Apple Watch Hand Cover To Mute Trick

Time to find out how to silence your Apple Watch, in case you get caught off guard, by an incoming phone call! Use a sneaky trick to find your way out of trouble, if you forget to bring your wrist gadget in Silent or Do Not Disturb mode, while attending to a meeting or finding yourself in a situation, where your gadget isn’t allowed to ring. I’m talking about the hand cover trick that instantly silences your smartwatch!

In case the above described situation occurs on your iPhone, you can always use the Sleep/Wake button to mute an incoming call. The trick also works if you press one of the volume buttons of your iOS device. However, none of these options can be applied on the Apple Watch, simply because these knobs don’t exist. When a phone call rings. on your wrist gadget. you’re prompted with the caller ID and the Answer or Decline icons. Rejecting a call would instantly silence your device, but that could offend your caller!

Hand Cover To Mute Apple Watch
Instead, use your free hand, the one that you’re not wearing the smartwatch on, to cover the display of the ringing gadget. This gesture will instantly silence the incoming call alert on your Watch. The phone will continue to ring, but no audio signal will bother you. The caller will ultimately hand up and consider that you were away from the iPhone and didn’t hear his attempt to reach out for you.
The muted calls will still figure as missed calls on your Apple Watch notifications and iPhone records, thus reminding you to callback later.
This hand cover to mute trick brings your Watch in sleep mode, meaning that the display is also immediately turned along with audio muting!

How Does The Hand Cover Gesture Work?
To efficiently use this trick you have to effectively touch the Watch’s display with your palm! Don’t just hover your hand over the screen, because the gesture won’t work. Apple Watch doesn’t come with a front facing camera or light sensor and can’t notice your covering hand, unless you effectively make contact with the display. Watch OS uses the device’s touchscreen properties to feel your hand and trigger the silencing procedures! The contact surface has to be as large as possible. This way, the wrist gadget is able to differentiate between a one finger tap and an palm touch!

Tip: The Apple Watch hand cover trick also works when your device isn’t ringing. You can use it to instantly turn off the display!

Silence Apple Watch via Digital Crown
There is one more way to kill the sounds when your wrist gadget rings and it’s not in Silent mode. Press the Digital Crown and an incoming call on the smartwatch is muted. Do mind though that the display will remain On if you use this muting method. Only sounds and haptic alerts are disabled. You continue to see who’s calling and are able to answer the call, a few seconds later, if you manage to move to a location that allows you to pick up the conversation.

Double Click Apple Watch’s side button to redirect the incoming call and send it to your voice mail, or reject the call if voice mail is disabled! It’s the same as you decline a call on your iPhone, using the Sleep/Wake button.