Is "Now Playing" gone?

[Bill Av]

Just got the new 44mm Apple Watch. I don't see the "Now Playing" complication anymore for the modular face. I do see the small complication at the top of the screen that appears when you play music, but it doesn't tell you what's playing until you tap on it, and all it does is open the Music app.

 

[msmith2112]

I’m wondering the same thing. And that complication basically shows at all times for me...even when the music isn’t playing.

 

[matrix07]

It’s still on watchOS 5 on my S3. If it’s not there then it must be specific to S4.

 

[Bill Av]

It’s still on watchOS 5 on my S3. If it’s not there then it must be specific to S4.

It is. I gave away my old watch to a family member and it's still there (same specs as yours - OS 5 on a S3). It's strange, since it was one of the complications that really could have taken advantage of the extra real estate. While I'm grateful that Apple restored iPhone music control on the Apple Watch, they've done it in a really poor way. It was done right on OS 3; one complication that displayed song information, but launched the music app when you tapped on it. Whenever I see Apple take two steps back like this for no apparent reason, I always assume that they got sued by a patent troll over some IP.

 

[DePaulBlueDemon]

I’m wondering the same thing. And that complication basically shows at all times for me...even when the music isn’t playing.

Yes, same here. Comes up ALL THE TIME now.

 

[Rayban]

It's available on the original watch faces but not the new Infograph faces.

 

[cwosigns]

Yes, same here. Comes up ALL THE TIME now.

You can disable that by going into general settings and looking for wake screen settings and disabling auto launch audio apps.

 

[matrix07]

It is.

S3 May have Now Playing but I just discover that it may not working? Looks at these two photo which was captured at the same time. One from Podcast app itself another one from Now Playing.

 

[Bill Av]

It's available on the original watch faces but not the new Infograph faces.

Ah. I see. I went back to the old face and added it. It seems that old complications have to be updated for the new faces. Most of the complications for my 3rd party apps don’t appear as options on the new faces. And the one that does only works with one of the faces.

I hope that Apple updates Now Playing. Also, it would be nice to have the full date: day, month, date - and year even (why not?) as an option. If one of the big deals with the new watch is more space, they should give us options that use it.

I just noticed that there’s no “Message” complication for the new faces. Swell.

 

[DePaulBlueDemon]

You can disable that by going into general settings and looking for wake screen settings and disabling auto launch audio apps.

Thank you! First Apple Watch. Still digging in all the settings.

 

[Diiiiips]

Is it still there with ios13? Seems to have disappeared on watch with watchOS5

 

[Bill Av]

It’s available on both the Infograph and Infograph modular watch faces now. I didn’t even bother to look until you asked; I never thought that they’d add it to the Infograph Modular.

 

[Diiiiips]

I'm using infograph and it's not there now when it was there yesterday. Maybe it's an Overcast fault as that's what I'm trying to use it with. Haven't tried it with music yet

 

[Diiiiips]

Actually looks like notifications aren't appearing either. Is watchOS 5 ok with an iOS 13 phone?