This new Apple Watch patent could upgrade your handshake

Apple Watch patent handshake
Apple Watch patent details handshake

It may be easier to meet other Apple Watch owners in the future, whether you're talking about the best smartwatch features or how you have no more money left due to the Apple Watch price.

A new patent, filed by the Cupertino company, details a gesture-based method of exchanging files, including contact information with a simple handshake.

The AirDrop-like file exchange, first spotted by Patently Apple, is said to includes gestures of shaking hands, hugging, patting the other person's back and, of course, fistbumping.

Apple Watch 2

All of this is feasible in the current Apple Watch thanks to its Bluetooth and NFC chips. But the patent notes a camera and audio jack, too, hinting at an Apple Watch 2.

A nod and high-five to business cards

This Apple Watch patent is actually nod and a high-five to technology that has used this sort of quick information exchange before, in an effort to eliminate business cards.

Google acquired a company called Bump for its popular smartphone-gesture-enabled app of the same name, but discounted it last year.

Razer first brought the idea to a wearable with the Razer Nabu and Razer Nabu X, calling them "social smartbands." It had mixed results.

Apple Watch 2 handshake patent

Do you really trust that person you're shaking hands with?

What the Apple Watch patent could do differently is tell the difference between work-related event greetings and social event greeting, with different data exchanged in each environment.

Of course, like all patents, there's no guarantee that this greeting exchange will ever be used in the current Apple Watch or the Apple Watch 2.

Matt Swider