The 10 gestures you need to know for the Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is a completely new product for Apple: not just because it’s a smartwatch, but because nearly everything it does feels and works a little differently than the iPhone, iPad or Mac. There’s a touch screen, but it doesn’t have pinch-to-zoom: it’s force-sensitive, instead. There’s a microphone, but you need to learn how to activate it. There’s no home button on the front, but there’s a Digital Crown on the side that’s like a scroll wheel and home button rolled in one. There’s a flat button that’s like a power button, but it also does other things, too.

After using an Apple Watch for weeks, here are the basic go-to gestures that will make using the Apple Watch much easier. Watch the above video for all the techniques, and read the rundown below.

Swipe down: Notifications

Apple’s watch faces are the main thing you’ll see when you look at your Apple Watch. Swipe down and you’ll get to a list of notifications, just like your iPhone. You can see calls you’ve missed, messages, app notifications and lots more. You can click on messages to open them, or swipe them all away.

Swipe up: Glances

Glances are Apple’s way of offering quick little bits of information from many apps at once. Swipe up from the watch face, and a Glance will appear: battery life, or music control, or fitness, or whatever you’ve enabled. Swipe left and right to see them all, and tap one to open the app for more. It’s like a little dock for your favorite apps.

Click the crown: Your home button

There’s no round Home button on the front of the Apple Watch, but that spinning wheel-like Digital Crown on the side works like one. Push it in to click and go to a big grid of all the apps you have installed: they look like circles. Click the crown again to go back to your watch face. In any app, one click and you’ll get back to the app-grid. When in doubt, click the crown.

Press and hold the crown: Siri

Still feeling lost? Siri is there to listen to your pleas. Press and hold the digital crown, and Siri starts listening. Speak, then let go. You can open apps by voice command, or check weather, movie times, do math, and all the other stuff Siri normally does, for the most part (some requests will tell you to use your iPhone instead).

Force press: Hidden menus and options

The Apple Watch has a force-sensitive touch screen, which means you can not only swipe and tap, but press harder and have it suddenly respond to that press. Apple Watch apps don’t use force-press actions consistently, but many apps will have menus and extra options hiding in plain sight; force press the screen, and you can see these extras pop up. In the Music app, force press brings up Shuffle, wireless headphone connections, and more. In Maps you can search for a location. Force press for the watch faces allows customizing. For extras, try force press (you can always click the crown to leave if you get lost).

Click the flat button: Reach out to a friend

For quick access to your favorite friends and family, click the wide, flat button near the digital crown. You can spin the wheel, pick someone and call or send messages from there.

Double-click the flat button: Apple Pay

That flat button doubles as the key to Apple’s easy onboard Apple Pay. Double click and a little icon for your credit card shows up on-screen: now bring it close to an Apple Pay-ready card terminal and it should work. No passwords or Touch ID needed as long as the watch is on your wrist.

Click and hold the flat button: Turn off watch, or power reserve

That flat button’s basically the power button: press and hold, and you’ll see three options pop up. You can turn off the watch completely (press and hold again to turn back on), lock the watch (it’ll require your passcode to unlock), or go into “power reserve,” a mode that shuts down everything except a basic clock display. (By the way, to get out of power reserve, you’ll need to press and hold to reboot the Apple Watch.)

Double-click the Digital Crown: Go back to the last app

This is a big time-saver. Let’s say you’re getting directions, now you suddenly got a text message. You want to get back to the map, but you don’t want to dig back and look for the app in the app grid. Just double-click and you’ll get back there. Double click again and you’ll go back to the other app. It’s the closest thing to multitasking on the Apple Watch.

Cover the display with your hand: Silence watch

If you don’t want to press any buttons, or you’re someplace where you can’t be bothered with calls or messages, put your hand over the watch and hold for a few seconds. The watch will be silenced, and the next time you lift your wrist you’ll be back at the watch face again.