Control Apple Watch with one hand – that’s how it works with AssistiveTouch

A hidden feature of the Apple Watch is called AssistiveTouch. This gives you the option to use the watch without touching it. That is how it works.

Apple Watch AssistiveTouch: use watch without a second hand

With the Apple Watch you have a small touchscreen on your wrist. But you always need two hands to operate it. You wear the Apple Watch on one arm, while you use the other hand to tap and swipe the screen. But what if that doesn’t work?

Recently, Apple has a solution for this. With AssistiveTouch, you no longer need an extra hand to use your Apple Watch. The feature was added with watchOS 8 and works entirely through hand gestures.

This feature is intended for people with a physical disability. That is why you will find the function in the accessibility options. Still, it can also be a handy option without limitation. At the very least, it’s an interesting, innovative way to control a watch and therefore definitely worth trying out.

How does AssistiveTouch work?

With AssistiveTouch you control the Apple Watch without touching it. Instead, you use hand gestures. There are four different hand gestures that the Apple Watch recognizes: squeeze, squeeze twice, fist, and fist twice.

A touch between your thumb and forefinger sees the Apple Watch as a squeeze. By default, a squeeze causes you to move forward. Squeezing twice will make you go backwards. This way you can scroll through all the parts on the screen.

If you make a fist with your hand, you tap. That means, for example, opening an app or a complication on the screen. Making a fist twice will take you to the task menu. There you will find other functions that you can scroll through.

Interestingly, you can link actions to your gestures, so you can set it up completely to your own liking.

What do you need to use AssistiveTouch on an Apple Watch?

To use AssistiveTouch, you first need an Apple Watch with watchOS 8. The feature can be used on an Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, just like the Apple Watch SE. You also need iOS 15 or newer.

Turn on AssistiveTouch for the Apple Watch

You cannot turn on AssistiveTouch on the Apple Watch itself. You need the Watch app on your iPhone for that. To find the function, go through the following steps:

How do you adjust the hand gestures?

You can also adjust the hand gestures where you flipped the switch at ‘Hand gestures’. You have quite a few options for that. Specifically, for each hand gesture – squeeze, squeeze twice, fist and fist twice – you can set a different action.

For example, choose ‘forward’, ‘backward’, ‘tap’, ‘task menu’ and ‘press the digital crown’. You can also associate specific actions with a gesture, such as “Apple Pay” or “Notification Center.”

The action to activate this control can also be adjusted. To do this, tap on ‘Activation gesture’ under ‘Hand gestures’. By default, the controls are activated by making a fist twice.

Alternative controls: auto scan and move pointer

While you can control the entire Apple Watch this way, AssistiveTouch offers two alternative methods. In the settings you can choose ‘automatic scanning’ at ‘scan method’. Then you don’t have to manually scroll through all the items on the screen. This will then happen automatically, after which you ‘tap’ when the correct item comes along. This option is useful if you can’t use your hand so quickly and often.

Another way to control is the move pointer. This places a cursor on the screen that you move by tilting the watch. You can activate the motion indicator by shaking the watch, but in practice we found it difficult to make the cursor appear in this way. It is better to go to the task menu by making a fist twice and then choosing ‘interaction’ and then ‘movement pointer’.

If you mainly use the movement indicator, then it is smart to put it under a hand gesture under ‘Hand gestures’. This way you can quickly recall the cursor.

AssistiveTouch in practice

With the basic settings of AssistiveTouch, you can control the entire Apple Watch. A blue ring appears around what is selected on the screen. For example, a complication. You open this item by making a fist. By first making a fist twice and then once, you open the screen with all apps. It went very quickly. Still, AssistiveTouch is definitely a slower way to control an Apple Watch. So only activate it if you really need it.

There are plenty of reasons to wear an Apple Watch if you can’t use both hands, such as for health tracking, fall detection and now also making phone calls. AssistiveTouch ensures that more people can use it.

More Apple Watch Tips

Your Apple Watch has a lot of features that you probably don’t know all of. For example, check out these 4 Apple Watch hacks. And These 3 Apple Watch Features Everyone Should Know.