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When Samsung rolled out One UI 7 earlier this year, the Now Bar and its Live Notifications made their debut with a lot of promise, and one major caveat. These lock-screen-aware notifications, inspired by Apple’s Live Activities, were slick and useful but frustratingly limited to a small group of Samsung’s own apps.
Thankfully, a developer option spotted by Android Authority’s Zachary Kew-Denniss in the One UI 8 beta confirms some good news: Samsung will lean into Android 16’s newly introduced “Live Updates” system to make the Now Bar more useful than ever (Source: Mishaal Rahman for Android Authority).
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One UI 8 Live notifications as a status bar chip, expanded chip, and in-panel notification. Courtesy of Mishaal Rahman via Android Authority.
Live Updates, which made its official debut at Google I/O, offer app developers a standardized way to push real-time, persistent updates to the status bar, lock screen, and — of course — Samsung’s own Now Bar. Think food delivery ETAs, rideshare progress, or live sports scores, all updating in real time without unlocking your phone.
Google even demoed a short animation during its keynote, showing an Uber Eats delivery notification expanding within the Now Bar. It wasn’t a subtle hint: Samsung’s going all-in. In other words, we knew this was coming, and we’re relieved to see hard evidence of its imminence.
Now that One UI 8 Beta 3 is out in the wild, we’re starting to see how this integration will play out. Android Authority’s ZKD discovered a new developer-facing toggle: “Live notifications for all apps.” Flip that switch, and any compatible third-party app using Android 16’s Live Updates APIs can now hook into Samsung’s Live Notification system.
One UI 8 Live Notifications on the lock screen Now Bar, and expanded from it. Courtesy of Mishaal Rahman via Android Authority.
Right now, the pool of supported apps is nonexistent unless you’re using Google’s sample code, but the groundwork is clearly in place. Once One UI 8 hits stable release, there’s little reason to think this feature will stay hidden behind a developer setting. Google has publicly confirmed Live Updates support on Samsung devices, and it would be bizarre to require end users to jump through dev-menu hoops to get the full experience.
Looking beyond phones, Samsung is already eyeing wearables. The ongoing One UI 8 Watch beta confirms that the Now Bar is heading to Galaxy smartwatches — likely alongside Live Updates support — sometime in 2026. That timeline also aligns with Google’s own roadmap to bring Live Updates to Wear OS, after an initial rollout across Android handsets and foldables in 2025.
If Samsung sticks the landing, One UI 8 could finally deliver on the potential the Now Bar and its Live Notifications hinted at: a truly dynamic, system-wide notification layer that works across your entire device ecosystem. Now all we need is for third-party apps to catch up.
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