Apple Watch User Guide
- Welcome
- What’s new
-
- Alarms
- App Store
- Blood Oxygen
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Camera Remote
- ECG
- Medications
- Memoji
- Music Recognition
- News
- Now Playing
- Reminders
- Remote
- Shortcuts
- Siren
- Stocks
- Stopwatch
- Tides
- Timers
- Tips
- Translate
- Vitals
- Voice Memos
- Walkie-Talkie
- World Clock
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- VoiceOver
- Set up Apple Watch using VoiceOver
- Apple Watch basics with VoiceOver
- Apple Watch Mirroring
- Control nearby devices
- AssistiveTouch
- Use a braille display
- Use a Bluetooth keyboard
- Zoom
- Tell time with haptic feedback
- Adjust text size and other visual settings
- Adjust motor skills settings
- Set up and use RTT
- Accessibility audio settings
- Type to speak
- Auto-select focused app
- Use accessibility features with Siri
- The Accessibility Shortcut
- Copyright
Tell time with haptic feedback on Apple Watch
The Taptic Time feature gives people who are blind or visually impaired another way to tell time without anyone else hearing it. When Apple Watch is in Silent Mode, you tap and hold two fingers on the watch face to feel a haptic version of the time.
Go to the Settings app
on your Apple Watch.Tap Clock, scroll down, then tap Taptic Time.
Turn on Taptic Time, then select the pattern you want Taptic Time to use.
Digits: Starts off by telling you the hours, with long taps signifying 10 hours, switching to short taps for each additional hour. (So two long taps and three short ones would be 23.) This is followed by a similar system for minutes, with long taps meaning 10 minutes, switching to short taps for each extra minute. (So three long taps and four short taps would be 34 minutes.) Putting it together, a pattern of two long taps, one short tap, three long taps, and four short taps means 21:34, or 9:34 p.m.
Terse: Less precise than Digits, Terse gives you the time accurate to a 15-minute period. It uses long taps to signify that 5 hours have passed since midnight, followed by short taps for the remaining hours, then long taps again for each quarter-hour. (So three long taps, four short taps, and two long taps would translate to a time between 19:30 (7:30 p.m.) and 19:44 (7:44 p.m.)).
Morse Code: Taps out each digit of the current time in Morse Code. This is handy for people who are familiar with this coding system.
To feel a haptic version of the time, touch and hold two fingers on the watch face.
If VoiceOver is on, turn on Taptic Time by double-tapping the watch face while the display is inactive.
You can also configure Taptic Time on iPhone. Go to the Apple Watch app on iPhone, tap My Watch, go to Clock > Taptic Time, then turn it on.
Note: Taptic Time is disabled if Apple Watch is set to always speak the time. To be able to use Taptic Time, first go to Settings > Clock, then turn on Control With Silent Mode under Speak Time.