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watchOS 8 hand gestures with Apple Pay is amazing

ivantheipodder

ivantheipodder

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 10, 2018
173
346
Australia
Just updated my Apple Watch Series 6 to watchOS 8 and now you can set up hand gestures (pinch, double pinch, clench, double clench) to perform certain actions on the watch including Apple Pay. By default it will just pull up the Apple Pay screen and still ask you to double click the side button to confirm paying. However there's an option which lets you bypass that - "Side button confirmation - Use AssistiveTouch to confirm payments with the passcode or any time double-clicking the side button is required."

You can also set it so that AssistiveTouch is only on when you perform a hand gesture, because if it's always on, you see a box outline surrounding on-screen elements on the screen (although they go away after a couple of seconds). I currently have it set to off.

I now have it set up so I just raise my hand (wake the watch) and double pinch (to activate AssistiveTouch) and I'm ready to pay by pinching once (with the default card). Occasionally it will ask you to "confirm with AssistiveTouch". Very useful when your other hand is occupied. So far the hand gestures trigger very well. The best feature in watchOS 8 for me.

This is different from "Express Transit" cards which you can already set so that you just wave your watch at the gate and go. Those are just for the few transit smart cards that Apple supports around the world.

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But... that's more complicated than the simple double tap of the side button to activate Pay we have had since day 1.
 
Man it's hard to find topics involving people using AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch. I was using it on my Series 7 for a bit, but it hasn't worked for me for a while. I want it back. I'm on watchOS 8.7 and it won't detect my gestures even after rebooting the watch. Hoping to avoid having to factory reset but I might just need to do this...
 
Quick update on my sitch.

Got pretty fixated on AssistiveTouch not working. Even after updating iOS (watch already on 8.7).

During my phone call with service I remembered something that I saw on one of the watchfaces i had set up (compass complication wasn't working), and went to check compass app. Lo and behold the compass app does not load/run.

The IMU is apparently dead in my watch!!!

They're sending in a box to ship it in to Apple for repair. Lookin forward to seeing what the issue is. I kind of want them to replace the watch so I get a fresh battery but... ehh it's fine either way if they can just replace a part to fix it.
 
This leads me to another line of thinking. Because AT stopped working entirely as the IMU apparently died on my watch, this makes me suspect that the AT pinch and clench actions are implemented via deep learning models executing on IMU signals.

I think this makes sense and is plausible. I've got the watch unpaired now in prep for repair, so I can't keep testing this, but I also felt like the green light heart rate sensor is activated when doing these gestures. It might be a part of the pinch/clench detection... At first I thought that it would be some other fancy sensor inside but I believe gyro/accelerometer/HR green light are what's being used for this.

Here's hoping they add more gestures that we can use soon! I'd love to be able to eliminate having to do something twice to trigger a separate action because it adds a ton of latency to the interaction.

Speaking of which where the hell are the added apple pencil gestures? The thing is clearly capable of sensing us slide our finger up and down on it so where is the stroke thickness slider functionality? Come on it's been years.
 
@ivantheipodder by the way, thanks for writing this topic, I will be sure to check out deploying Apple pay in a one handed way next time! I wonder if there is a way for us to one-handed bring up a loaded boarding pass from wallet, though!

You're probably already aware of this but the way I like to set up my AssistiveTouch is with single pinch to enable motion pointer. This is nice because it is one quick gesture and then you can use the pointer to do pretty much everything else normally using the gyro, which is better than dealing with separate action menus.

I was going to tweak it some more and keep learning what's possible, I believe we are able to set 4 more custom actions for when we put the motion pointer into an edge or corner? Anyway AssistiveTouch is really dope.
 
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I don’t understand how double pinch frees up a hand, aren’t you pinching the screen with the other hand? If I’m reading the above and screenshots correctly, wouldn’t “clench” would be more useful since you could do that with the hand the watch is on?
Anyway, it is interesting to learn about these options.
 
ndouglas said:
I don’t understand how double pinch frees up a hand, aren’t you pinching the screen with the other hand? If I’m reading the above and screenshots correctly, wouldn’t “clench” would be more useful since you could do that with the hand the watch is on?
Anyway, it is interesting to learn about these options.
Click to expand...
You're not pinching the screen the other hand. Here's an example of it in action.

