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This Simple Trick Solves One of the Apple Watch’s Biggest Annoyances

Take back control over your Apple Watch’s watch face.

Apple Watch Series 10Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

By Tucker Bowe

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Do you hate looking down at your Apple Watch and seeing something other than your watch face? It’s a common problem these days.

The main cause of this is Live Activities. This is a feature that Apple rolled out with watchOS 11 — released in fall 2024 — that shows you things like real-time sport scores or progress on food deliveries.

Live Activities supports media playback controls, too. So if you’re listening to music or a podcast, or watching a video on your iPhone, you’ll see album artwork or playback controls on your Apple Watch instead of your watch face.

Apple Watch Series 10
When selecting music or a podcast on your iPhone, the playback controls will often appear on your Apple Watch, too. If you don’t think, you can prevent it from auto-launching.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

You might also see your Smart Stack. This is the stack of widgets you normally see when you swipe up on your Apple Watch (or turn the Digital Crown) from your watch face. But sometimes, the Smart Stack — which also has a Live Activities widget — will auto-launch so you see it instead of your watch face, too.

If either of these things annoy you, there’s good news. You can adjust a few settings to prevent Live Activities or your Smart Stack from auto-launching. This way, when you look down at your Apple Watch, you see your watch face.

Just like how you intended.

Apple Watch Series 10
The Smart Stack often takes over your Apple Watch’s watch face, which you might not like.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Disable all Live Activities

You can disable all Live Activities — which includes sports scores, food delivery information, and media playback controls — in one fell swoop.

  1. Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
  2. Select Smart Stack.
  3. Select Live Activities.
  4. Toggle off the first option, “Allow Live Activities.”

This will prevent Live Activities from auto-launching on your Apple Watch. It solves your problem, but it might be a little overkill for most people. Sometimes, seeing Live Activities on your Apple Watch is useful, right?

Apple Watch Series 10
You can toggle off all Live Activities on your Apple Watch through the Settings app.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Prevent media apps from auto-launching

If it’s just media controls Apple Watch that you don’t want to see — remember, you’ll still be able to see them on your iPhone — you can isolate and disable just those, instead.

  1. Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
  2. Select Smart Stack.
  3. Select Live Activities.
  4. Scroll down and select Media Apps.
  5. In the Auto-Launch setting, select Off.
Apple Watch Series 10
If you want to prevent just media apps from auto-launching on your Apple Watch, you can isolate and disable just those, too.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

If you toggle off the “Allow Live Activities” choice at the top, your media playback controls will not appear in your Smart Stack (which you can access by swiping up from your Apple Watch’s watch face).

In the Auto-Launch section, if you select Smart Stack, you’ll be able to access media controls through Smart Stack but they won’t take over your watch face anymore.

If you select App, which is on by default, nothing will change, and the media controls will still occasionally take over your Apple Watch’s watch face.

About the Author:

Tucker Bowe has been on Gear Patrol’s editorial team since 2014. As a Tech Staff Writer, he tracks everything in the consumer tech space, from headphones to smartphones, wearables to home theater systems. If it lights up or makes noise, he probably covers it.

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