Do I feel a little gimmicky when I see double tap? The frustrations and frustrations of working with a wrist watch

And, when double tap performs as intended, it does feel a bit like the watch can read my mind. Double tap works for the whole of them, not just the index finger, which is cool. To my surprise, it feels less gimmicky than I expected. But despite Apple’s efforts, it doesn’t take long to run into double tap’s limitations.

I wouldn’t blame anyone for feeling skeptical. But there is an absurd amount of data that needs to be processed for double tap to work. At the most basic level, the algorithm that detects the double tap gesture is trained on data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart rate sensor collected from the wrist.

That doesn’t make sense if you know anything about it. Wrist data is very difficult to work with because it has a lot of noise. To understand how light reflects off of blood pumping through veins, your wrist watches have to account for your arm, as well as any muscles, veins, and joints you move around during different activities. Another challenge is no two people have the exact same body. There are differences between wrist size and limb length.

Assistive Touch: Towards a Magical Gesture Points at a New Way to Use Wearables: Apple Watch Series 9 Ultra-2

Clark says thatReliability means that when you do a gesture we can detect it. When you do things such as a double tap, that we are not erroneously triggering the gesture, that’s because ofReliability. We have to make sure we are able to detect the right thing by tuning them.

The watch needs to be able to tell when someone is in motion, the type of activities they are doing, and what features they may be using at a given point in time. Streaming music or taking calls might seem unrelated to double tap, but the algorithm must be able to account for the noise introduced by subsystems like LTE and Bluetooth. That’s harder to do well when everything is done on the main CPU.

Eric Charles is the senior manager of Apple Watch Product Marketing. You can see a blue outline when using Assistive Touch because it lets you know when you can interact with a screen. You can use a motion-based keyboard. Charles states that Assistive Touch has four gestures, which include single tap, double tap, and double clench. According to Charles, it became evident early on that not everyone has the full strength to clench their hand, while others may not be able to do two quick, subsequent motions — such as a double tap.

“We don’t think of it necessarily as ‘Hey, there are four available gestures here.’ It’s that audience needs the ability to customize those gestures in a way that you don’t because your ability goes further than what they might be able to do.”

We did a lot of testing and one of the things we learned is that people hold the lower part of the gesture in their hand more than they release it. Charles said that the change in name made the gesture more accurate.

In talking with Clark and Charles, it’s clear Apple went through such a tedious process because this is supposed to be one of those magical features that “just works.”

Source: The Apple Watch’s double tap gesture points at a new way to use wearables

Double Tapping: Making a Hands-free App Launcher with Double Tap and the Smart Stack in Your Watchface or Flipped Fingers

Multitasking is another area where double tap can fall short. If I want to pause a timer but have navigated away from that app, I have to either use my other hand or use Siri. Otherwise, I can wait for the timer to go off and use double tap to end the timer.

Third-party apps show the lack of choice. My email app allows me to double-tap to start a quick reply, but I haven’t used it yet. Apps like Spotify and Pocket Casts don’t work with double tap, either. Third-party apps that do work with double tap allow you to ignore notifications. That’s helpful but still limiting.

However, you can also pin a specific widget so that it’s always at the top. This is the most widely used way to use the Select option. If you want to get in on the action, you can either double-tap from your watchface or flick your finger up. You can press and hold the screen. To pin one of thewidgets, go to the list and scroll down. The yellow pin icon is in the upper righthand corner. Then, you can tap Done in the upper right-hand corner. This is a way to make a hands-free app launcher using double tap and the Smart Stack.

Double tap with third-party apps is not enough: How to keep your voice in the spotlight and what you want to do when you’re going to do it

Clark says that customization can be a powerful tool but that it is not always the easiest thing to do. I understand what Clark means. Not everyone has the patience to tinker with different levels of Focus mode, or to set it up multiple times. If you want to keep things simple, you have to narrow the focus.

It can work differently than you think. Sometimes the primary action isn’t what I want to do, or at other times I need to use my other hand. In the above example, if I open the app with my voice, I might have to use the crown on my computer to get the information I need. It is not hard to imagine a future in which double tap can scroll and select. It is not quite as comprehensive, but still strikes a balance between simplicity and customizability without Apple trying to figure out what you want to do.

I don’t think a single gesture can do that alone — there’s a reason computer mice have a left and right button, scroll wheels, single clicks, double clicks, and trackballs for the sickos. If the S9 SiP handles a double tap, maybe more taps are on the way. And then we could have some real fun.

It’s important to note that only Apple’s Music app works for this to work. (In the latter, skip moves your forward 30 seconds in an episode.) Third party media apps like Pocket Casts don’t do anything if you try to use them. For now, double tap with third-party apps is limited to notifications.

Towards a Customization of the X-ray Constant in the iPhotography Trajectory with the iPod Touch

That is it. Again, I wish you could customize more, but you can’t at this point in time. That said, this is a very new feature, and it’s possible that Apple will open up a few more options down the line. In the meantime, you should play around with these customization settings and see what works best for your individual needs.