- Google is preparing to launch “Live Updates,” a feature similar to iOS’s Live Activities that prominently displays progress-style notifications.
- Once live, these special notifications will appear fully expanded on the lock screen and as a persistent chip in the status bar for at-a-glance updates.
- The feature is already fully functional in the latest Android 16 QPR1 beta, suggesting it will likely roll out in the next quarterly update.
Google’s stable Android 16 update, released last month, brought many under the hood changes, but most of its major user-facing features aren’t live yet. A key example is Live Updates, Android’s version of iOS’s Live Activities. These are a special type of notification designed to be prominently displayed on the status bar and lock screen. While the stable Android 16 release adds preliminary support by allowing apps to create these notifications, the OS doesn’t yet treat them any differently from standard ones. However, full support for the Live Updates feature is just around the corner, as it’s already active in the latest beta release and could arrive in the next quarterly update.
The stable release of Android 16 provides the foundation for Live Updates by introducing a new “progress-style” notification template. This template simplifies the process for developers to add progress bars to their app notifications — something especially useful for rideshare, food delivery, and navigation services. While this isn’t entirely new functionality, as apps like Uber already use custom-built progress bars, the new template means developers no longer need to build them from scratch.
