The 'Now Bar' Is Samsung's Take on iOS' Live Activities
The grand Samsung Galaxy S25 unveiling was also the first time anyone got a good look at One UI 7, Samsung's take on Android 15—it's now available on the Galaxy S25 handsets, and will be making its way to older models as well in the coming months. Among the many new features the software update ushers in, one of the most useful is the Now Bar.
The Now Bar works a bit like the Live Activities shown on the iPhone's Dynamic Island, which was introduced with iOS 16. It builds on the existing persistent notifications feature that Android already has—those notifications that stick on screen if you've got music playing, for example, or if you're running a timer.
The Now Bar is designed for the same sort of job, appearing at the bottom of the lock screen so you can keep up with live information from inside your apps. A variety of different panels can be shown, including workouts being tracked in Samsung Health, directions you're following in Google Maps, and playlists you're listening to in Spotify.
The Now Bar sits at the bottom of the screen, whereas iOS Live Activities appear at the top; another difference is that the Now Bar isn't visible when the phone is unlocked. If you're using your Galaxy phone and it's unlocked, the Now Bar information will be displayed in the same way as it currently is: as a persistent notification you can get at by swiping down from the top of the screen.
With both the Now Bar and Live Activities, you can tap the live notification for a bigger view and some interactive controls (starting and stopping timers, for example)—on iPhones, the Dynamic Island grows and shrinks as needed. There's no Dynamic Island on One UI 7 or on Galaxy phones (at least not yet.)
"By offering instant access to important notifications, Now Bar reduces the need to constantly unlock the device and allows users to engage with key information effortlessly," Samsung says. "Now Bar will transform the lock screen experience, which will continue to evolve with more intelligent experiences in the future."
Supported apps and settings
Now Bar integration depends on developer support, of course. There doesn't seem to be a definitive, official list of apps that support the Now Bar, but based on user reports we know Google Maps and Spotify are two of the third-party apps that now work with the feature. No doubt support for more apps will arrive in the future, at least in apps where the Now Bar makes sense (Uber, for example).
Samsung has already got several of its One UI 7 apps ready to work with the Now Bar, including Bixby, Clock, Emergency Sharing, Interpreter, Samsung Health, Samsung Notes, and Voice Recorder. For many of the others—like the photo gallery app and the web browser—you don't really need live updates on the lock screen. Samsung has also demoed sports scores from Google appearing on the Now Bar.
You can have multiple Now Bar panels running at once too, just in case you're playing music and jogging and running a timer. They'll stack up on top of each other, and you're able to swipe up to cycle between them. Samsung's promo videos also show smart AI alerts—telling you when to leave for an appointment, for example—appearing on the Now Bar interface.
You can see some of the existing Now Bar integrations in this promo video from Samsung. For example, start a run in the Samsung Health app, lock your phone, and you'll see your current time and distance displayed at the bottom of the lock screen. Tap the Now Bar to make the widget bigger, and to get controls for stopping the tracking.
The other apps work in a similar way. With Voice Recorder, you're able to start a recording from inside the app and then switch to the Now Bar on the lock screen. There you'll find a timer showing how long the recording has been going, plus controls to pause recording and to stop it completely.
If you've got access to One UI 7, you can customize the Now Bar by heading to Settings, then tapping Lock screen and AOD > Now Bar. From the next screen you can choose which apps are able to pipe live notifications to the Now Bar, as well as choose whether or not you want daily briefings delivered to the Now Bar too.