Summary
- One UI 8 will integrate Now Bar with Android 16’s Live Updates, making it more practical for users.
- Now Bar on One UI 7 has limited functionality and takes up valuable screen space.
- With Live Updates integration, Now Bar in One UI 8 will display real-time food delivery status, parcel tracking, and more.
Now Bar is one of Samsung’s biggest additions to One UI 7. It surfaces relevant information, Google Maps navigation directions, sports scores, and more on the lock screen, status bar, and notification shade. However, in its current form, Now Bar sounds more useful on paper than in daily life. Thankfully, One UI 8 will solve this by integrating Now Bar with Live Updates, one of Android 16’s most significant enhancements.
When Samsung unveiled One UI 7 alongside the Galaxy S25 lineup earlier this year, it hyped up the Now Bar to a great extent. However, once the Galaxy S25 made its way into users’ hands, they realized the Now Bar rarely worked. Even now, with One UI 7 expanding to Samsung’s other premium flagship devices, Now Bar serves a limited purpose. Given that it takes up prominent space on the lock screen, this felt like a wasted opportunity.
One UI 8 will fix this by adding support for Live Updates (via SamMobile). So, what are Live Updates? They are Google’s take on the iPhone’s Live Activities, helping apps surface real-time information using this feature.
While Google has been working on this feature for a while, it will finally go live with Android 16. Live Updates are great for tracking orders from food delivery apps, parcel delivery, live sports games, and more.
One UI 8 will finally allow Now Bar to live up to its full potential
Besides the lock screen, the Now Bar in One UI 7 is visible on the Always-On Display as well. This will make its integration with Live Updates in Android 16 and One UI 8 even more useful. When unlocked, tapping the Live Updates notification in the status bar expands it, giving you access to additional controls.
A previous leak indicates Samsung will also use the Now Bar in One UI 8 to display any ongoing call notifications and even a Do Not Disturb toggle.
Samsung will likely introduce further enhancements to the Now Bar in One UI 8, though we’ll only know the full extent once the company officially unveils the update. Thankfully, we might not have to wait for long, with a report suggesting that the One UI 8 public beta program will start as soon as this month.
