Handwashing chimes on Apple Watch not working after update

In 7.0 I was having both start and end chimes. In 7.1 I have lost the start chime and the end chime was still there. When washing your hands with long sleeve it is not easy to see where we are. As 7.2 as removed also the end chime, I have not upgraded. I will wait a fix otherwise I will keep 7.1. It is a pity that a so good functionality has been removed in 2 upgrades. Here in Paris it is winter time 😊 so difficult to wear short sleeve. And seriously, when washing my hand I am not looking at my watch but I am looking at my hands to wash it properly and kill the COVID in case this virus was on my hands. To whom can we send an email to request to have back start and end chime ?

Same thing happening here after the 7.2 update on my Series 6. It worked fine out of the box, with the exception that it always started at 15 rather than 20 seconds. After I installed the 7.2 update, I immediately noticed that the handwashing timer wasn't working the same way--no taptic at the start, no chime and a weaker taptic at the end, and the cute little thumbs-up graphic gone. When it was working, it worked great. I hope Apple fixes it.

Hi, thanks for the tip. i have tried to perform my hand washing while keeping the watch face pointed down towards the sink the entire time, but it doesn’t work. Do you have the noise detection activated? I am on 7.1 and I only have the end chime while with 7.0 I had also the start chime. So I will still skip 7.2 and if 7.3 doesn’t solve it I will stay in 7.1.

Hi Stephen, 7.1 has removed the start chime, and 7.2 has removed the end chime. I don’t know how to report it. I guess someone from Apple is looking at this discussion place. To whom can we send an email or report it, I am not a developer.

The funny thing is that the only time I get a chime is when I don’t invest a full 20 seconds in hand washing. It chimes and I get this message on my watch: “Handwashing stopped. What happened?” The response options are “I wasn’t washing my hands” and “This was just a quick rinse.”

The real reason I don’t go the full 20 is because the watch no longer gives me the audio cues to allow that to consistently happen.

By eliminating the audio cues, Apple has defeated the capability of its own feature, at least for me. When the start and end chimes were working, I always went the full 20 seconds.

I tried this method, but it didn't make any difference for me. It's still unpredictable as to when it'll work and when it won't. I also tried to see if there was any difference between vigorous and not-so-vigorous handwashing, but again, it was still erratic. Oddly enough, the timer started one time when I was using hand sanitizer, not soap and water. I really hope they can fix this to bring back the features as they worked originally. It was so helpful to know when the timer started and when it ended without having to look at the watch.

After 7.3 update it’s still not working. It sometimes works both vibrate and chime once in a day but 99% of the time it just shows “Well Done” or “You Did It!” Apple should be better than this. Seems like this has been going on for quite awhile.

Actually that’s for the hourly chimes and not for the hand washing start chime, there’s a bug with the latest release that Apple are aware of.

Apple Watch 6 the same. N0 start sound as before only at the end of hand washing sequence

My hand washing chime works more often than not, but most likely need to wash vigorously. Still not 100%

Same issue here since latest update, really annoying as was a handy feature now hand washing seems not so fun anymore also timer doesn’t show unless it’s around 10secs. Apple come on a sort this bug out.

Same here. Hand washing chimes don’t work at the start and it’s also not as sensitive, I have to really aggressively wash my hands for at least 5 seconds or more before it notices I’m washing my hands. It used to work much better before the update to watch OS 7.1

Same thing here! It’s so frustrating. Like what’s the point of having the feature without a sound notification? Who can wash their hands and look at their watch at the same time? I really hope they fix this. There’s no point to this feature without a chime noise at the end (or a vibrate notification for those who are hearing impaired).

I’m having the same issue. It seems to have gotten progressively worse with the updates: starting chime and ending chime > ending chime only > ending chime but inconsistently so.

Not sure what’s going on; I hope a fix is implemented soon.

I really hope Apple is aware of this and is going to fix it. This was truly great functionality that is severely hampered by the lack of sounds. With long sleeves, I really can’t use it at all. My Watch keeps asking me why I stopped the hand washing early, and I wish one of the response options was “because the Watch is not audibly telling me when to stop.”

It would be great if an Apple rep could confirm that this is being looked at and will be resolved.