 
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Wow, really interesting! Thank you for sharing the video. I had to watch the first 15 seconds like 2-3 times to really process it, lol. I might have to experiment with for using apple pay as OP described above.
 
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ndouglas said:
Wow, really interesting! Thank you for sharing the video. I had to watch the first 15 seconds like 2-3 times to really process it, lol. I might have to experiment with for using apple pay as OP described above.
Click to expand...
It really is a "thinking outside of the box" implementation. I need to try it also!
 
unphased said:
@ivantheipodder by the way, thanks for writing this topic, I will be sure to check out deploying Apple pay in a one handed way next time! I wonder if there is a way for us to one-handed bring up a loaded boarding pass from wallet, though!

You're probably already aware of this but the way I like to set up my AssistiveTouch is with single pinch to enable motion pointer. This is nice because it is one quick gesture and then you can use the pointer to do pretty much everything else normally using the gyro, which is better than dealing with separate action menus.

I was going to tweak it some more and keep learning what's possible, I believe we are able to set 4 more custom actions for when we put the motion pointer into an edge or corner? Anyway AssistiveTouch is really dope.
Click to expand...
Please report back about the 4 more custom actions, be interested to know what more actions can be performed. I myself don't really use the gyro (motion pointer) feature of AssistiveTouch because I think it takes too much time and it can be fiddly.
 
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eclipse01 said:
I don't really understand why it can't just auto sense tap to pay like the phone can?

Anyone?
Click to expand...
Even on the iPhone you have authenticate either with FaceID or TouchID (for Apple Pay). Express Transit cards on iPhone is the exception (I think, as it's not supported in my country yet so I have no way of trying it out).

I'd love for the Apple Watch to just auto sense and tap but until security issues are worked out I don't see that happening soon. This AssistiveTouch feature I believe is the workaround for now as it does require your input at time of payment in the form of mechanical movements of your hand instead of FaceID or TouchID.
 
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ivantheipodder said:
Please report back about the 4 more custom actions, be interested to know what more actions can be performed. I myself don't really use the gyro (motion pointer) feature of AssistiveTouch because I think it takes too much time and it can be fiddly.
Click to expand...
Got my replacement watch and yeah i'll try to configure it again. But I have been finding (not sure if new with 8.7 or what) that there are several annoying quirks about it and am still trying to find a good combo. There is a laundry list of issues for me right now:

  • assistivetouch enabled for confirming apple pay is such that even if i do have a hand free I still have to double clench to enable it, which is patently absurd
  • no option to disable dwell to select? 8 second timeout is a trash workaround frankly
  • cannot seem to remove the focus selector which is visually distracting. I dont need this selection indicator since i plan to exclusively use the motion pointer.
Will look into customizing the 4 hold-at-edge actions but that is a far lower priority compared to the above significant impediments
 
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ivantheipodder said:
I'd love for the Apple Watch to just auto sense and tap but until security issues are worked out I don't see that happening soon. This AssistiveTouch feature I believe is the workaround for now as it does require your input at time of payment in the form of mechanical movements of your hand instead of FaceID or TouchID.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think the most practical way to defeat it would be to have some kind of material that the watch would still see as skin, shove that between the arm and watch, then remove the watch. Or cut off the person's arm haha.

But actually probably way easier would be to attack the automatic unlocking of the watch from the phone feature.

Anyway it's all pretty nice, I am just super perplexed that if i want to enable the possibility to use assistivetouch to enable apple pay that for some reason double clicking it with the other hand is no longer sufficient and the assistivetouch interaction is required each time. That's just terrible.
 
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I cannot get this working. Apple Watch 5. WatchOS9.

It works once after setting it up and then stops. I wanted the double clench to activate Apple Pay and single clench go activate the crown.
 
Great idea. Just set it up in watchOS 9. Now I just have to remember to use it 🙃
 
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