Accessing your navigation phone with gloves on?

[Phmode]

OK, so you have decided Garmin have taken the pith onthe too many times and thrown it out and have decided MyRoute App is the way to go, on an iPhone perhaps...

Well, it works fine for me apart from one little niggle...capacitive touch screens which are not as user-friendly on phones as they are on sat nags.

That is easily fixed on the move by using touch-sensitive gloves or like me, stick-on capacitive fingerprints. Well, OK, not fingerprints but fingerprint sized bits of capacitive stuff from Oxford Products. I also keep a touch-sensitive stylus tucked into the tankbag cos using that is often easier than getting a clumsy gloved finger to touch the right spot for waypoints etc. and much better than having to take your gloves off. Oh joy!

My device of choice happens to be an iPhone 6S (which is an iPhone 11 or 12(?) in an iPhone 6 case). Great, lovely, super...except I can't unlock the bloody thing even with the touch-sensitive bits on the gloves because of the TouchID feature which needs a human touch on the 'dead' Home button to wake it up.

Well, the touch-sensitive fingertip comes to the rescue there to wake it up, but then I need my fingerprint to unlock it. I could turn the TouchID off in settings but then I have to remember and use the passcode every time which is why I use TouchID in the first place. And then I came across the greatest hack of all time...

Simply put your glove on and using the finger with the touch-sensitive tip, add that as a new fingerprint on the phone.

REALLY? No, really! Apple doesn't need a human fingerprint touching the Home button apparently and so with my summer gloves and the touchy-feely pad on the index finger, I merely went through the 'Add a fingerprint' rigmarole and voila, I can get into my phone with my gloves on with one touch and without having to use the passcode.

Of course, perhaps anyone can unlock my phone with my gloves on...

Makes you wonder who it is who spends all day trying to work these things out.

[black-k1]

I use GloveTacts https://www.amazon.co.uk/GloveTacts-including-Motorcycle-Snowboard-Gardening/dp/B08QNHMBNZ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=glovetacts&qid=1698841807&sr=8-3

They work really well on my phone which is inside a weatherproof case.

Recommended.

ETA You need thumb and first two fingers of both hands or you'll use a different finger and it won't work!!!

[richtea]

I use GloveTacts https://www.amazon.co.uk/GloveTacts-including-Motorcycle-Snowboard-Gardening/dp/B08QNHMBNZ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=glovetacts&qid=1698841807&sr=8-3

Six in a pack?
Catering for Norfolk users...

[Phmode]

Good job you didn't say Suffolk...

They look the same as the Oxford Products ones which again, have 6 pads. I cut them up as they are way too long and only the tip of the finger makes contact with the screen when it is in a mount, unlike when I hold it in my hand.

It wasn't so much the fact that they worked, I've posted about them before, it was the fact that I can save the glove print with the Smart Finger stuck to it as a fingerprint to unlock the phone with the gloves on. Turning a dedicated sat nag off and on again to get it to connect or reboot is a doddle; doing the same thing with a TouchID enabled phone is a rigmarole.

So, unless the whorls and ridges in my print are still 'visible' through my glove and the Smart Finger, then I have no idea how it works. With the my winter gloves, it was less successful; the phone eventually said I had successfully saved the print but it won't work first time and the phone asks for the PIN code.

Bearing in mind that no one has satisfactorily explained to me quite how a piece of film acts as a capacitive element when tons of other 'stuff' doesn't it is beyond me. How it works is still white man's magic. Or black magic to be less un-woke

On a non-biking note, the internet sells 'capacitive' or 'conductive' thread which one can darn into the fingertips of woollen gloves to make them work with your phone.

[black-k1]

Even when thumbprint access is activated on my (Android) phone I can still use a code to access it and can enter the code with my gloves on. Does yours not also have that option?

[richtea]

...I can still use a code to access it and can enter the code with my gloves on.

What - and steer? 

You can just set the screenlock off completely on an iPhone: then it's double-tap to wake, and swipe up.

[Phmode]

Even when thumbprint access is activated on my (Android) phone I can still use a code to access it and can enter the code with my gloves on. Does yours not also have that option?

It does. But fiddle-phaffing with the phone trying to enter the PIN code with it in its cradle is a nightmare. It isn't a real issue for using the phone (which is in my pocket out of the way and can be used via voice control) but trying do everything you do on my navigator (which is another phone with no SIM) with gloves on is a bind, especially with a tank bag and clumsy winter gloves. It is one of the downsides (about the only one so far) of using a phone as a navigation device as opposed to my Garmin XP.