'Double-tap to Wake' is slowly being released to Windows Device Recovery for Lumias

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Microsoft may be readying to push double-tap-to-wake to the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL in time for the Anniversary Update.

Windows Central forum member boorya121 posted a thread about new firmware being available on the Windows Device Recovery Tool (WDRT) starting yesterday, which is used to reset a user's Windows device back to factory state. Since his original post, he has since shared some screenshots of the feature, which is found under Settings > Extras > Touch.

The new feature appears to part of firmware version 01078.00053.16236.35009. That is a substantial jump from 01078.00038.16082.36005, which is the latest for the Lumia 950 XL in the US.

What makes this story complicated, however, is that this firmware is only confirmed for unlocked devices in Russia. One user in India and another in Sweden have also claimed that the firmware is on their WDRT server for their phone.

The firmware is tied to the particular SKU of the phone model and region, but not related to the OS version. People who use WDRT will actually wipe out their phone's internal memory and start with an older version of Windows 10 Mobile, but with newer firmware (if available). From there, they would have to use over-the-air updates then to either get to the latest Production build or re-enroll in the Insider rings for the Anniversary Preview.

It has also been noted that Lumia Motion Data is missing, as that feature has now been deprecated. The feature is not going away per se, but rather it is being merged into the Windows 10 API code for wider adoption across more devices.

Not all Lumia 950 and XL phones...yet

We checked our Lumia 950 XL dual-SIM (US) and Lumia 950 (UK) yesterday and this morning, and while we did have new firmware (technically from April), it was not the advanced version containing the double-tap-to-wake. Once Microsoft signs off on the firmware for wider release, it should go broader and be over-the-air.

If we had to guess, the new firmware and 'double-tap to wake' will come with the official Windows 10 Anniversary Update scheduled for August 2. Waiting a few weeks is likely your best course of action to avoid re-installing all your apps and software. Users will get the firmware regardless of their OS version at the time or Insider status.

Microsoft had to re-write the drivers and APIs for 'double-tap to wake' so while Windows Phone 8.1 devices upgrading to Windows 10 kept the feature, phones that ship with Windows 10 Mobile do not have it.

Jump into our ongoing forum thread to follow this story: "Double tap to awake 950XL is here! New FW available in WDRT".

Thanks, boorya121, for the tip

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.