This Apple Watch feature drove me crazy. Here’s how I fixed it

After living with my Apple Watch Series 10 for a short time, I noticed that I was looking down a lot not Look at the dial, it really bothered me. Instead, my gaze would be greeted by the Smart Stack.

I just wasn’t quite sure why and was starting to get annoyed. If you’re seeing the same thing, here’s why it’s happening and what you can do about it.

A new feature that I can’t stand

Unless I’m looking at the Apple Watch to see a notification, I want to see the watch face I carefully selected to tell me the time. This is especially true after purchasing the titanium version with a Milanese strap or any of the more luxurious Apple Watch models, as you’ll probably want to look like a watch most of the time.

The sudden appearance of the Smart Stack ruined this, and at first I had no idea why. Since Apple has changed the Apple Watch’s control system, the Smart Stack is accessed with a twist of the Digital Crown. As I tried to figure out what was going on, I had the crazy idea that the Digital Crown was now so sensitive that a slight movement of my wrist revealed the Smart Stack.

What I didn’t do was put two and two together because the Smart Stack popped up on my Apple Watch when a live activity was running. It happened so often because it was triggered by listening to music on my headphones or a podcast on my iPhone or using my Apple TV. Live Activity automatically appears on Apple Watch as part of iOS 18 and watchOS 11 and typically corresponds to actions or apps used on iPhone.

Why I wanted to get rid of it

Live Activities are helpful on my iPhone and I love the way they seamlessly switch between banners on the lock screen and a less conspicuous spot on the dynamic island. They never interrupt my work and remain helpful and informative. It’s a bit annoying to delete some of these manually – the RingGo parking app here in the UK stays in place until it’s swiped away, even if the timer goes off, for example – but that’s all.

I choose stylish, watch-like watch faces for the Apple Watch, and I don’t think I’ve ever used one of the dashboard-style watch faces for any length of time. I find them ugly and distracting, and if the data can’t be presented in a complication, I’d rather look at it in the corresponding app than on the watch face.

Live Activity on Apple Watch effectively turns the watch face into a dashboard. It even appears when the screen returns to its ambient display after I take a look until I make it disappear by pressing the Digital Crown. I understand that there are times when Live Activity on Apple Watch is helpful, but my beautiful watch face and its ticking second hand are replaced by the Smart Stack when I’m listening to music or watching something on my Apple TV.

During these times, I usually control playback with my headphones, iPhone or remote control rather than my Apple Watch. When I want to use my watch, the activity is just a Digital Crown scroll away. This is also not a time-critical activity, and for me that is where the strengths of Live Activities lie Really I don’t need to see it in real time on my watch. I understand this may be a thing of mine, and others have no problem seeing a live activity for the music controls instead of the watch face, but I found it quite frustrating.

How I finally fixed my Apple Watch

What can you do with Live Activity on Apple Watch? Not initially understanding that it was a live activity replacing my watch face, I looked in the settings menu for options to adjust the Digital Crown’s sensitivity, but there was nothing that helped. After Live Activities was identified as the culprit, things became far more obvious.

Under the Apple Watch Settings Menu is an option for the SmartStackand here you can find it Live activities. Now get ready to do some digging and customization. You can turn off live activity completely. However, this is a very last option and not the best as the feature is useful at times. It is also possible to prevent Live Activities from starting automatically. Again, this may not be suitable for everyone, especially if you’re like me and only find a certain live activity annoying.

However, things are getting better. Scroll down the menu and you’ll see an option to turn off live activity for the media apps, which solves most of the problem for me. The same option exists for several other apps, including Alarms, Wallet, and Workout. Unfortunately, not every app is covered. So if another app is giving you problems with interruptions, you’ll be out of luck unless you turn off Live Activities completely in the corresponding app’s settings on iPhone.

WatchOS 11 and iOS 18 have many new features, and there will always be a time when we learn and get used to them. If, like me, you’ve been annoyed by the Smart Stack suddenly appearing on your Apple Watch when you’re playing music or watching TV, then you now know that Live Activity is the cause and that you can do something about it. Foregoing Media Apps Live Activity has made the brilliant Apple Watch even better for me.