When I used an iPhone for the first time in 2024, one of the features I grew to love was the Dynamic Island and Live Activities. I knew that I wanted Android to copy the feature, and I was pleased to see Samsung do so with One UI 7. Google has finally brought its version, called Live Updates, to Android 16, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired, and Samsung’s implementation is something I’ve missed during my time with the Pixel 10 Pro. Thankfully, a third-party app has gone a long way to solve that issue for me.
What Google is missing
Live Updates show you information from ongoing notifications in a small pill to the side of your status bar that can be expanded when tapped on. Google doesn’t allow media playback, ongoing timers, and a host of other notification types to show here, whereas Samsung and other OEMs do. As you can see in the image above, Samsung’s Now Bar can provide quick access to media controls, and that expanded functionality extends to timers and stopwatches, too.