Adamya Sharma / Android Authority
When Samsung announced Now Brief alongside the Galaxy S25 series, I thought it was a clever idea. Who wouldn’t want a snapshot of their day, a quick news rundown tailored to their interests, updates from connected smart home devices and wearables, and useful daily insights? On paper, it sounded like the perfect addition to Samsung’s array of smart features. But when Now Brief actually rolled out, and I witnessed it in action, it quickly became clear that it wasn’t living up to Samsung’s promises or the expectations of its users.
Do you actually use Now Brief or Daily Hub? 9 votes I use Now Brief on my Galaxy and think it's great 33 % I've used Now Brief and don't like it very much 44 % I use Google's Daily Hub on my Pixel and think it's great 11 % I've used Daily Hub and don't like it very much 11 %
Recently, Google also decided to play with the idea of a daily rundown. With the Pixel 10 series, it introduced Daily Hub, and I figured maybe Google would finally get it right. After all, it had time to observe Samsung’s mistakes and listen to user feedback about what Now Brief was missing. Unfortunately, Daily Hub, as it stands right now, also feels extremely unfinished, which explains why Google has hit pause on it.
In theory, both Now Brief and Daily Hub are designed to serve as a kind of digital diary for your day. A single place where you can glance at your schedule, get reminders, check the weather, and maybe even discover some content you’ll enjoy. The idea is that instead of opening half a dozen apps, you have one unified space that gives you a sense of what your day looks like. In practice, though, my experience left me questioning whether either one is worth using right now.
Google’s Daily Hub vs Samsung’s Now Brief: Access and availability
Now Brief in Edge Panel Now Brief on Home Screen Daily Hub in Discover feed
Google’s Daily Hub feels like the kind of feature that should feature prominently the moment you unlock your Pixel. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Daily Hub is tucked away at the very top of your Google Discover feed. You can add it to your At a Glance widget to get access from the home screen or lock screen, but it’s not as prominent as how Samsung’s Now Brief shows up. Daily Hub doesn’t appear in the app drawer either. In other words, I always had to make an effort to find it, instead of Google surfacing boldly for me, the way a feature like this really should.
Samsung handles visibility way better. Now Brief shows up everywhere it makes sense: on the lock screen via the Now Bar, as a widget on the home screen, and even in the Edge Panel. It feels like a tool designed to be glanced at, not hunted down. Google needs to catch up here. When it relaunches, I hope Daily Hub appears front and center, not weirdly buried in Discover, or shows up as a line of text in the At a Glance widget.
Features
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority
Daily Hub launched as a preview, and trust me, it showed. You didn’t get to customize what appears in your day’s rundown. It was supposed to serve up weather, travel info, calendar highlights, reminders, and suggestions from third-party apps like Spotify, Audible, and Pocket Casts, and you had no control over how much of that information you want to get or not. It’s up to Google.
Now Brief, on the other hand, at least pretends to give you options. You can choose what categories show up in your daily briefing, such as wearable battery levels, news, memorable moments from your Gallery, smart home alerts, and more. The reality, though, is that half of this information doesn’t surface consistently. On most days, I only see weather info, calendar events, and YouTube recommendations based on my account’s watch history. But hey, at least I have the choice to enable more or remove things I don’t want in my daily lowdown. With Google’s Daily Hub, I don’t even get that control.
Now Brief Daily Hub
Calendar summaries are another sticking point. Daily Hub only shows a few immediate upcoming events (see image above). If I want the full day, I’m forced to hop into Google Calendar. Now Brief, by contrast, actually gives me a proper overview of all of my day’s events. I just have to tap the “View all events button” to see every event I’ve planned for the day.
Weather is another good example of how Samsung does things a little better than Google. Pixel’s Daily Hub shows the current temperature, period. Meanwhile, Now Brief’s weather summary gives you a look at what the day’s weather is going to be like and also warns you if you should expect sudden changes later, like a storm or rain.
Recommendations: Google wins here, sorta
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority
Google definitely deserved credit where it’s due. During the couple of weeks that I used it, Pixel’s Daily Hub actually gave me recommendations for tech news and related YouTube videos instead of no recommendations or irrelevant video suggestions like Now Brief does.
My colleague Joe Maring begged to differ in his initial take on the Daily Hub, but suggestions for me have been pretty relevant. These content suggestions are likely based on my Discover likes and dislikes or my YouTube history, so the more Google’s algorithms know about you, the better your Daily Hub suggestions will be. I also like the fact that I can swipe down to refresh my Daily Hub feed for new content.
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That said, while I welcome the fact that Google’s suggestions largely match my areas of interest, the actual YouTube video recommendations can be a bit of a hit or miss. I’ll sometimes see new videos from creators I follow, which is great for a morning catch-up session, but other times, suggestions would include advertisements, sponsored content, or just low-quality stuff I would never watch. I would have actually loved to see fewer video recommendations and more article suggestions, but maybe Google doesn’t want to take attention away from its Discover feed, which is why there are very few articles to read in Daily Hub. You do get article suggestions in the section that explores topics of interest, but that’s not the same thing as having the top headlines of the day front and center.
I've yet to see any useful news or video recommendations in Now Brief.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s Now Brief is pretty weak in the content department. Most of the time, it just regurgitates my kid’s YouTube history instead of surfacing anything remotely relevant to me. I’ve yet to see any useful news or video recommendations in Now Brief.
That said, neither Daily Hub nor Now Brief lets you actually choose or manage your content interests or even preferred content languages, which is a huge miss in my books.
A tale of two half-baked products
Joe Maring / Android Authority
Needless to say, neither Daily Hub nor Samsung’s Now Brief has given me a perfect summary of my day. There’s no way I would open any one of them and be content with what they tell me. I will 100% jump into relevant apps to get up to speed with my schedule and things I want to do, watch, or read. There are glaring omissions on both sides, and both Samsung and Google could do a lot more to make their respective features usable.
For instance, Google didn’t even bring over Daily Listen, its experimental AI-powered audio digest that creates 5-minute podcasts based on your search and Discover activity. That would’ve been a killer feature for Daily Hub, and the branding fits right in. Forget Daily Listen, Google doesn’t even offer a readout of your briefing, like Samsung does.
Both Now Brief and Daily Hub desperately need to surface more relevant content, and do it in a way that actually feels meaningful. For devices packed to the rafters with AI features, these daily rundowns might be the least “intelligent” things they offer. With barely any third-party app support, almost no customization options, and vague or inconsistent content sources, both Daily Hub and Now Brief feel like they’re sailing in the opposite direction of the otherwise polished Galaxy AI and Gemini-powered features Samsung and Google love to showcase.
The bottom line
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority Now Brief in Now Bar
The crux of the matter is that neither Daily Hub nor Now Brief is genuinely useful right now. They both feel like early concepts that need proper attention and possibly require the companies to go back to the drawing board. And that’s exactly what Google has done by hitting pause on the feature and trying again.
Neither Daily Hub nor Now Brief is genuinely useful right now
If I really had to pick between the two half-baked options, I would go with Now Brief for its customization options and more comprehensive daily summaries. But, at the same time, I would choose Daily Hub for its recommendations and cleaner swipe-to-refresh experience.
Unfortunately, neither has even come close to earning a permanent place in my daily routine. Until Samsung and Google let users fully control and customize what shows up, I’ll stick with dedicated apps and other productivity tools.
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