How to Turn off Now Playing on Apple Watch
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Now Playing screen on your Apple Watch enables you to control audio playback. For example, if you are listening to Apple Music, you can pause and go to the next song or the previous song easily without opening the Music app. You can exit this mode easily by tapping the X button in the top-left corner of your watch’s screen. I turned off this feature because I was not using it. You may also want to do this for various reasons, such as battery life concerns. Here is how I did that:
Now Playing screen
There is no direct setting to disable this. However, you can still turn it off by following these steps. You can always re-enable it by repeating the steps in reverse order:
- On your Apple Watch, go to Settings > General > Auto-Launch and turn off Auto-Launch Audio Apps.
- Ensure that the setting is synced to your iPhone. Open the Apple Watch app, select the Apple Watch you are using (if you have more than one), and go to General > Auto-Launch. Ensure that Auto-Launch Audio Apps is disabled.
- Turn Handoff off and on again. On your Apple Watch, go to Settings > General > Handoff, turn it off, wait 5 seconds, and then turn it back on. Please note that this can also be done via the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Restart your Apple Watch. Press and hold the Side button, tap the Off icon located in the top-right corner of the screen, then slide the power-off slider. Wait until your watch is fully powered off, then press and hold the Side button to turn it on again.
Now, the Now Playing screen won’t appear automatically on your watch when you are playing music or listening to a podcast.
