One UI 8 Enhances Now Bar with More Third-Party App Integration

Alongside the seventh-generation foldables, Samsung’s Unpacked event on Wednesday also marked the debut of its Android 16-based One UI 8. The new software brings a key improvement to the existing Now Bar feature for an enhanced lock screen experience. It now supports third-party apps in addition to Samsung apps and a few Google ones.

Samsung confirms Now Bar will support more third-party apps in One UI 8

One UI 7 brought a major overhaul across the system with a bunch of new features. As a result, Samsung has introduced One UI 8 as a refined update rather than making drastic changes to the user interface. One key feature that many users praised, called Now Bar, has now gained support for third-party apps. Samsung says that the Now Bar is “now integrated with more third-party apps.”

Introduced with One UI 7, Now Bar is a pill-shaped UI element that provides updates for ongoing activities — such as music playback, sports scores, and timers — right from the lock screen. The same activities also appear in the status bar and at the top of notifications. However, it only supports Samsung’s own apps and a few Google apps, which limits its usefulness.

Thankfully, One UI 8 breaks that limitation and allows you to enable several third-party apps for the Now Bar. However, it’s still unclear exactly which third-party apps will gain support for the widget. Samsung has yet to publish a full list of compatible third-party apps.

That said, this announcement comes as no surprise, as Samsung previously hinted at third-party app support in One UI 8 Beta 3. If your Galaxy device is running that version, you will see a new toggle called “Live Notifications for all apps” under Developer Options. And now, with the final stable release, Samsung has probably turned on this feature for everyone.

Basically, Android 16’s new “Live Updates” API has allowed the Korean firm to enhance its Live Notifications feature. As for when you will receive stable One UI 8 on your device, Samsung is expected to begin the rollout next month, starting with its flagship Galaxy S25 series. We will keep you updated once the rollout begins.