Live Activity for Workout app on Apple Watch

Question

bunuelcubosoto OP

Created Aug ’24

Replies 6

Boosts 1

Participants 4

Hi,

We’ve developed a workout app with a Live Activity feature to help users launch the mirroring view on iPhone, similar to the built-in workout app for biking activities.

While Live Activities are now available on watchOS 11, the integration feels a bit off for our Workout app. Is there a way to disable or exclude our Live Activity from appearing on watchOS?

Currently, when a user starts a workout, the Live Activity appears at the bottom of the screen, requiring users to tap the screen before they can use our app. The built-in Workout app doesn’t have this issue.

Additionally, our Live Activity appears in the Smart Stack, duplicating content with the built-in Workout Live Activity.

We’re unsure if we missed any keys or settings to exclude Live Activity from watchOS.

Answered by Engineer in 802385022

iOS 18 added supplementalActivityFamilies which will allow you to exclude your LA.

As it states:

A Live Activity initiated on one device can be sent to a remote device that renders the Live Activity at a different family size. For example, if your Live Activity is running on an iOS or iPadOS device, it natively renders with an ActivityFamily.medium family. If you want to opt in to customize the rendering for a Live Activity for the watchOS Smart Stack, use the ActivityFamily.small family modifier.

In your case you would exclude .small

Hopefully this helps.

Rico

WWDR - DTS - Software Engineer

Boost

Answer 1

Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’24

Is your app an iOS app with companion watch app or a watch only app?

0

Answer 2

bunuelcubosoto OP

Sep ’24

Hi,

It's a companion watch app.

0

Answer 3

Engineer OP

Apple

Sep ’24

Accepted Answer

Recommended

iOS 18 added supplementalActivityFamilies which will allow you to exclude your LA.

As it states:

A Live Activity initiated on one device can be sent to a remote device that renders the Live Activity at a different family size. For example, if your Live Activity is running on an iOS or iPadOS device, it natively renders with an ActivityFamily.medium family. If you want to opt in to customize the rendering for a Live Activity for the watchOS Smart Stack, use the ActivityFamily.small family modifier.

In your case you would exclude .small

Hopefully this helps.

Rico

WWDR - DTS - Software Engineer

0

Answer 4

bunuelcubosoto OP

Sep ’24

Thank you for your help!

0

Answer 5

andrewfromCanada OP

Oct ’24

Just to follow up on this, excluding .small means you will not customize the live activity on the smart stack on the watch, but it does still show up.

We have a similar issue, where we have an iOS app with a watch companion. The challenge we have is during a workout (we're a workout app), we display a live activity on the phone, which syncs to the watch.

The watch smart stack then shows TWO widgets:

The native workout widget
The mirrored live activity from the phone

This feels a bit redundant and unnecessary, but from what I'm reading there is no way to disable mirroring of the live activity all together, only disable customization.

2

Answer 6

zeeshee OP

Oct ’24

What’s your app name? Is it on Apple Store for download? I can’t find any app that can show live activities in iPhone when I start run or walk workout on Apple watch.

0