The beauty of the Apple Watch is in danger of being forgotten

When Apple Watch Series 9 was announced in 2023, Apple made k The big deal about the Double Tap gesture feature, suggests it could change the way we interact with our smartwatches.

Fast forward to the Apple Watch Series 10 being released in 2024, and you’d expect to hear about an update or upgrade to that feature. Unfortunately, Apple was quiet during the event, and it’s not a good look for the future of Double Tap.

Double Tap?

You’d also be forgiven for forgetting what Double Tap is, as if you have a compatible Apple Watch, chances are you’ve only used it a few times – not because it’s a bad feature, just because it unused.

To repeat, as the name suggests, you double-tap your thumb and forefinger to perform actions on the Apple Watch without touching the screen, such as stopping alarms, confirming notifications, or start and stop playing music.

Double Tap is useful, and it works very well, but unless you’re willing to use it or frequently find yourself in situations where you don’t have a hand to tap the watch screen, it can be easy to forget it’s there. The functionality is a bit limited, which is why I was eager to hear what watchOS 11 and Apple Watch Series 10 would bring to Double Tap.

Except during the section dedicated to the Apple Watch Series 10 at its September 9 I Glowtime event, Apple does not talk about Double Tap. not at all. There was no general statement that it is part of Series 10. Seeing as Double Tap has been updated in watchOS 11 and is a software and hardware driven feature, why didn’t Apple let us know showing off. one of its most successful recent entries? Was it so short that I missed it?

What a waste

Apple didn’t make any commitment to support the Double Tap feature forever last year, so there’s no obligation to continue talking about it, but it was a big selling point. of Series 9 sales, and I expect it has done justice. time and money to create and market it first. Combine all this with the fact that it works well, along with watchOS 11 tweaks, and to ignore it during the new product presentation 12 months later is unfortunate.

It’s not like Apple is tired of gesture control, as the new Camera Control button on the side of the iPhone 16 series also uses gestures to activate different features when you swipe and tap it. It’s also a bad time not to talk about it, because of one thing that makes me not completely pessimistic about Double Tap’s future. Apple has opened the API so that developers can use it in their applications, which will take a lot of time and effort for them. Will they be quick to adopt Double Tap when Apple doesn’t let people know it still exists?

I’m sure Apple has access to analytics on how we all interact with our Apple Watch, and can see how often Double Tap is called. Perhaps the statistics on its use meant it didn’t feel the need to include it in the Series 10 offering, which would work if a lot of people use it regularly, or more worryingly because they don’t. use it at all. It’s a Catch-22, and gesture control on mobile devices always seems to have its own problem.

Body gestures are forgotten

The uncertainty about Double Tap is what I feared would happen. There is a risk that it will be forgotten, because the device’s gesture systems in the past have had little staying power. I’m totally guilty of not using Double Tap, too. I rarely find myself in situations where Double Tap is needed, and I usually use it out of memory or curiosity, not because I have no choice or because it always solves a problem for me. However, when I use it, I remember how bright and easy it is, and I wish I had more opportunities to try it.

Putting Double Tap’s API in the hands of developers provides a much greater opportunity to prevent failed mobile gestures. Although I don’t think it would have given more hours to it with the introduction of Series 10, Apple would have said something about it, and tease or even show how it could improve in the future. I don’t want Double Tap to become another abandoned and forgotten gesture control system; too good for that. But unless everyone – you, me, Apple and the developers – are fully invested in their success, it’s still at risk.