Taptic Time tells you the current time as taps on your wrist—without anyone else hearing it. You can choose Digits, which uses long taps for tens and short taps for ones, Terse, which is accurate to a 15-minute period, or Morse Code.
Set up Taptic Time
- Start the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
- Tap Clock and scroll down. Then tap Taptic Time.
-
Turn on Taptic Time. Then select the pattern you want Taptic Time to use.
-
Digits: Conveys the hours and minutes by using long taps for tens and short taps for ones.
For example, two long taps and three short taps, followed by three long taps and four short taps, would mean 23:34, or 11:34 p.m.
-
Terse: Conveys the time accurate to a 15-minute period; it’s less precise than Digits. It uses long taps to signify that 5 hours have passed since midnight, followed by short taps for the remaining hours and then long taps again for each quarter-hour.
For example, three long taps, four short taps, and two long taps would convey 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.
-
Digits: Conveys the hours and minutes by using long taps for tens and short taps for ones.
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 doesn’t work if Apple Watch is set to always speak the time. To use Taptic Time, first go to Settings > Clock, and then turn on Control With Silent Mode under Speak Time.
Use Taptic Time
When Taptic Time is turned on, touch and hold two fingers on the watch face to feel the current time as taps on your wrist.
See also
- Tell time on Apple Watch
- Play chimes and haptics at specified time intervals
- Use accessibility features with Siri on Apple Watch
