Samsung’s new ‘Hand Wash’ app helps make hand washing a habit

As the world faces a pandemic and our daily lives are disturbed indefinitely, there are but a few rules we are asked to follow to play our part in stopping the spread of this virus. We are asked to socially distance ourselves from others, we are asked to stay at home to prevent the contraction of the Coronavirus, and we are asked to reinforce our personal hygiene routines. Good personal hygiene, especially washing your hands at regular intervals will ensure the virus be neutralised on the surface of the skin before entering your body.

Samsung has introduced an application to help users instil this habit in themselves and play their part in the fight against this pandemic.

In a news post on Wednesday, Samsung commented on the current situation, quoting a study conducted by the University of New South Wales in 2015 which showed that, “people touch their face 23 times an hour on average, of which 10 touches are to the eyes, nose or mouth – the main pathways that can lead to bacterial or viral infection.”

The application helps Samsung smart wearers, specifically, “Gear S3, Gear Sports, Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Watch Active and Galaxy Watch Active2 users.” The application launches on the watch screen and users can swipe up to start a 25-second timer which accounts for 5 seconds of soap application and 20 seconds of rinsing and scrubbing.

Users can also track the number of times they have washed their hands in a day as well as their progress over a week. An alarm function inside the app that the wearer can enable is also included. Users can set the recurring alarm to ring at present intervals and the amount of times the alarm rings will correspond to the recommended number of times a person should wash their hands in a day, which is around 6-10 times.

Users can download this app from the Galaxy Store for their Samsung smart watches.