Google changed the game for Android notifications with Android 16. The tech giant’s take on Apple’s Live Activities has materialized as Live Notifications, bringing dynamic alerts that boast a high-priority level among other notification classes. Said notifications appear above all other alerts in the status bar and on the lock screen, making them ideal for tracking ongoing activities.
Samsung has its own implementation of Live Notifications that went live with the Now Bar with One UI 7, but its adoption was limited. Now, however, with Samsung’s One UI 8 being based on Android 16, developers are free to leverage Google’s standardized Live Updates API to seamlessly bring more dynamic notifications to Samsung devices, and Uber is already looking to pounce.
Up until now, Samsung’s Live Notifications support only native apps like Samsung Health, Clock, Notes, SmartThings, and more, with additional support for Google apps like Finance, Sports, and Maps. Uber is looking to join that list, as spotted by the folks over at SammyGuru.
According to the report, the integration was spotted on a Galaxy A34 running an unreleased internal One UI 8 build, suggesting that support is still in development.
Big win for users
Especially since Samsung and Uber are both giants in their own right
Uber is the clear leader in the ride-hailing app market, at least in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, while Samsung commands the second-highest smartphone marketshare globally, making the arrival of dynamic Uber notifications a significant move for Samsung users around the world.
Google’s Pixel phones and Apple’s iPhones already offer dynamic live notifications for Uber, while the inevitable arrival of Samsung’s implementation will complete the trifecta.
For what it’s worth, in its current internal build implementation, Uber support only appears as a toggle, and enabling it makes no difference to the way Uber notifications appear. It’s not entirely clear when support will officially be out, though whenever it is, users can expect to see support for Waymo too.
