Reading on Twitter that this feature already existed and available on AW8.
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Did double tap exist on AW8?
- Thread starter satchmo
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Yes, you can activate it using accessibility features going back to Series 4. Likely the new implementation is more precise though.
I was pretty confused during that bit of the presentation since I remembered playing with double-tap a while back. There were other gestures too, I think maybe a triple-tap and a fist-clench.
It looks as if what is new is the software making them more flexible (adaptive context-based behaviour) but it really was annoying me how they were presented as if detecting the gestures themselves was brand new and was thanks to the processing power of the s9. They worked really well in terms of my series 7 recognising them when I tried them a while ago but the software support wasn’t flexible enough in terms of doing useful actions for me to bother keeping them enabled.
It looks as if what is new is the software making them more flexible (adaptive context-based behaviour) but it really was annoying me how they were presented as if detecting the gestures themselves was brand new and was thanks to the processing power of the s9. They worked really well in terms of my series 7 recognising them when I tried them a while ago but the software support wasn’t flexible enough in terms of doing useful actions for me to bother keeping them enabled.
I honestly thought this was looking so weird. The entire UI around it is so unlike Apple with that blue indicator at the top after it detected the gesture. Why not grow the button that you acted upon? How do I know what the gesture will do. Will it always be the biggest button on the screen? Sometimes? Felt like they threw that one in at the last minute to have a new feature. I‘m sure it can be useful, but it just does not seem fully baked yet.
Obviously I never checked this out in accessibility. I just activated it and trying to see if it works as well as advertised for the hardware version. Thanks to this thread for the info
Tried the accessibility feature back when it came out. For me, the effort needed to get the gesture to register was too much -- it was easier to just evoke the actions the regular way. From the way they presented this in the video today, it seems the gesture now takes a lot less effort to register. But I was taken aback they said this was something totally new. It's not, really.
Yes, when I’m in a workout I can pause it with with the double tap and restart it with the double tap. I have the Ultra, works very well.
I think it's the context sensitivity that is new. I could be wrong, I haven't tried WatchOS10.
Is that because you have an Action button that you assign a gesture to?
Is it possible with an AW without an action button?
Edit: several videos from YouTubers at the event saying they haven’t been able to start and stop via double tap.🤷
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That's correct. It was quite wonky and required very forceful hand gestures to activate.
But Apple updated it in WatchOS 9 and made it work much better, where it registers gestures much more accurately, even ones that aren't forceful.
Apart from the UI aesthetics of WatchOS 10, and perhaps some sort of algorithm that's better at determining what UI element you want to press in a given context, gesture controls on the latest WatchOS 9 works exactly like "Double Tap gestures" work in the ads and live demos I've seen for Series 9.
And by "exactly", I mean down to the exact level of force, speed, and how it seemingly still has a noticeably amount of occasional inaccuracy and lagginess exactly like we see (MR) Dan demonstrate when he tried it out:
And although WatchOS 9 doesn't have the WatchOS 10 style cards to scroll through, I can use a single tap of index finger and thumb to scroll through the Siri "cards" in the Siri watch face we already have on WatchOS 9.
I can activate the new Quick Actions in accessibility without enabling the "old" AssistiveTouch Double Tap Settings on my Ultra 1 running WatchOS 10 GM (iPhone on iOS 17 GM). They work very well to dismiss notifications etc. and even show the new UI for it.
I don't know why they gave the big spiel about needing a new watch for the Double Tap feature on the apple watch.
If you want to use it, you can use it now on your currect Apple Watch.
To enable just go into your Settings on the watch, then accessibility and quick actions and enable it there.
In my limited testing it works just like shown yesterday. No new watch needed.
Enjoy.
If you want to use it, you can use it now on your currect Apple Watch.
To enable just go into your Settings on the watch, then accessibility and quick actions and enable it there.
In my limited testing it works just like shown yesterday. No new watch needed.
Enjoy.
Yes, I have the action button set to traditional weight lifting. I use the function every other day, so yes it does work. This feature has been around since watch 4.
The Double Tap gestures absolutely existed in earlier models — all the way back to Watch 4!
See my post:
I quote from and link to various sources, including MR and Apple, that explain how it worked and what it could do!
See my post:
I quote from and link to various sources, including MR and Apple, that explain how it worked and what it could do!