One of the cool things about the Samsung Galaxy Watch is that it has an almost symbiotic relationship with your Galaxy phone or tablet and automatically detects whenever you're playing media on your mobile device.
When it does, the Galaxy Watch offers quick media control shortcuts on your wrist, including skip track, previous track, play/pause, and volume controls.
This can be very useful, but depending on the settings you use on your Galaxy Watch, media control shortcuts can be a blessing or a curse.
Get rid of the persistent media controls panel
There is an option in One UI Watch called “Show media controls.” Judging by its description, you'll probably want it ON. You might think that if this option is disabled, you'll no longer have the option to control media playback from your smartwatch. And you don't want that.
However, that's not how this setting works. In truth, you'll always have access to media controls on your smartwatch regardless of how you've set this option. But turning the “Show media controls” option ON makes the media control panel the default screen on your Galaxy Watch, bypassing the watch face whenever you wake your smartwatch.
So, if you've ever wondered why you see the media control screen instead of the watch face every time you wake the Galaxy Watch while listening to music, watching videos, or even accessing apps like Skype on your phone, this is why.
This can really get in the way and become annoying. Thankfully, you can prevent the media control panel from always showing whenever you wake the smartwatch. To do this, open the Settings app on your Galaxy Watch, access “Display,” and flip the “Show media controls” toggle OFF. You can also do this through the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone.
Don't worry about losing media control functionality on the Watch. You will always have easy access to the media control panel when you play audio or video on your connected Galaxy phone or tablet, even with this option turned off.
You can always access the media control panel by tapping the small musical note at the bottom of the watch face. This floating icon shows up when you play something on your connected phone or tablet, regardless of whether you keep “Show media controls” ON or OFF, irrespective of what watch faces and complications you use.
You can also access media controls via the Media Controller tile. It's all the same. The bottom line is there are plenty of options to access media controls on your Galaxy Watch, and turning “Show media controls” OFF won't prevent you from controlling the media on your phone or tablet from your wrist.
