Google Pixel Watch 3 Rewind and Fast Forward Buttons Grayed Out/Unclickable
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I have the Google Pixel Pro 9 Fold and the Google Pixel Watch 3. When I play a podcast, the default media app on my Pixel Watch 3 pops up but only allows me to click the play/pause button. The rewind and fast forward buttons are grayed out and I cannot click them. How do I fix this? It’s frustrating because I have to use a third party app, Simple Wear, as a replacement to allow me to use those functions to control Pocket Casts media on my watch.
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@danpojo thanks for reporting this to us. Can you please confirm if this functionality works correctly for other media player apps on your device?
Additionally, can you confirm the WearOS version on your Watch? We have a feeling this issue is occurring on WearOS 5 due to similar reports on Samsung Watch 7’s, but confirmation of your version would be great!
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@staff-joey8, hi. Yes. The functionality works with other apps. It works on my YouTube, Spotify, and Audible apps.
I’m using the most updated WearOS version 5.
The functionality works on my Samsung Wear and Apple Ultra watches though.
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Thank you for providing additional information about the specific devices and apps you’re using. We’ve added this information to the bug report to help our developers investigate the issue further.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Hi there,
This should be resolved as of version 7.81. Could you please check the following on your phone’s Pocket Casts app:
Go to Profile -> Settings -> General -> “Media notification controls” -> “Pixel Watch skip buttons”.
Please ensure that “Pixel Watch skip buttons” is enabled. This should resolve the issue with the rewind and fast forward buttons being grayed out.
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Hi there, the “Pixel Watch skip buttons” setting works as intended – thanks for introducing this workaround!
Having said that, the March 2025 update to Pixel Watches introduced this upgrade for watch media controls:Media Controls Upgrade
- Make it easier to control audio content from the watch with control types based on content being played (such as Podcasts within YouTube music).
I was hoping that this might work for Pocket Casts automagically after reverting the PW skip buttons setting, but no dice so far (ver. 7.85-rc-1 9323).
Would the team look into supporting this functionality? -
Actually, it looks like that Media Controls update is a separate install from the system update and I haven’t gotten it yet, so it *might* just work out of the box when updated ;)
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