Tap lets you do a triple tap gesture on the back of your Android

Tap, Tap lets you do a triple tap gesture on the back of your Android phone.

Back in February, we detailed a hidden feature in the Pixel’s SystemUI app called “Columbus” — a new gesture mechanism created by Google that utilizes sensor data from the gyroscope and the accelerometer to detect taps on the back of select Pixel phones. Google was working on making it possible to perform actions like launching the Google Assistant or taking screenshots using this unique feature, but the company removed these gestures in Android 11 beta builds. XDA Recognized Developer Quinny899 then decided to reuse the under-the-hood machine learning code and TensorFlow models to create an app called “Tap, Tap” that enables the double back tap gesture on any Android device. You don’t need to be rooted to use the nifty little app, and it even has the capability to integrate with Tasker for greater customizability.

Since our initial coverage, the developer has added a bunch of fixes as well as new functionalities in the app. First of all, Tap, Tap is longer considered as alpha. The first beta build (version 0.8) arrived two days ago, which is now succeeded by a quick hotfix build (version 0.8.1). Secondly, it is now possible to configure triple tap gestures using the app. Note that enabling triple tap gesture may slow down double tap actions in some cases.

Apart from these changes, the first Tap, Tap beta release brings in four new Android 11 accessibility global actions that include app drawer actions when supported launchers are installed. Support for legacy ARMv7 devices has also been added since version 0.4 alpha. There is an experimental sensitivity option with a slider under the gesture settings (since version 0.5 alpha), which should be useful for end users to tune the ability of the sensors to recognize tapping. Last but not least, the Gates module, i.e. the conditional execution routine, can now detect headsets, music playing, and when the device is placed down flat on a table.

Changelogs of Tap tap 0.8.1 Beta

Fixed crash changing feedback options for some devices
Further changes to the service to hopefully fix duplication of listeners/actions
Fixed missing apps on Android 11 due to package visibility changes
Added empty states to actions and gates pages
Fixed crash when triple tap was enabled and run but no actions were set

As always, you can download the latest APK of Tap, Tap using the “Latest Release” tag from the project’s GitHub repo. Alternatively, head over to the XDA forum thread linked below and grab the APK from the first post.