The Now Bar has been around since One UI 7, when it launched with the Galaxy S25 series. Without support for third-party apps, Samsung’s Now Bar has felt like an underbaked lock screen function. According to Samsung, that’s set to change soon.
During Samsung’s Unpacked event, the company announced several new devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Flip 7, and Watch 8 series. Each and every one of these runs some form of One UI 8, and with it, a new iteration of the Now Bar that can work with third-party apps.
For the unfamiliar, the Now Bar can best be described as a standalone AI widget that aggregates relevant data for the user. That includes live sports scores, currently playing media, and more. The compatible apps have been limited to Samsung’s own programs since launch, excluding a couple of Google products.
Samsung notes that the Now Bar is “now integrated with more third-party apps.” That’s a vague announcement, but it’s an important one. Users have been advocating for more integrations with the Now Bar. As it stands, there are a limited number of items it can display, and the result is taken up lock screen real estate with little function.
We’ve detailed how Samsung’s Now Bar has the potential to be an incredibly useful feature with more apps, especially as Galaxy AI gets better at offering natural information pertinent to the user’s day or location. For the feature to become as useful as advertised, it would need support from third-party apps. Being able to see live delivery stats, your preferred weather app’s forecast, or boarding passes from airline apps would make a huge difference in utility.
Samsung also made note that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE and Flip 7‘s cover screen will work with more apps, and not proprietary widgets, as was the case before. We’ve seen what this means with phones like the Motorola Razr Ultra, and it makes a world of difference for foldable. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Flip 7 FE, presumably, will be able to use the cover screen like an extension of the internal display, not just as a party trick.
Both sets of integrations will make room for Samsung’s foldables to become more useful than before. The idea of an ecosystem built on unified proprietary apps might be nice, but third-party apps make up Android. Hopefully, the company will share more details on this soon. In the meantime, it has only mentioned that Now Bar will also start to leverage info from more Samsung and Google apps.
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