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Stop Live Activities Taking Over Your Apple Watch Face

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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In watchOS, the Smart Stack for your Apple Watch is pretty clever. The collection of widgets can be pulled up with a scroll of the Digital Crown, and shows you relevant information throughout your day. But sometimes, its eagerness to help can be a bit much, especially when it comes to Live Activities.

live-activities-watch.jpg

You're probably familiar with this scenario: You raise your wrist expecting to see your carefully customized watch face, but it's been replaced by media playback controls because someone's watching your Apple TV, or there's a delivery tracking screen showing that you aren't currently interested in. Live Activities in the Smart Stack can clearly be useful, but having them automatically take over your display isn't always ideal. Here's how to take back control:
  1. Open Settings on your Apple Watch.
  2. Tap Smart Stack.
  3. Select Live Activities.
  4. Toggle off the switch next to Auto-Launch Live Activities.
watchos-live-activities.jpg


After disabling auto-launch, Live Activities will still be available in your Smart Stack when you want them – you'll just need to manually scroll to see them instead of having them pop up automatically.

If you want more granular control, you're in luck. From the same settings screen you can control which Apple apps display Live Activities. Using the Watch app on your iPhone, you can also manage Live Activities settings for third-party apps. This lets you keep the notifications you find useful while preventing the less important ones from interrupting your watch face.

Pro Tip: If it's just those persistent media controls that bug you, head to Media Apps in the same settings menu and turn off Live Activities completely, or alternatively under "Auto-Launch," select Off or Smart Stack for a more focused watch face experience.

Article Link: Stop Live Activities Taking Over Your Apple Watch Face
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/stop-live-activities-apple-watch-display/
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I don't use Smart Stack, and frequently set timers. After a few days of clicking the crown to get the face back, I took the time to figure out how to turn it off. I'd have appreciated a suggestion from the OS to turn on the feature instead of making the decision for me.

Add: I don't think the Watch team at Apple fully understands how integral the device is to many of our daily routines. Imagine if the display on your car's dashboard suddenly moved some stuff around. These are tools, not toys.
 
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It wouldn’t be so bad if it were actually smart enough to be useful. If I’m using my watch to control my Apple TV, I want it to continue doing so until I’m done with it. I hate that pausing the TV for a short period makes the watch forget what it was doing. Especially when it switches to controlling the media on the watch… I don’t have any media on my watch, never have and never will!
Customisation is far too restricted on these devices. I wear a real watch for telling the time. Why is there no option to have the Apple Watch not display the time at all?
 
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Braindome said:
It wouldn’t be so bad if it were actually smart enough to be useful.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Or if AI could remember that someone sets timers and interacts with their watch all the time and never changes anything, haha.
 
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I hated this at first, but have recently come to enjoy the live activites screen now that I'm purposely engaging with it.
 
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This was helpful. I was occasionally frustrated by the setting but not enough to figure out how to change it. It wasn’t hard to push the crown and see my normal screen. Now it won’t be hard to turn the crown and see the live activities when needed.
 
I've got a specific app that constantly shows data in the dynamic island on my iPhone, trouble being was that carried over to the Apple Watch, so quickly came to realize this smart stack feature isn't yet smart enough.

Between the complication refresh limit still in play on 3rd party apps on Apple Watch, and even stricter refresh limitations using Stand By mode on iPhone, I really don't know what Apple is playing at. So frustrating when all you want is a number retrieved every five minutes easily displayed on a screen.
 
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AgeOfSpiracles said:
I hated this at first, but have recently come to enjoy the live activites screen now that I'm purposely engaging with it.
Click to expand...
You've possibly made someone very happy on the Smart Stack team whose proposal was to "remind users that it exists" and they got it approved. I can see some benefits when it's smarter and easier to refine (or easier to learn how to refine, if it's buried in there). For example, I never need to see timer progress, but if I'm waiting for a ride share in cold rainy weather, sure.

Add: Of course, if too many users disable live activities altogether like I did (a "just make it stop" reaction), it won't get smarter, so I might give them another chance when I'm in the mood to see what I already use that can be fine tuned.
 
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I love Smart Stack. Using the side button to access controls is no problem. Honestly the only time I ever use it is to check battery or turn off sleep alarm. But maybe auto launching live activities should be off by default.
 
CharlesShaw said:
I don't use Smart Stack, and frequently set timers. After a few days of clicking the crown to get the face back, I took the time to figure out how to turn it off. I'd have appreciated a suggestion from the OS to turn on the feature instead of making the decision for me.

Add: I don't think the Watch team at Apple fully understands how integral the device is to many of our daily routines. Imagine if the display on your car's dashboard suddenly moved some stuff around. These are tools, not toys.
Click to expand...

After they unceremoniously axed the Dock, I don't think the Apple Watch team has much respect for its users. Ever since WatchOS 10 they have shoved "new" features in our faces and removed or limited useful functionality for the sake of a visual refresh.

In fact they keep doing this on the Mac as well. We keep asking for a Snow Leopard bug fix year, they keep giving us new interfaces and lazy ports of iPad apps.
 
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I actually don’t mind the auto launching of live activities when it comes to my favorite sports team teams. It’s actually kind of cool that the sports scores will indicate something happen before I see it on TV. What I mean by this is I was watching one of the NFL games over the weekend and it would show a score by a team I follow 30 seconds or more before I saw the play on TV. That’s kind of cool.

But it also shows live activities when I’m watching Apple TV and that is something I would like for it to stop. I do not need or want to control my Apple TV from my watch.Does anybody know if there is an even? Does anybody know if there is a way to shut off having the Apple TV show up in the smart stack? That would be a big help.

Edit, I guess I missed the last paragraph about the media apps settings. I turned this off, but hopefully this won’t affect the now playing app while I’m in a workout or when just listening to something. I guess I will find out.
 
I have Flighty on my phone. Before Thanksgiving, I added my sister's flight on the app and later noticed the live activities showed up on my watch. While I didn't know such feature being on the watch, it's quite nice.
 
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I think live activities are much more preferrable compared to auto-launching apps that was previously a thing. Just wish they were more information-dense.
 
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