At its Wonderlust event on Tuesday, Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 9 and the second-generation Apple Watch Ultra. The two smartwatches come with a few upgrades on the inside (faster processor and improved screen brightness, for example) -- but one new feature got everyone talking.
Thanks to the new S9 chip, which uses its neural engine to process data from various watch sensors in a new way, you can now tap your fingers to control your Apple Watch -- without ever touching the display. The new Double Tap feature detects the unique signature of your movements and changes in your blood flow, working as the primary button in whatever application you're in when you tap your fingers.
However, as some folks have pointed out, a feature already exists on the Apple Watch that works a bit like Double Tap, letting you control your Apple Watch with hand gestures.
If you don't want to wait until the release of these new Apple Watches to test out the new Double Tap gesture, here's how you can get a something similar right now on your Apple Watch.
Want to learn more about what was unveiled at Wonderlust? Check out everything announced at Apple's September event, as well as what you should know about the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.
Which Apple Watch models support hand gestures?
Hand Gestures is a setting under AssistiveTouch, which is an accessibility feature on the Apple Watch and lets users, typically people with physical impairments, perform certain actions with simplified movements.
AssistiveTouch is available on the following:
- Apple Watch Series 4 and later.
- Apple Watch SE (first generation) and later.
- Apple Watch Ultra (first generation) and later.
Also, make sure you're running the latest version of WatchOS, which is currently WatchOS 9.5.
The Apple Watch Series 7 has the Hand Gestures accessibility setting.
How to enable hand gestures on the Apple Watch
You can enable this in two ways: on your iPhone connected to the Apple Watch or on the Apple Watch itself. Either option works, but it's easier to do on the iPhone, because you have more real estate to configure the settings.
On your iPhone, open the Watch app, go to Accessibility > AssistiveTouch and toggle on AssistiveTouch. Next, go into Hand Gestures and toggle that setting on as well.
Now you can customize what each gesture does. You have four gestures to choose from:
- Pinch: Tap your pointer finger and your thumb.
- Double Pinch: Tap your pointer finger and your thumb twice quickly.
- Clench: Close your hand into a fist.
- Double Clench: Close your hand into a fist twice quickly.
Double Pinch looks to behave much like the Double Tap feature. You can either configure only this gesture, or all of them.
You can also access the same settings directly on your Apple Watch.
What can hand gestures do on the Apple Watch?
You have more than two dozen options, including going forward and backward in the action menu, "tapping" the screen, "pressing in" the digital crown, opening the notification center, showing your applications, using Apple Pay, turning on Siri, putting your Apple Watch to sleep and more.
You can also trigger any Siri shortcuts you might have downloaded on your iPhone. For example, I have shortcuts that can generate a complicated password, download videos from Twitter, notify me when my battery is full and play my workout playlist when I arrive at the gym.
To add an action to a gesture, simply tap it in the list.
All the various actions that can be attached to hand gestures.
Also, make sure to choose an activation gesture
Now that you have AssistiveTouch toggled on, that doesn't mean it's active. It sort of lies dormant until you trigger it, and you need AssistiveTouch to be active before you can use hand gestures.
So the easiest way to activate AssistiveTouch is to choose a gesture to activate it. In the Watch app, go to Accessibility > Hand Gestures > Activation Gestures and choose an option (Double Clench or Double Pinch) from the list.
The activation gesture is the move that activates the rest of your hand gestures.
Using hand gestures on the Apple Watch
Now, to use hand gestures, you must first activate AssistiveTouch with your activation gesture, as mentioned above. Use your gesture; you'll know AssistiveTouch is activated when you feel haptic feedback on your wrist. If your activation gesture doesn't work the first time, try again until AssistiveTouch is activated.
Once AssistiveTouch is activated, you can use the hand gestures feature. Use any of your gestures to trigger an action. In my case, for Double Pinch -- which requires me to tap my pointer finger and thumb twice quickly -- I have my Apple Watch Series 7 set to turn on Siri.
Also, know that you'll need to trigger AssistiveTouch each time you want to use a hand gesture -- AssistiveTouch is automatically deactivated after each hand gesture. So, essentially you'll need to do two hand gestures in a row to (1) activate AssistiveTouch and (2) trigger your action via your hand gesture.