Picture this: I was making the arduous journey home from Trader Joe's to my apartment with heavy groceries when suddenly I received a phone call from my mother. I must answer the phone call from my mother. But my right hand is firmly holding my bag and my iPhone is tucked away in my purse, so I'm torn between buzzing the phone off (possibly sending my mother into a panic) and trying to awkwardly tap the answer button with my nose.

However, with the new Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2, I can answer, hang up, and perform a variety of other actions with two taps of my watch hand's free index finger and thumb.

I had the opportunity to try out the Apple Watch Double Tap after the September 12 Apple event. Although this feature will not be rolled out to the device until October, there were several units available to try out Double Tap. And while I wasn't in the situation described above, I did get a taste of what the most useful Apple Watch experience looks like.

The double tap works with the wrist up, with the Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2 waiting in the background for the gesture. Yes, the next generation Apple Watch devices do not have the new optical heart sensor that reads minute wrist movements and changes in blood flow, but only the upgraded S9 SiP supports the gesture algorithm.

There are too many uses for the double-tap to list, but here are a few that I have tried myself besides answering the phone. First and foremost, the double-tap opens the Smart Stack, the centerpiece update to watchOS 10 that curates a dynamic tile carousel on the wrist. Continuing the double-tap gesture, the demo watch cycled through a collection of calendar, timer, and music tiles.

Once the timer app was opened and the 10-second countdown started, the timer could be paused, resumed, and released with a double tap. I imagine this would be useful for managing multiple timers while running a chicken dredging station and cooking.

Finally, I saw how Double Tap completely improves the Camera Remote app. I often use Camera Remote to remotely control captured content on my iPhone, but it can be cumbersome depending on the type of photo or video I want to take. Sometimes I intentionally hold an object with the non-Apple Watch hand and tapping the capture button is awkward. Double-tapping solves this problem.

Double-tapping can also pause and play music, trigger talk-to-type text messages, snooze alarms, etc. I have not tested these features myself, but overall, they suggest that double-tapping will permeate many parts of the Apple Watch user experience. It will take some getting used to, but double-tapping will become an integral part of operating the Watch, just as raising your wrist to wake it up is a given.

Nevertheless, large-scale double-tap adoption will take time. Older generations of Apple Watch devices do not support double-tap, so it will probably take several upgrade cycles before the majority of users have access to this feature. We do not believe that Double Tap is sufficient to encourage people to update from the Apple Watch Series 8, but we will have to wait and see how it is received after it becomes available next month.