Your Apple Watch Is Getting a Cool New Feature That You’ll Actually Use

But, unfortunately, not every Apple Watch model will support it.

Published 5 hours ago

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Last week, Apple officially rolled out the public beta of watchOS 26, giving us a first crack at some of the new features that the next-gen software will bring to the Apple Watch.

Admittedly, there are a bunch of standout features, including a more helpful Smart Stack, support for Live Translations (for messages), and “Workout Buddy” — an AI-powered feature that feeds you real-time data and words of encouragement during your workout.

However, out of all the new features in watchOS 26, one stands out among the rest. Why? Because you’ll actually use it.

A new Apple Watch movement

Apple Watch watchOS 26 wrist flick — Wrist Flick promises to let you quickly dismiss notifications with a “flick of the wrist.” But it also acts as a kind of Home button, too, which is really helpful.

The feature is called “Wrist Flick” and, if you watched the WWDC keynote, you’ve undoubtedly heard about it.

Essentially, Wrist Flick is a new physical movement that lets you quickly dismiss Apple Watch notifications, which are often unimportant and/or appear at the most inopportune times, with a quick flick of your wrist.

With the new action, you quickly dismiss basically any alert that disrupts your Apple Watch’s watch face — things like app notifications, incoming calls and timers.

Maybe even more useful is the fact that Wrist Flick essentially acts as a Home button for your Apple Watch. Whenever you are in an app — any app, as well as the Control Center or Smart Stack — a quick Wrist Flick will return you to your Apple Watch’s Home watch face.

When you get an alert or notification that you either don’t care about or want to dismiss until later, a simple movement of rolling your wrist (and Apple Watch) away from you does the trick.

It’s quick and effective, and if you’re like me, you’ll use it a lot.

Wrist Flick will be an Accessibility feature similar to Double Tap — which lets you control your Apple Watch by tapping your thumb and index fingers together twice. However, in my short experience with it, Wrist Flick is infinitely easier to use. Plus, way more useful.

As someone who is constantly annoyed by random notifications, such as messages from my Apple TV or an Instagram group chat, most of which seem to appear when I’m working out, having the ability to quickly dismiss them without even touching my Apple Watch is awesome.

Also, if you’re somebody who gets actions of the Side Button and Digital Crown mixed up, it’s helpful knowing a quick Wrist Flick will get you back to your Home watch face.

How to turn Wrist Flick on

If the public beta is the same as the official launch of watchOS 26, the Wrist Flick will be turned on by default. If you don’t want to use it, or it isn’t turned on for some reason, you can adjust it in one of two ways.

On the Apple Watch, open the Settings app > scroll down and select Gestures > toggle on Wrist Flick.

On your iPhone, open the Watch app > open the Settings app > scroll down and select Gestures > toggle on Wrist Flick.

Will my Apple Watch support it?

Apple Watch Series 10 — Wrist Flick will be an Accessibility feature that will only work on some of the more recent Apple Watch models.

Like with Double Tap, Wrist Flick is an Accessibility feature that will only be available on relatively new Apple Watch models — you need a Series 9, Series 10 or Ultra 2. (Or, theoretically, any of the new models Apple announces this fall.)

This means that if you have a first-gen Apple Watch Ultra or any SE model, Wrist Flick will not be supported. The reason is that they don’t have Apple’s newer S9 (or newer S10) processor.

Apple will officially release watchOS 26 this fall, most likely in early September, when it announces the next-gen Apple Watch models. The public beta is out now.

To learn more about watchOS 26’s upcoming features, check out Apple’s blog post.

About the Author:

Tucker Bowe has been on Gear Patrol’s editorial team since 2014. As a Tech Staff Writer, he tracks everything in the consumer tech space, from headphones to smartphones, wearables to home theater systems. If it lights up or makes noise, he probably covers it.