How to Use Taptic Time on Apple Watch

The core functionality of a watch is letting you know the time of the day. The Apple Watch does this uniquely with customizable watch faces. However, there’s another way your Apple Watch lets you know the time without seeing the dial. Curious? Here’s how to enable and use Taptic Time on the Apple Watch.

Our favorite reason to use the Apple Watch is the sheer number of features that make it fun – many of which we randomly discover, taking us for a complete surprise. The Taptic Time is one such feature. Here’s everything you need to know.

Also Read: Apple Watch 9 vs. Apple Watch 8: Which Should You Buy

What Is Taptic Time on the Apple Watch

Taptic Time lets you know what time of the day it is by providing a pattern of gentle vibrations on your wrist. By understanding this vibration pattern, you can know what time it is. To provide these vibrations, the Apple Watch uses the Taptic Engine under the hood – a hardware feature we’ve fallen in love with, thanks to all the haptic feedback we get on our wrists.

How to Enable Taptic Time on Your Apple Watch

Here’s how you can turn on Taptic Time using your Apple Watch or the Watch app on your iPhone.

Turn On Taptic Time on the Apple Watch

Step 1: Press Digital Crown to open App Library and tap on Settings.

Step 2: Scroll down to find and tap on Clock.

Step 3: Turn on the toggle for Taptic Time.

You can select a pattern for the vibrations – we’ll help you understand these patterns in the next section of the article.

Step 4: Touch and hold your Apple Watch face with two fingers to start the pattern of vibrations to know the time on your Apple Watch.

Enable Taptic Time Using iPhone’s Watch App

Step 1: Open the Watch app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Scroll down to find and tap on Clock.

Step 3: Select Taptic Time.

Step 4: Turn on the toggle for Taptic Time.

Select a pattern for the vibrations – we’ll help you understand them in the next section of the article.

Step 5: Touch and hold your Apple Watch face with two fingers to start the pattern of vibrations to know the time on your Apple Watch.

Understanding the Taptic Time Patterns on Apple Watch

Let’s understand the pattern of the Taptic Time vibrations with an example. Let us assume the time on your Apple Watch is 22:36.

Morse: Your Apple Watch will tap out each digit of the time in Morse Code.

Digits: Your Apple Watch will provide a long tap for every ten hours on time and a short tap for each following hour. Then, it will give a long tap for every ten minutes and a short tap for each following minute.

Example: 22:36 = Two Long Taps (2 x Ten Hours) and Two Short Taps (2 x One Hour) + Three Long Taps (3 x Ten Minutes) and Six Short Taps (6 x One Minute).

Terse: Terse is also a collection of long and short taps, but it provides you the time to a fifteen-minute period. You can get to know the time faster than Morse or Digits.

Terse provides a long tap for every five hours that have passed since midnight, followed by short taps for the remaining hours, and then long taps for each quarter hour.

Therefore, you will get a time of approximately fifteen minutes. Any time between 22:30 and 22:45, if we follow our earlier example. Let’s look at the vibration pattern.

Example: 22:36 = Four Long Taps (4 x Five Hours) and Two Short Taps (2 x One Hour) + Two Short Taps (2 x 15 Minutes).

That is everything you need to know on how to know what time it is without looking at the dial of your Apple Watch. However, if you have problems using this feature, move on to the next section.

What to Do if Taptic Time Is Not Working on My Apple Watch

If Taptic Time is not working on your Apple Watch, here’s what you can do:

• Check if your case on your Apple Watch is muffling or reducing the intensity of the vibrations. Hence, you can remove the case and use the Taptic Time feature.
• Your screen protector may restrict your Apple Watch from registering the two-finger tap. Make sure you are using a good-quality screen protector for your Apple Watch.
• Restarting your Apple Watch will help clear temporary bugs affecting the Taptic Touch feature.
• If many users face problems with Taptic Touch, Apple will release an update for the Apple Watch. Therefore, ensure you’re running the latest software update.

There’s also another method that shows you time without having to look at the dial but with a few sounds.

Bonus: How to Know the Time With Chimes on Apple Watch

Do you have a recurring task for a specific interval and wish to be alerted every time? You can use the Chimes feature on your Apple Watch for a sound to be played every fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or an hour. Here’s how:

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.

Step 2: Tap on Accessibility.

Step 3: Scroll down and tap on Chimes.

Step 4: Turn on the toggle for Chimes.

Step 5: Tap on the time interval button.

Step 6: Select the time interval.

Step 7: Then, select the sound that you prefer for the Chimes.

Once you enable it, your Apple Watch will play a sound for the selected interval.

FAQs on Apple Watch Taptic Time

Know the Time Quickly

We hope this article helps you use this interesting feature on your Apple Watch. However, understanding the patterns in Taptic Time without paying much attention to it will take some time! You can also read how to connect Bluetooth headphones to Apple Watch.