UPDATE 4/9/25 at 5:42 PM EST – The S24 Ultra running One UI 7.0 Beta 6 also has Youtube Live notifications now. This version works just as on the Z Fold SE. PiP now appears to work perfectly while displaying the live notification as well. It appears the Galaxy S25 Ultra implementation is more limited for now, but that should change soon with the April update. The original story follows.
Samsung appears to be quietly rolling out a new YouTube control interface on the Galaxy S25 Ultra through the latest Google Play services update. The update adds a NowBar-style media widget for YouTube on the lock screen and Always On Display (AOD). That shows what’s currently playing without requiring users to unlock the phone.
YouTube controls hit Galaxy S25 Ultra’s Now Bar, but not perfectly
The new layout looks polished and functional, but there are inconsistencies in how it works across Samsung devices. For instance, unlike the Galaxy Z Fold SE running the stable version of One UI 7, the Galaxy S25 Ultra does not show the live control notification when a YouTube video is minimized. This means you won’t see the interactive playback controls in the notification shade.
Despite this, Picture-in-Picture (PiP) still works on the S25 Ultra, though not very reliably. We experienced several instances of PiP failing to open while Youtube was active on the Now Bar. The PiP feature seems entirely removed on the Z Fold SE due to the live notifications chip. On the S25 Ultra, the media playback controls still appear in the Quick Settings panel for now. The dual behavior suggests Samsung may still be testing how these features interact, or possibly planning a unified experience in a future update.
The uneven implementation suggests an internal experimentation with Youtube on the Now Bar and in live notifications. Samsung hasn’t made any official announcement about this new YouTube integration. But the early rollout on the Galaxy S25 Ultra indicates that more Galaxy phones could see it soon, possibly as part of future Play services updates or One UI 7.0 stable. It will be interesting to see if Samsung sticks with the Youtube implementation on the Z Fold SE or this slightly different variant on the Galaxy S25 series.
For now, Galaxy S25 users get a sleek new way to glance at what’s playing on YouTube from their lock screen, but they won’t get full playback controls unless the video is active in-app or floating via PiP.
