Double Pinch gesture brings One UI 6 Watch at your fingertips

The Double Pinch gesture is one of the new features introduced with the latest One UI 6 Watch update for Galaxy smartwatches. This new gesture lets you control various aspects of the Galaxy Watch UI by pinching your fingers. Here's how you can turn it on and how it differs from Universal Gestures.

Start by opening the Settings app on your Galaxy Watch. Then, go to and access the “Buttons and gestures” menu. Next, find and access “Double pinch.”

Here, you can scroll all the way down and tap “Try it” to test this new feature before deciding whether or not you want to use it. If you do, tap the ON / OFF toggle to turn Double Pinch ON.

Now, you might be wondering, how does this differ from the Universal Gestures feature already available in previous versions of One UI Watch?

In short, Universal Gestures is an accessibility feature that lets users control the entire UI using the watch hand and multiple gestures, such as pinching, rotating the wrist, closing the hand into a fist twice, and so on. It generally works by highlighting UI elements first and then selecting them through gestures.

Although Universal Gestures can control the entire UI, its complexity makes it relatively difficult to use, and it isn't a feature most people will want to rely on unless they absolutely need to and have no alternative.

Comparatively, the Double Pinch gesture is more contextually aware and integrated into the One UI 6 Watch experience. It's not really an accessibility feature, even though it could probably be used as one in some cases.

The Double Pinch gesture does one thing, depending on the situation or the app you're using, but it can't control the entire UI. It's all based on context, and the Double Pinch has to be baked into the app.

Samsung optimized Double Pinch to seamlessly answer calls, dismiss alerts, play or pause audio playback, and take remote pictures with your phone. Try it out on your Watch and see how it works and how it is unlike Universal Gestures.

The One UI 6 Watch update is now rolling out to all Wear OS Galaxy Watches, including the Watch 4, Watch 5, and Watch 6 series.