Attic Chico reviewed the series nine. How is she doublet tapping?
Speaker 2: I love the idea of double tap. Being able to control your Apple Watch without actually touching it with your other hand seems really useful. The problem is that I just haven't found myself in a lot of situations that call for it yet. For example, I could see it being really useful when I'm walking down the street with a cup of coffee or when I'm gripping the subway pole on my way to work. But if I'm not going to the office and I'm just wearing my Apple Watch [00:05:30] during a workout, I don't really find myself using it. The other issue is that it just doesn't feel as intuitive for me yet. We've spent a decade being conditioned to tap swipe and scroll on touch screens, but the gesture of pinching two fingers together still doesn't feel like a natural reaction to me when I feel my wrist buzz. I also wish there were more customization options for Double Tap, for example. I would love to be able to start and end a workout using
Speaker 1: It, and I would also love to be able to restart a timer
Speaker 2: [00:06:00] Rather than just dismissing it using Double
Speaker 1: Tap. That said, I'm sure this is just the beginning. I could see Apple putting a lot of new features
Speaker 2: And customizations
Speaker 1: In future versions of watchOS. All right. Now what about Lexi tis she's been reviewing the Ultra two.
Speaker 3: I actually use it all the time. Specifically when it comes to sending messages, I got usually a baby in this arm or walking the dog with the leash in this hand, can't reach the watch through the other hand, so I just double tap and quickly send a reply. Also works really great in third party apps. I use [00:06:30] all the time like Slack and Viber, and I also use it to change tracks quite frequently, but that's not on default. Go to settings, gestures and double tap and then choose the Skip option, but it does have its limitations. I would love if you could choose what it invokes when you first raise your wrist from the clock face instead of the smart stack because I'm sorry, you're not getting me to use the Smart Stack anymore that I absolutely have to let me choose a default action. That would be great. And also I would love for it to work in the first party workout [00:07:00] app. Yes, it is detecting blood flow in order to get double tap to work, so that's probably not super reliable when you are doing a sweaty, intense workout. But you got to admit, wouldn't it be great to be able to do this to start and stop a workout or maybe even mark segments?
Speaker 1: Okay, you know what? It's still early. Maybe I just have not had enough double tap opportunities when my hands are full. I just got to be more busy. I already have two kids, but maybe I'll use it more if I get a dog too. Okay, I'm kidding. But I also think that these habits [00:07:30] of ours evolve over time. I still find myself holding down the crown to talk to Siri instead of just raising the watch and talking, and that's kind of interesting to think about. There are many people using these controls in different ways to whatever fits best for their brain. And Apple, along with other app makers, have to build future tech knowing that there's going to be people who like a button and people who like to shout voice commands and others who want to do hand gestures. We'll just be a sea [00:08:00] of people who wig and yell at poke at our devices.
Speaker 1: Depending on our ages and what we're used to doing, I'll probably be the old lady at the store yelling at her watch for the weather holding down the button where Jen Alpha is going to be doing dance moves to send emails. Now, if you have one of the new watches, I would love it if you would shout out in the comments your take on the double tap, and if you cannot double tap yet, then just tell me how you have changed and how you interact with your tech over the years. Are you still saying, hey, before the series? [00:08:30] We got some interesting stories this week on this topic, you can dive into on cnet.com, both from Lisa Attic Chico, as well as Scott Stein, and thanks to Lisa and Lexi for sharing their stories. Set a reminder to watch Bridget in one more thing next Friday. Okay, I added watch Bridget, one more thing. For November 17th, 2023. Thanks. Sure thing.
