The Apple Watch Smart Stack feature can be useful, but sometimes watchOS defaults to showing Live Activities instead of the watch face. Here’s how to fix it.

Stop Live Activities From Showing on Your Apple Watch

Thankfully, there’s a way to stop Live Activities from popping up automatically. There’s a setting situated deep in the Apple Watch settings section that prevents the feature from auto-launching and taking over the watch face you’ve set.

On your Apple Watch, head to the Settings section. Scroll a bit and select Smart Stack.

On the following screen, select Live Activities.

Now, disable “Auto-Launch Live Activities” by pressing the toggle beside it.

If it’s just the media app controls that are troubling you, scroll down to the Live Activities page and choose Media Apps.

Now, disable the Live Activities feature.

Once you complete the process, Live Activities shouldn’t automatically appear on your Apple Watch. However, they’ll still be there in the section below the default watch face, and you can scroll down to see them whenever necessary.

What Is Smart Stack on Apple Watch?

First introduced in watchOS 10, Smart Stack is a section on your Apple Watch (beanth the watch face) that houses widgets, including the clock, weather, activity ring summary, featured photos, and so on. Depending on the time of the day or the location you’re at, Smart Stack shows the most relevant and useful widgets.

You can access the feature by swiping up on your Watch face or scrolling up on the Digital Crown.

Interestingly, the Smart Stack also shows Live Activities, a feature that shows real-time progress from apps or events. Ever noticed the rectangular status bar on your iPhone’s lock screen after ordering food, booking a cab, or uploading an Instagram story? It’s a Live Activity that takes the information from the respective app and puts it in a widget.

I’m Tired Of Live Activities Replacing The Default Watch Face

While Live Activities can be helpful on an iPhone (since it doesn’t block the main information I want to see at any given point), it can get in the way of the information on my Apple Watch face that I am used to. This is very, very annoying.

I often raise my wrist to check the time or the calories I’ve burnt through the day (as I’ve set the Activity Digital watch face), but watchOS keeps redirecting me to the Smart Stack. This means that I see the Live Activities section showcasing media controls for the song, YouTube video, or Netflix web show that’s going on my iPhone.

It doesn’t matter what you’re waking up the Apple Watch screen for; if something is playing on your iPhone, the watch opens directly at the Live Activities screen with media playback controls.

You Can Disable Widget Suggestions Too

If you want your widget stack to remain how you set it, disable the widget suggestions feature from the Smart Stack settings menu discussed above.

Go to Settings > Smart Stack on your Apple Watch. Then, tap on Widget Suggestions.

On the next screen, disable “Allow Widget Suggestions.”

While the Apple Watch is an excellent smartwatch, it is the small features or settings that can either make or break for the end user. Check out some of the hidden watchOS 11 features that you might have missed or the Apple Watch tricks that it took us years to find.