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First, a quick history lesson and a few Apple Watch basics.
Released in April 2015, the Apple Watch is the California tech giant’s first new product after the death of its founder and former CEO Steve Jobs.
The Apple Watch is a wearable device that incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless communications. It integrates with iOS and other Apple products and services and is an essential part of the Apple ecosystem and experience.
Currently, at Series 7, the Apple Watch requires an iPhone to set up. Once paired through the setup process, the Apple Watch adds to the iPhone’s functionality with its own unique health-oriented capabilities. It also works as an extension of the iPhone for notifications, messages, and phone calls. Notifications that otherwise would have lit up the iPhone screen are now received on the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch alerts the user via haptic feedback, while the iPhone remains silent the whole time.
The Apple Watch is also capable of separately connecting to Wi-Fi networks for data-reliant functionalities, like messaging and audio streaming. Apple Watch with cellular connection further reduces its dependence on the iPhone since it can connect to a mobile network directly.
Complications
Apple offers different watch faces on the Apple Watch. Most watch faces can display different snippets of information from apps. Each snippet is called a complication – think of it as dialed-down versions of widgets on a much smaller display.
Complications are extremely helpful when the user needs to quickly glance at something – all it takes is for the user to raise their wrist.
However, by default, if the user has an audio app running, the Apple Watch will show “Now Playing” when the user wakes the display, which means the user needs to press the Digital Crown to go to the watch face, and the complications.
Fortunately, users can easily disable this. (Even if the option to disable it might not be where you think it is.)
How to Stop the Apple Watch from Showing Now Playing on Wake
- On the Apple Watch, press the Digital Crown to show all apps.
- Tap Settings.
- Scroll down and tap Display & Brightness.
- Toggle off Auto-Launch Audio Apps.
Bonus Tips
If you prefer to do this on the iPhone, open the Watch app, select the Apple Watch that you would like to change, and go to Display & Brightness. You can disable Auto-launch Audio Apps here too.
Now Playing is available as a complication on a lot of watch faces. If you still would like to see what is playing when you wake up the Apple Watch display, try adding it as a complication to your watch face.
