Samsung details its Galaxy Watch Universal Gestures

In time for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), Samsung wants to remind us that its Galaxy Watches are suitable for everyone, thanks to the so-called Universal Gestures. The feature enhances accessibility and allows you to navigate without having to touch the display or the rotating bezel (or the virtual bezel) at all.

You can enable the Universal Gestures feature in the Settings menu under the Accessibility sub-menu. The two main gestures are "make a fist" and "pinch". The former selects an item while making a fist twice, opens up the Action menu, or activates Universal gestures.

The pinch moves to the next highlighted item while a double pinch returns to highlight the previous item.

As you can see, the Action menu displays different available actions depending on the active app or menu. These gestures are pretty neat and even people without disabilities may find them useful.

However, there's a catch. Essentially, you can't use Universal Gestures and have Google Wallet active on your Galaxy Watch. The gestures can be activated only if you don't have a screen lock set up, whereas using Google Pay requires a screen lock for obvious security reasons.

It's also worth noting that the Universal Gestures are different from the gestures found in the Advanced features menu. They allow you to answer calls, dismiss alerts or launch an app on the fly with other hand motions. Those can be used even with the screen lock on.