A ghostly bug settled in the Apple Watch! What's behind this mystery?
Have you heard about the recent 'ghost touches' issue on Apple Watch? We are looking into this mysterious bug in some Apple smartwatch models.
Apple Watches are one of the most popular products on the smartwatch market, and they do offer a ton of useful features that are constantly being updated and improved. For example, recently one of the features of the Apple Watch, the Blood Oxygen app, allowed a father to detect and monitor the level of oxygen in his son's blood and this way helped to save his life. However, at the same time, the technologies used in Apple Watches are subject to close attention from other companies, and exactly this function was found to violate the patents of the medical device company Masimo. After a court decision in December 2023, two Apple Watch models, Series 9 and Ultra 2 , were re-released without this feature.
Less than a few months later, various users have reported another issue on the Apple forums regarding the same Apple Watch models. According to them, Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 tend to perform operations such as starting a phone call or app without the user touching the Apple Watch screen. In other words, taps and swipes are registered by the gadget, even if their owner does not touch the display. You may get the impression that some kind of "ghost" is pressing on the watch screen instead. Some complained that this unauthorized watches behavior could prevent users from entering their password or cause calls to be launched accidentally.
The Cupertino Corporation has responded to these user complaints and assured them that there is no need to replace watches affected by this bug. Apple initially recommended a workaround, saying that forcing the watch to restart might be enough to fix the problem. To do this, you need to hold the side button, as well as the digital crown, for about ten seconds. Some time later, the company announced that it had completely eliminated this bug in the latest version of the operating system for the Apple Watch, so all users are recommended to update the software of their gadgets to WatchOS 10.4.
WatchOS 10 released in September 2023 alongside the latest Apple Watch models, and WatchOS 10.4 was another minor update to that version of the OS. This update also brought other improvements and features, such as additional security when using the watch with Assistive, improved contact syncing, and finally a new way to reveal notifications on the screen. You can now view notifications using double tap.