Music playing on HomePod continuously showing up on iPhone Lock Screen and Apple Watch

Things do seem to have improved since the iOS 17.2 update. There are still a number of fundamental flaws to the whole system though.

If 'auto launch audio apps' in your Apple Watch settings is set to 'on,' this will launch the Now Playing app on the watch and show what's playing on nearby HomePods.

This will also force your iPhone to show controls for the same thing - and switch the outputs of media apps to the same thing.

If you switch off 'auto launch audio apps' in your Apple Watch, your iPhone should just show a collapsed notification / widget on its' lock screen showing the nearest device and what's playing. Only when you tap this, does it reveal controls and switch the output of media apps to another device.

The system and all the devices are riddled with bugs, inconsistencies and design faults though. For example, on a couple of occasions, after charging, my Apple Watch has switched on 'auto launch media apps' regardless of the setting on screen. Rebooting sorted this. iPhone notifications of what's playing nearby sometimes work and sometimes don't. More often than not, the TV Remote app doesn't affect Now Playing on iPhone (that's expected & logical behaviour) but occasionally it will.

This is the sort of incompetence and lack of usability I used to slag off Samsung for. Now it's Apple.