Google is making a small but significant change to how music and media playback works on the Pixel Watch. With the upcoming Wear OS 6 update, Pixel Watch users will finally be able to keep their media controls visible on the always-on display (AOD), instead of watching them disappear every time the screen dims.
This feature essentially makes the AOD more useful and less of a passive clock screen. Currently, when your wrist moves down or the watch goes into ambient mode, the media controls, including play, pause, and track information, disappear or become completely blurry. Porting OS 6 changes that. Once the update rolls out later this year, as reported 9to5Googlethe media interface will remain on the AOD, allowing you to glance at the currently playing track or control playback without having to wake up the screen.
The new interface intelligently adapts between active and ambient modes: filled play buttons become simple outlines, album art darkens, and the background turns black to save power while remaining readable and functional. Google is also adding a small music note icon as a complication to the bottom of watch faces.
A unified system that keeps applications alive with low power consumption
This upgrade is part of a larger overhaul of the always-on experience in Wear OS 6. In the past, only some apps worked with the always-on display, while others froze or blurred. Developers could enable a “Force Global AOD” setting in Wear OS 5.1 to keep apps visible, but it wasn’t a sustainable solution. With Wear OS 6, Google offers a more unified system that lets your latest activity, like media playback, browsing, or notes, remain visible in a low-power mode.
Combined with the Wear OS 6 design language based on Material 3 Expressive, these changes make the entire system smoother and more consistent. And despite these visual improvements, Google says the new ambient system is actually more power efficient, potentially improving battery life by up to 10% compared to Wear OS 5.
Again, the update is expected to arrive later this year, likely via a quarterly feature drop, and will set the stage for developers to better utilize the always-on display on all Wear OS 6 devices.
