Is there a way to tell time silently using Apple Watch or iPhone?

By peter, 20 August, 2023

Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

Before buying an Apple Watch, I was wondering if there was a built in method or an app that could be used to tell the time silently. I'm thinking that there might be some way of vibrating the watch or phone to count vibrations or vibration patterns. Would be less intrusive than having Siri blare out the time when with other people.

Thanks for any ideas.

--Pete

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Comments

By Chris Hill on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 23:27

If I hold two fingers on the watch face of my apple watch 4 running curent OS, it does absolutely nothing. If I tripple tap the watch face, I get haptic time.

By Brian on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 23:27

  1. Wear bluetooth earbuds.
  2. Check time on your Apple Watch like normal.
  3. Rejoice in not disturbing others with your audible time announcements.
  4. Win. 😅

HTH

PS. The haptic option sounds like a good way to kill the battery. 😫

By peter on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 23:27

I do appreciate the idea of bluetooh, since that is really the most robust solution. Maybe some day when I have to wear hearing aids! 😊😊😊

In the meantime, I don't want to have to wear my airpods all day long. And, a as you say, I don't want to annoy others with me checking the time.

Actually, my sense of time is pretty good. So I'm thinking that I just need an reading once in a while to anchor myself at the right time.

Good suggestions though.

--Pete

By Brian Giles on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 23:27

Taptic time is awesome! I use it all the time even when I'm listening to something on my iPhone because I don't have to unlock it and have VO read me the time and whatever other notifications I have on my lock screen. I also like it because it provides a mostly consistent way to get the time without having to unlock my watch first, because sometimes doing so brings me to something else and not my watch face; most often media playback controls for whatever I was last listening to on my iPhone.

I think there's supposed to be one gesture to give you the whole time, and another to give you just the minutes, but I can't get this to work consistently. Sometimes a triple tap will give me hours and minutes, and sometimes just the minutes.

Yes, it takes longer to count the vibrations than it would for VO to just speak the time -- especially if you have your speech really fast -- but it doesn't take long to get used to. I use it all the time, even when just by myself and no one is around to hear VO speak the time, which most people wouldn't understand anyway. Hey, at least it's not near as annoying as those old school talking watchest from back in the day. lol

By Brian on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 23:27

Heh.... I used to be the proud owner of a talking atomic watch. Something my fiancé at the time bought me. Needless to say, it was fancy in that it adjusted the time automatically. Of course you could hear the damned thing from 3 blocks away. 😅