This new Android feature is amazing, but I’m scared for its future

It’s been months since Android 16 made it to the public with a bunch of new features in tow, and the one that I keep coming back to is Live Updates. Each time one of these priority notifications pops up on my screen, I’m happy to see it because it’s exactly the kind of smart and contextual information I need my “smart” phone to provide in that moment. I don’t want my transit directions or Uber progress to get lost among a dozen other notifications, but to surface on top.

Despite how delightful and useful Live Updates are, very few apps are using them. Even Google hasn’t made the most of these excellent notifications in its apps, which is such a shame. Let me explain to you why Live Updates are so cool and why I’m worried that no one is adopting them yet.

If you’ve used Google Maps in the past few months on Android 16, you’ve probably noticed the bubble or chip in the status bar that tells you at a glance what your next direction is. Whether it’s walking, driving, or taking public transit, you don’t need to do anything besides look at your screen, no matter which app you’re in (or not), to see what’s coming up. I love this.

I ride the Parisian public transport very frequently and use walking directions quite often, too. I used to go in and out of Maps all the time to check the status of my trip. Now, having these crucial notifications right there at all times has become crucial. I can keep browsing or watching videos in the subway without missing my stop and without having to stare like a hawk at Google Maps at all times. And when I need more info, I just tap the bubble and get a more detailed progress bar. It looks good, it works great, and it’s genuinely useful. What else could you ask for?

When driving, the pop-up adds detailed traffic information. I used this for a few weeks over the holidays while in the passenger seat, and I was able to keep my husband updated on the traffic’s progress without leaving Spotify or Chrome or whatever else I was doing on my phone. Neat.

But perhaps my favorite aspect of Live Updates is that they carry across the entire Android interface. They show up in the notification drop-down on top of everything else, taking priority over less important alerts. They’re there on the lock screen as well, with the same importance as the ongoing music notification. And, surprisingly, they pop up on the always-on display.

This is, by far, my favorite aspect of these higher-priority notifications. The fact that I can still see them when my phone is locked with the display turned off is a huge time and sanity saver. I don’t need to unlock to know what I should do next; I just glance and go. Perfect when I’m walking in the busy center of Paris, and I don’t want to get distracted and get swept away by a speeding cyclist or a car.

The worst part about Live Updates is the lack of developer adoption. Uber supports them; I managed to get an ongoing notification from the app for my trip when I rode to the airport for Christmas. Lyft, plus a handful of food delivery apps, has them as well. And, well, that’s it when it comes to big app names.

Google Wallet supposedly supports Live Updates for flights, train rides, and other events, but I’ve personally never gotten a single priority notification to pop up from the app, despite traveling a few times since then and having a multitude of events in my Wallet app. Oh well.

I’ve been waiting for third-party developers to implement these Live Updates in sports apps, music playback apps, timers, task managers, and other productivity tools, but I haven’t seen any positive signs so far. The few apps I found with Live Updates support are the flight-tracking app byAir, the torrent downloader Flud, and two open source apps: music notification manager LiveMedia, and APK installer InstallerX – revived.

Sadly, that’s more or less it. The maddening part is that most of Google’s own apps haven’t adopted this. The Clock app doesn’t show Live Updates for an ongoing stopwatch, Google Home doesn’t pop them up for ongoing timers on a Nest speaker, the Google app doesn’t use them for sports scores (opting instead for the very clunky floating bubble), and the Play Store doesn’t display an app’s download progress with them. It’s an excellent new capability in Android and, instead of Google showing the way and adopting it in all the apps where it can be useful and groundbreakingly handy, it’s twiddling its thumbs and waiting for developers to do the heavy lifting.

I’m scared for Live Updates’ future. How many times have we seen cool new Android APIs pop up, then dwindle into oblivion because Google didn’t show the way, and very few apps ended up using them? I hope that’s not the future of Live Updates. They deserve more love, more support, and please, Google, just get your various app teams to adopt them!