Samsung‘s Android 15-based One UI 7.0 brought many new features. One of them was Now Bar, a carousel of cards that can show status and controls of ongoing activities on your lock screen, allowing you to control them without unlocking the device. The only drawback of the feature is that very few apps, mostly Samsung’s first party ones, support it, as it is not a native Android feature. Well, that’s going to change soon.

In the ‘Device Experience Guide‘ for the Galaxy Z Flip 7, Samsung points out that, currently, 20 apps support Now bar, and by the end of 2025, that number will go up to 35 (via Android Authority). In other words, 15 more apps will support Now Bar by the end of this year, showing you critical information and controls right on the lock screen. Unfortunately, Samsung hasn’t revealed the names of those fifteen apps.

Android 16 features a standardised API that lets applications show live progress of an activity continuously in the status bar and on the lock screen. Since this is a native Android feature, the chances are that many apps will support it. Currently, One UI 8 doesn’t utilise this API but if Samsung enables it in the future, it could show live progress of an activity from many apps in the status bar and the lock screen.

On a related note, Samsung’s Android 16-based One UI 8.0 brings an upgraded Now Bar. It acts the same way on the cover screen of Galaxy Z Flip devices (shows all the information and also lets you interact with it) as it does on their main displays. That wasn’t the case earlier. In Android 15-based One UI 7.0, when you tried to interact with Now Bar from the cover display, it used to bring up the app’s widget or take you to the app.