So you already own a pair of gloves that you love, but they don’t work, with your smartphone. You hate to buy a new pair just so you can text outside during winter or maybe you haven’t been able to find a pair of gloves warm enough for the cold weather. Instead of throwing your beloved gloves away, you can actually make gloves touchscreen friendly. Thanks to the popularity of touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets, it’s easy and affordable to “hack your gloves” and make them work with touch devices.
These DIY touchscreens gloves are easy to do and don’t require any special skills. In fact, some of them are as easy as painting your nails. You can even use these to fix touchscreen gloves that stopped working. Overall you will save money with these techniques. Check out some of our recommended ways to make gloves touchscreen friendly below.
DIY Make Gloves Touchscreen Friendly
AnyGlove for Touchscreen Friendly Gloves
Anyglove is a liquid that comes in a bottle. You apply it to the tips of your gloves and once they dry your fingertips will be touchscreen compatible. The liquid has particles in it that form a conductive surface on your gloves, making them compatible with touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets.
AnyGlove works on any type and color of gloves and does not appear black or blue once you apply it. The liquid is applied to your gloves with the included brush (similar to a nail polish brush) and you can either let it dry overnight or use a hair dryer to dry the gloves more quickly. The coating will last several weeks, but eventually, you will need to reapply it to the fingertips of your glove. AnyGlove also works really well to bring back touchscreen compatibility on tech gloves that stop working. Each bottle will give you about 30 applications.
GloveTacts Toouchscreen Compatible Stickers
I don’t think making your gloves touchscreen friendly can get any easier than this. GloveTacts are touchscreen compatible stickers that you apply to the finger tips of your gloves. As you may have already guessed, they’re made of conductive material that works with touchscreen devices. They’re very easy to apply as you just peal them and stick them onto the fingertips of your gloves.
Each package comes with 2 stickers–meaning you can do the index finger of each glove on a pair of gloves. If you want to make your thumbs conductive as well, you should buy 2 packages. These stickers will stick to any glove type (leather, fabric, knit, rubber) but reviews have had issues with the adhesive wearing off over time, especially if the gloves are used for winter sports like skiing where the gloves come in contact with cold, snow, and water. Heat (like hot summer weather) can also make the adhesive fail. GloveTacts work best when you’re wearing your gloves as a commuter, driver, or other less active situations. Otherwise, consider using the Nanotips. They also only come in the color black, so you may have to look elsewhere for other glove colors.
Check out this tutorial on how to install the GloveTacts on your gloves:
Conductive Threads
If you’re a DIYer who doesn’t mind getting crafty and knows how to do some basic sewing, there’s a more permanent option to make gloves touchscreen friendly. It works best for cloth or knit gloves, as you probably don’t want to sew onto your nice leather driving gloves. You will need some conductive thread for this project, like the stainless thing conductive thread pictured to the left. You can use it just like any other thread the only difference is that since it is made from conductive materials it will be compatible with your touchscreen phone. You will also need a sewing needle.
All you need to do is stitch a small patch of the thread on the fingers you want to make touchscreen compatible. make sure you leave a tail of thread inside of your glove so the conductivity of your skin transfers to the threads on the glove. You can do this for as many of the fingers as you want to make conductive in addition to your thumb and pointer finger. Once you’re done, this touchscreen compatibility will be permanent and last through washes and years of wear.
Check out this step by step video to see how to sew the conductive thread into your gloves:
Don’t feel like going DIY to make gloves touchscreen friendly. There are plenty of texting gloves available that work with your smartphone or tablet. Check out our articles on warm touchscreen gloves for winter and all weather touchscreen gloves.