Songfacts®:

• Charlie Puth teamed up with the country duo Dan + Shay for this song. "That's Not How This Works" starts with Puth's solo vocals accompanied only by his piano, telling the story of a relationship that's ending. The track maintains its gentle pace as it adds the soulful vocals and harmonies of Dan+ Shay.
• Puth expresses his frustration with his former romantic partner's behavior. She tells the singer she hates him, but she calls him when she's hurt. Puth is tired of this cycle and tells her it's not how relationships work. She needs to be consistent and not play games with the singer's emotions.
  
  Dan + Shay chip in with the second verse, where they tell their ex to stop reminding them of the past. They know she is just trying to make excuses to see them.
• Charlie Puth wrote "That's Not How This Works" with Dan + Shay's Dan Smyers and Smyers' frequent writing partner Jordan Reynolds on Zoom in 2020. Puth produced the track and released it as a single on March 31, 2023.
  
  "I went through many changes musically in my life, but always kept this song in my back pocket because I knew how special it was," he said. "It was after all the song that propelled me into the next phase of my life. It was the song that healed me. With all of these feelings that I hadn't come face to face with before, I finally mustered up the courage to put a melody against them. When you listen to this song, I hope you feel what I felt when I wrote it- a sense of relief."
• Directed by Phillip R. Lopez, the video for "That's Not How This Works" co-stars Sabrina Carpenter as Puth's love interest. Shot in black and white, the six-minute video shows the ups and downs of their relationship, from telling each other "I love you" for the first time to intense fights. The visual ends with Puth walking away from Carpenter, leaving her alone and heartbroken.
  
  Lopez also directed Charlie Puth's 2022 video for "Loser" and Sabrina Carpenter's 2019 visual for "In My Bed."