Double tap comes to the Apple Watch with watchOS 10.1

The new double tap gesture for Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 is available today with watchOS 10.1.

With the new double tap gesture, users can easily control Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 using just one hand and without touching the display. Users can tap the index finger and thumb of their watch hand together twice to quickly perform many of the most common actions. 

This new feature complements existing gestures like tap, swipe, raise to wake, and cover to mute. According to Apple, double tap allows users to select the primary action in a wide variety of watchOS apps and notifications, including:

• Opening the Smart Stack from any watch face and scrolling through widgets in the stack.
• Answering and ending phone calls.
• Viewing a message from a notification, scrolling through longer notifications with an additional double tap, replying using dictation, and sending a message.
• Pausing, resuming, and ending a timer.
• Stopping and resuming a stopwatch.
• Snoozing an alarm.
• Playing and pausing music, podcasts,and audiobooks.
• Switching to the new Elevation view in the Compass app.
• Taking an iPhone photo with the Camera Remote in the Camera app.
• Starting or stopping automatic Workout reminders.
• Performing the primary action from notifications, such as replying to an incoming message from a messaging app and snoozing reminders — including from third parties.

watchOS 10‌‌.1 can be downloaded for free through the Apple Watch app on an iPhone running iOS 17 by opening it up and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to have at least a 50% battery and it needs to be placed on a charger.