I was playing with a Motorola G72 and noticed this feature by accident: double-tap on the back of the phone to trigger a custom action.

Here is a video showing this feature

This is not the same as double tapping the fingerprint scanner. This phone has a front-facing under-display scanner.

It’s very neat and handy, I hope other phones implement this too.

Update: See this comment for a link to an app that enables the feature on many phones.

  • The Cuuuuube
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    242 years ago

    chop chop flashlight is the very best feature of the Moto series

    • ten4
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      122 years ago

      Honorable mention to twist twist camera

      • mFatOP
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        92 years ago

        And to twist for switching between main and selfie camera.

    • thenicnet
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      102 years ago

      For real. I moved over to Samsung a while back and I miss choppy choppy light light.

    • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧M
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      62 years ago

      Should be noted it’s fairly simple to do this on any Android phone with Tasker.


      Profile > Event > Sensor > Shake Left-Right > task=torch toggle

      Tasks > Alert > Torch > Set Toggle > task - torch toggle


    • Yoast
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      62 years ago

      It’s been six years since I switched from an X2 to a pixel 2 and I still miss the flashlight chop

      • The Cuuuuube
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        32 years ago

        I still chop chop the Teracube I’ve had for a while and then go “oh yeah…”

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        I had two moto phones back to back and then switched to the pixel. Can’t tell you how many times I tried to turn on the flashlight this way before realization kicks in.

    • Rev. Layle
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      42 years ago

      I went to pixel because the last couple of moto phones were just meh, but chop chop flashlight was the greatest thing ever

    • mFatOP
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      2 years ago

      Wow! I bet most iPhone users don’t know this exists. This is more like a usability feature than an accessibility one. It even supports triple tap!

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        They don’t. I used to work the Genius Bar and sadly the majority of users don’t know how to sign on to iCloud haha.

        Apple has a habit of hiding away features. There are some outstanding accessibility features on iPhone.

        I personally use the Backtap to run a shortcut that turns off WiFi, not greys it out but off off. I get irrationally mad when it always try’s to connnect to networks and kills my internet.

  • @[email protected]
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    212 years ago

    Pixel phones also have this feature, called quick tap. Quite handy to turn on and off flashlight for example.

  • @[email protected]
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    112 years ago

    Reading the comments, it looks like there are lots of other phones doing this.

    Personally I use it to turn on the flashlight on my Pixel 6.

  • Earl Turlet
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    2 years ago

    The Pixel series have this. It’s called Quick Tap.

    Combined with Tasker, you can make it do anything – if the existing options aren’t enough.

    • mFatOP
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      52 years ago

      Cool. It’s incredibly useful. Didn’t know Pixels had this too.

    • dub
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      12 years ago

      yep. have it on the fold. its not perfect but its pretty good!

  • @[email protected]
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    62 years ago

    Quite a few phones have similar features. Samsung users can use GoodLock to use the back tap too.

    But when I tried in the past, I didn’t like it, too many false triggers.

  • Solar Bear
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    62 years ago

    Samsung has this as well as triple tap under RegiStar via Good Lock, but it randomly just stops working. It was great at first, but now I don’t even try to use it because so often it just doesn’t work.

    • mFatOP
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      42 years ago

      Yeah both are brilliant design ideas. Only someone who has used a moto phone knows what we mean.

  • @[email protected]
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    42 years ago

    Back when I had my Mi A1, I used to run a Pixel 2XL GSI ROM that enabled the same feature.

    I used that to take a screenshot, and later, show the accessibility menu when my power button and volume buttons stopped working.

    CC: @[email protected] who is the only person I know that still has their A1

  • @[email protected]
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    42 years ago

    I miss my Motorola phones.

    Had nothing but Motorolas since my very first Android. Absolutely loved the gestures and hands free interaction. Went through a series of Moto phones over the years until I accidentally destroyed my last one and needed a new device ASAP. Ended up with a Samsung S21 which is a perfectly fine phone,but it doesn’t have the personality of any of my old Motos. It does have a much better camera though than any of my Motorolas.

    I don’t want to buy a new phone any time soon, but I definitely want to go back to Motorola.

  • MdRuckus
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    22 years ago

    This works on Pixels. I have mine set to flashlight.