Google has officially unveiled Android 16 at the I/O 2025 event, highlighting several new features. It includes a “Live Updates” tool that displays real-time activities across the lock screen, notification shade, AOD, and the status bar. Android 16 is set to arrive on Samsung devices later this year, and the event gave us an early look at how it integrates Live Updates with One UI 8.0.
The developer keynote at Google I/O 2025 revealed a feature called Live Update and showed how it might look on a stock Android device. This feature will eventually land on Xiaomi, OnePlus, Samsung, and Vivo handsets. Google already gave an early peek at the Live updates on One UI 8, using the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The image provided here should give you a rough idea of how the Live Updates appear on the phone’s Now Bar. It’s a photo of a Galaxy S25 Ultra, which has been upgraded to Android 16 x One UI 8, which shows the progress of an Uber Eats delivery at the bottom of the lock screen.
It’s a clever system to keep track of your live activities without unlocking the screen. This will be a feature bundled in the core Android system. We assume many other brands will give you a customized version of the Live Updates on their handsets with Android 16. App developers might be given an API to integrate this feature into their process as well.
The Uber Eats example given in the image shows you how the activity is tracked in five steps, from ordering the food to getting it delivered. There’s even an option to interact with the activity without opening the app. A user can call, message, or tip the rider.
Google says that only food delivery, navigation, and ride-hailing apps have been allowed to use the Live Updates feature on Android 16. More apps might be able to integrate this option in the future. Live updates are also expected to arrive on smartwatches next year.
Apart from this amazing new feature, Android 16 has many other improvements, and it especially focuses on user privacy enhancement. One UI 8.0 beta testing should begin any second day now, which will give Galaxy S25 Ultra users their first taste of the Android 16 OS. Stick around if you want to stay in the loop.