During the Covid pandemic, washing your hands was one of the guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. Perhaps a habit that you still practice, but are you washing your hands long enough? The Apple Watch can help you wash your hands for 20 seconds with the special hand washing function.
Apple has built in a special function that uses built-in sensors to check whether you wash your hands. When this is the case, a 20-second timer will automatically start on the screen of your Apple Watch. The feature has been available since watchOS 7 on the Apple Watch Series 4 or later.
Wash hands for 20 seconds
Washing your hands for 20 seconds is recommended by health authorities such as the RIVM for optimal hand hygiene. Do you decide to stop washing your hands prematurely? The Apple Watch then gives you feedback with a tap. Which can be a motivation to continue to complete the 20 seconds.
After washing your hands for 20 seconds, a message with soap bubbles will appear on the screen and the Apple Watch will vibrate to confirm. The message will then disappear automatically. So you don’t have to operate your Apple Watch to use the hand washing function, this is completely automatic.
If you want extra motivation to wash your hands more often, you can also use the automatic reminder when you get home. When you get home, the Apple Watch will remind you to wash your hands.
Operation of hand washing function for Apple Watch
The motion sensors in the Apple Watch register the specific movements associated with hand washing. In addition, the available microphone also detects whether there is the sound of flowing water. This combination ensures that your Apple Watch knows that you are washing your hands. If you make hand washing movements, but there is no running water at the start, the timer will not be activated.
Set Apple Watch hand washing
The hand washing function is not activated by default in watchOS. This must be activated manually on your Apple Watch.
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone
- Navigate to ‘My Watch’
- Scroll down and tap ‘Wash hands’
- Activate the ‘Hand washing timer’ option
When the Apple Watch now hears water flowing and you make a ‘hand washing motion’, the timer will start. When the 20 seconds are up, you will feel a tap and/or hear a sound.
Turn on the ‘Handwashing Reminders’ option to receive a notification when you get home. This will remind you to wash your hands.
Turn off the hand washing timer
Don’t want to use the function? Then you can disable it completely using the steps below.
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone
- Navigate to ‘My Watch’
- Scroll down and tap ‘Wash hands’
- Disable the ‘Handwash Timer’ option
View Hand Washing Results
Are you curious how often you washed your hands? You can check this via the Health app. Open Health â–¸ Data â–¸ Other data â–¸ Wash hands. You can then view all registrations.