Wear OS 6 brings media controls to always on display

Smartwatch users will soon be able to control their music directly from the always-on display. The upcoming Wear OS 6 update includes a new feature that keeps media controls visible and active even when the watch screen is dimmed.

This improvement means users will not need to fully wake up their smartwatch display to pause, play, or skip tracks. The current song information and controls will remain on the low-power ambient screen.

This change is part of an effort to make the always-on display experience more consistent across devices. Under the new system, the activity previously shown on the screen stays visible and active in a low-power state when the device enters ambient mode.

This technical change suggests that other types of activities might also appear on the always-on display in the future. This could potentially include information from ongoing workouts, timers, or navigation directions without requiring the user to turn on the main screen.

Wear OS 6 is currently available for testing by software developers. The full release is expected in the coming months. Besides the changes to the always-on display, the new software version is also reported to offer better battery performance, with potential improvements up to 10%. Other features include Live Updates and visual design changes.