Good Job, Samsung! Now Brief Is Actually Useful a Year Later

When Now Brief first launched with the Galaxy S25 series, it wasn’t very feature-rich and only highlighted a small amount of information. Over the past year, with two One UI revisions, it’s improved significantly.

See more without even opening Now Brief

You don’t even have to open the Now Brief interface to see dynamic information at a glance. Two new widget sizes are now available, showing a small subtitle and even an image.

I missed this – Now Brief now has a 2×4 widget size. Here’s how it looks.

Personal Data Intelligence version is 7.2.10.15 pic.twitter.com/MvUxXstFnM

— That Josh Guy (@thatjoshguy69) January 20, 2026

Small snippets also appear directly on your lock screen, so you can just glance to get what you need.

Now Brief showing more contextual info on lock screen. Nice pic.twitter.com/GQxFvMexCu

— That Josh Guy (@thatjoshguy69) December 3, 2025

Open the Now Brief interface and you’ll find plenty of new cards that appear when the time is right. Here are a few examples:

Never forget where you parked

When you park your car up, Now Brief will save that and show you a little reminder, so you’ll never get lost in the parking lot again. Quite helpful, I must say. Not so much, if you want to max your daily steps.

Parking spot in now brief is pretty good! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/doCSZLQJO1

— Maaz Perwez (@MaazMz) December 12, 2025

Grab those freebies

The Now Brief also shows you vouchers stored within Samsung Wallet. They’re always offering freebies, like free coffee or sausage rolls, depending on where you live. They appear in your daily briefing so you don’t forget.

Play with selfies in Nano Banana

If you took any selfies recently, you can give them to Nano Banana to make some whacky styles. You can make yourself a mini figure! We saw this quietly appear before, but haven’t seen it in action until recently. 

Get YouTube and Spotify suggestions

You can also get suggestions on new YouTube videos to watch, or Spotify playlists. While this has been a Now Brief feature for a while, suggestions are now dynamic, based on your previous history. So your favurite content creators and playlists you play on repeat will appear front and centre. 

This ain’t new, but it actually pulls from my Spotify listening history 🥰 pic.twitter.com/T0rqNSZ01j

— That Josh Guy (@thatjoshguy69) January 22, 2026

How bright was your sleep environment last night?

My favorite Now Brief feature is Sleep Environment reports. Launched early last year, this feature use devices linked to SmartThings to show you how bright your room was when you was asleep. You can use a dedicated light sensor, or most Samsung TVs and Smart Monitors. 

I could go on about the small additions Now Brief has gained recently, but you get the picture. In a few words, I must say that it’s no longer just a shortcut for checking the weather. It’s grown into a feature-rich hub across your Galaxy ecosystem, and all I can hope is Samsung keeps adding new stuff but to a point where it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

If you plan to buy the Galaxy S26 series, our Mystery Box program is now live. You can sign up here to receive free accessories during pre-orders, including a 65W GaN charger, protective case, and more. (US only)