One of the things I really enjoyed about the Apple Watch when I first got it early this year was the fact that it made controlling music and podcasts so damn easy. Anytime I was playing music on my phone, the watch would show up a nice screen with the album art, playback controls, and other useful buttons right there. Plus rotating the Digital Crown let me adjust the volume. Awesome. However, I quickly realised that having that Now Playing app open up on its own anytime anything was playing on my phone was more of an annoyance than a feature, and if you are reading this how-to, I’m sure you’re in the same boat. Fortunately, there is an easy way to disable Apple Watch from launching the now playing app; here’s how to do it.
Stop Auto Launch of Audio App on Apple Watch
Stopping watchOS 6 from launching the now playing app is very straightforward. Here’s what you need to do.
Using the Apple Watch
First, let’s discuss how you can stop your Apple Watch from auto launching the Now Playing app by making adjustments on the watch itself.
- Go to ‘Settings -> General -> Wake Screen‘.
- Here, disable the toggle next to ‘Auto-Launch Audio Apps’.
Using iPhone
You can also stop Now Playing from automatically launching by changing settings via your iPhone.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone and tap on ‘General’. Here, tap on ‘Wake Screen‘.
- Turn off the toggle next to ‘Auto-Launch Audio Apps’
