One of the most important things you can do to help protect yourself and others from the coronavirus is to regularly wash your hands. To help you keep up with your hand washing, Wear OS has added a special alert.
Google's Clock app for Wear OS smartwatches will now send you a "Wash your hands" alert every three hours. When you open the alert, you'll get a 40-second countdown along with a reminder to always use soap when washing your hands.
As noted by the folks at Android Police, the "Wash your hands" alert has its own notification channel, so you can disable this alert by holding down on the notification if you don't want it to pop up every few hours.
Google hasn't made any official announcements about this new hand washing alert for Wear OS, but it seems to be rolling out as part of a v5.4.0 update for the Clock app.
The CDC recommends that you scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds to wash your hands correctly and prevent the spread of germs. With so many people's lives changing dramatically due to the coronavirus outbreak, like working from home and taking care of kids who are out of school, it can be difficult to remember to regularly wash your hands. This new Wear OS alert can make things a bit easier by reminding you about periodic hand washing.
