Let’s say you’re sitting in a quiet auditorium, and your Apple Watch dings because you’ve gotten a new text message. Then you hear three more dings in quick succession, and they seem louder than a Black Sabbath concert. If you’re anything like me, you start wishing for death just to stop people from silently judging you. But never fear, dear readers—there’s a quick way to shut your Watch up, and you don’t even have to interact with its screen. When you hear a notification, just place your palm on the display for a few seconds to turn on what’s called Silent Mode. You’ll feel your Watch tap you to let you know it’s on after a few seconds.
No, YOUR hands look like they’re in some weird Formica operating room.
Silent Mode is darned useful. It obviously silences the Watch, but you’ll still feel taps for new notifications. Just don’t forget to turn it off so your device will start dinging again! To do that, swipe up on the watch face to access your glances, then swipe to the Settings glance and tap the red bell icon.
Of course, if you’d prefer to turn on Silent Mode manually, you can do that from that same Settings glance pictured above. Or heck, toggle on Do Not Disturb or Airplane Mode. Or use the bottom button to ping your iPhone if you’ve lost it. Whatever floats that proverbial boat of yours.
Finally, note two things: First, this won’t function at all if you have the option turned off within the Apple Watch iPhone app. If you’re having trouble, check to make sure “Cover to Mute” is on within My Watch> Sounds & Haptics.
Secondly, this feature only works when you hear a notification come in, so if (for example) you rest your hand on your Watch’s Home screen, nothing will happen. So don’t just walk around putting your hand over your wrist randomly. I mean, do that if you want people to think you’re very weird, but otherwise, you might wanna refrain.