The Apple Watch has a responsive touchscreen that makes navigating the device easy to do. But suppose you have a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to use the touchscreen? Apple has added hand gestures to watchOS and released a video today that shows you how to enable the feature called AssistiveTouch.
The feature is compatible with the Apple Watch SE and the Apple Watch Series 6 or later. The timepiece must be running watchOS 8 or later. The feature can be toggled on using the accessibility settings on your Apple Watch, or turned on using an iPhone running iOS 15 or later. For the latter, open the Watch app on the handset and go to Accessibility > AssistiveTouch and toggle the feature on.
Once the feature is enabled, you can customize the settings and increase the contrast, customize the menu, and more. Tapping on the Hand Gestures toggle turns on the feature and also allows you to customize the gestures if you so desire. By default, a pinch will take you to the next item on the screen. A double pinch will take you back one item.
When you want to select the current highlighted item, clench your fist quickly. A double clench activates AssistiveTouch and opens the action menu. From the action menu, you can perform more complex actions including scrolling and pressing the Digital Crown.
If you forget what each gesture does, you can always return to the Apple Watch accessibility menu for a quick refresher. Or why not bookmark this story on your browser so that you can refer to it when you need to?
