Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
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.
Are you satisfied with Android 16's Live Updates? 26 votes Yes 15 % No 42 % I haven't tried them yet 42 %
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.
Media controls are what I’ve used the Dynamic Island and Now Bar for the most, so Google’s decision not to include those things makes the Pixel’s Live Updates almost useless to me.
Material Capsule is what Google should’ve made
Material Capsule is an app that takes everything the Now Bar and Dynamic Island can do and supercharges it with customisation and plenty of new features. The main thing I want it for is, as you’ve likely deduced, media control, which works perfectly. As you can see in the image above, the app has added a media player that has become a part of my Pixel 10 Pro’s selfie camera cutout.
It definitely looks more like Apple’s version of the feature as opposed to Samsung’s, but I think that’s a good thing. The Now Bar takes up a lot of space beside the camera cutout and limits how many notification icons can display next to it, whereas this stays out of the way.
Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
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