You’ve watched those celebrity videos where they wash their hands, while singing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice over to ensure they spend at least 20 seconds to do the job well.

You too may have hummed your favourite movie song or counted from one to twenty when it all began. But as the days pass by, maybe you are becoming forgetful, and not washing your hands as regularly, and as well, as you should.

The World Health Organization has recommended frequent washing of hands among a slew of other measures to halt the spread of Covid-19. Hand wash is considered effective only when it lasts for full 20 seconds, according to healthcare professionals.

To make things easy, a small group of designers and developers from Samsung Research Institute-Bangalore, or SRI-B’s UX and wearable teams, worked round-the-clock over the last two weeks to come up with a solution that helps you keep healthy and safe.

Accordingly, SRI-B employees – mostly working remotely from their homes – built the ‘Hand Wash’ app – a wearable app for Galaxy Watch that prompts users to clean their hands, a key preventive attribute to stay safe.

The ‘Hand Wash’ app on Galaxy Watch helps users maintain hand hygiene by periodically reminding them about it and ensuring each wash is thorough for the duration of 20 seconds in line with WHO recommended best practices. The app comes with preset reminders which users can customize further based on their needs and schedule.

Also, each time the user initiates the wash sequence, the ‘Hand Wash’ app tracks the time and provides users with haptic feedback after 25 seconds of wash cycle. Five seconds are for turning on the tap and applying soap, while 20 seconds are for actual hand wash. The ‘Hand Wash’ app also notifies users if they miss any of scheduled pit stops to the wash basin!

The ‘Hand Wash’ app allows users to track their daily wash trends to build healthy habit over a period. The ‘Hand Wash’ app is further complimented by elegant watch face, which allows users to intuitively track their daily wash routine. Moreover, the watch face also shows the elapsed time since last wash to give users a sense of alertness about their hygiene in real time.

Galaxy Watch users can download the ‘Hand Wash’ app from the Galaxy Store.

We would love to hear your experience of using the ‘Hand Wash’ app. Your feedback will help us make the app better to help more users stay healthy and safe.

After all, when it comes to our health, prevention is always better than cure!