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watchOS 7: How to Use the New Apple Watch Handwashing Feature
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Love the feature where the Apple Watch realizes the prior motion of wiping your tush and this automatically activates until you have washed your hands. Maybe it will help stop those people in a public bathroom from immediately leaving the restroom without washing your hands.
Well most people have only 10 fingers and if they are wearing shoes they are out of luck.
What I like about the ‘hand-washing feature‘, is it so much it’s a reminder, it’s at least the education to inform somebody in order to thoroughly wash your hands, should be a minimum of 20 seconds. How many people in this very thread actually knew it takes 20 seconds approximately to thoroughly wash your hands? [I doubt that many people actually even think about it when they’re washing their hands in those 20 seconds]. It’s the importance behind the feature of the 20 seconds, not necessarily the reminder of the feature.
I couldn’t care less about the timer. I don’t need a timer. But this is the first I’ve heard about the reminder feature when you arrive home! I was hoping it would have that! Very excited for this actually.
I try to always remember to wash my hands when I get home because I hate getting sick (who doesn’t). This FAR pre-dates COVID-19 for me… by years. 90% of the time I do remember but sometimes you get distracted and forget. And as luck would have if that’s when you get sick. And it’s so annoying. I live in a huge condo tower too so I try to remember to wash my hands anytime I leave my unit. It’s easy to forget if all you did was go take out the trash. The reminder may not work in that scenario (probably have to travel a certain distance outside your geofence). But it still sounds helpful. The last time I got sick, about a year ago, I actually thought about using a cheap IKEA motion sensor or something + ITTT macro to send me notifications but never tried it. Plus it would sent too many “false alarms“. And there doesn’t seem to be a way to send yourself geofence based reminders in ios / homekit. Which seems like an obvious feature. So anyway this is neat. Hope it actually works. I’ve never had much luck with the geofencing based features of my Hue lights (not working at all or randomly turning on at 3AM etc.)
I try to always remember to wash my hands when I get home because I hate getting sick (who doesn’t). This FAR pre-dates COVID-19 for me… by years. 90% of the time I do remember but sometimes you get distracted and forget. And as luck would have if that’s when you get sick. And it’s so annoying. I live in a huge condo tower too so I try to remember to wash my hands anytime I leave my unit. It’s easy to forget if all you did was go take out the trash. The reminder may not work in that scenario (probably have to travel a certain distance outside your geofence). But it still sounds helpful. The last time I got sick, about a year ago, I actually thought about using a cheap IKEA motion sensor or something + ITTT macro to send me notifications but never tried it. Plus it would sent too many “false alarms“. And there doesn’t seem to be a way to send yourself geofence based reminders in ios / homekit. Which seems like an obvious feature. So anyway this is neat. Hope it actually works. I’ve never had much luck with the geofencing based features of my Hue lights (not working at all or randomly turning on at 3AM etc.)
Big fat no thanks Apple. I’m ensuring that is turned off as quickly as possible.
Nice feature, specially for anxious people like me. I wash my hands a lot, but those 20 seconds seem eternal if you’re thinking about other things, talking to someone or in a rush. I’ll take this as a reminder of what wasting time is, that is, washing your hands quickly. Nice little convenience.
It is hard to train a IA to recognize sounds like those, so many sounds being made by different faucets and water pressures etc. So, putting it on the watch and making it available all the time, with that new pop up notification asking if you recently washed your hands, is a good way to train it and finish the mission of training the IA for the accessibility feature. How groundbreaking would it be for deaf people or the elderly to have Apple Glasses + Apple Watch in a future, and those notifications about important sounds right in your field of vision?
It is hard to train a IA to recognize sounds like those, so many sounds being made by different faucets and water pressures etc. So, putting it on the watch and making it available all the time, with that new pop up notification asking if you recently washed your hands, is a good way to train it and finish the mission of training the IA for the accessibility feature. How groundbreaking would it be for deaf people or the elderly to have Apple Glasses + Apple Watch in a future, and those notifications about important sounds right in your field of vision?
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I can't wait for the Apple toilet that tells you how many times to wipe your dirt hole. Honestly this hand washing "feature" is a waste of resources. Given how buggy the software is these days, take that whole team and put them in QA and the customer would be better served.
Not voice activated, but the automatic detection works using a combination of the motion sensors along with audio (specifically running water and squishing soap) to avoid, uh, certain types of accidental activations.
I often have it activate while lathering shampoo on my hands in the shower, but other than that it’s been really solid.
Maybe next we can have something to tell us how to go toilet lol such a pointless feature I’m shocked Apple done this
I turned it off as it would always think I am washing my hands when I ride my bike and the countdown always pauses when I take care of soaping properly as I don’t rub my hands as strongly when i apply the soap so 20 seconds can become a minute
Yeah I got a LifeProof Fre waterproof case for my phone (which itself is also supposed to be waterproof). So I can wash it too when I've been out.
Though I generally leave my phone at home now anyway when I go for small shopping trips and I don't do much else outside anymore (the authorities here in Barcelona have asked us to voluntarily lock down again)
I'd sooner the app notified me that the person I am about to shake hands with hasn't washed their hands. The number of people who walk out of our office toilets (a bluechip organisation) without washing is frankly shocking.
This app won't help with that so to me it's pretty useless really.
This app won't help with that so to me it's pretty useless really.
Society is filling up now with Howard Hughes clones, and here comes Apple to assist in the psychological trajectory.
apple newest technology has the ability to do an oven timer, truly remarkable times we are living in
I for one welcome this. I'm always washing my hands, but I for sure don't always rub them for 20 seconds. And judging by how fast people are done "washing" at work, in public places etc I think it's quite clear why this is much needed. I think most people tend to be closer to washing for 5-10 seconds than they are 20 seconds. And that's before you start counting all those who don't even wash to begin with. Yep, there are a lot of those as well.
Of course those who don't wash and don't care won't ever activate this feature so I highly doubt it will make that much of a difference. But for me it's certainly reminding me to rub for those 20 seconds even in situations where I'm occupied with other things and would normally rush the entire process. It makes me much more aware about how long I should be spending and how much time I should be rubbing. After using this for a few weeks I bet I could disable it as I've become accustomed to washing for 20 seconds instead of my regular 5-10 seconds.
Of course those who don't wash and don't care won't ever activate this feature so I highly doubt it will make that much of a difference. But for me it's certainly reminding me to rub for those 20 seconds even in situations where I'm occupied with other things and would normally rush the entire process. It makes me much more aware about how long I should be spending and how much time I should be rubbing. After using this for a few weeks I bet I could disable it as I've become accustomed to washing for 20 seconds instead of my regular 5-10 seconds.
Just incredible technology. And one day they’ll send a man to the moon at this rate! Indeed, there’s nothing I hate more than having to think for myself and this is something less for me to use my brain for. Thanks Apple.
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Bacteria won't disappear automatically after the 20 seconds have passed. You don't really need a timer for washing your hands.