Samsung has been nailing the software experience since it debuted One UI in 2018. But I felt that the interface got a bit boring with recent updates. It was the same story when One UI 7 leaks began to surface. Changes, like the new icons and quick settings, piqued my interest, but nothing out of the norm. That is until I flashed the latest beta on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. I was left in awe of what Samsung has cooked up, particularly with the new Now bar on One UI 7. After using the beta for the past few days, I keep going back to this feature, and I guess I know why.
Samsung Has Set a New “Bar”
The Now bar on One UI 7 is Samsung’s fresh new take on Apple’s Dynamic Island for showing ongoing activities. The aptly named pill-shaped bar works similarly but is a complete departure in terms of aesthetics and accessibility. You can only spot the Now bar on the lockscreen, sitting comfortably between the two shortcuts at the bottom.
Even then, it isn’t always present. It shows up when playing music, background YouTube videos, timers, stopwatches, voice recording, or doing all of it at once. But what if you want to do all of it at once? Well, Samsung has you covered as the bar will stack activities and you can swipe up and down to switch between them.
It also features a couple of controls to play, skip forward, pause, or stop the activity altogether. But you can tap on it to jump to an expanded view for more details. In the case of music playback, expanding the Now bar brings up the album cover which covers almost all of the lockscreen. And before it crosses your mind, I know it looks similar to iOS. But that’s as far as the similarity goes.
I thought that was about it, until I put the phone on charge. That’s when I was greeted by a sleek new charging animation on the Now bar. It shows up as soon as you plug in the cable, or place the phone on a wireless charger, replacing the old circular animation. Oh, but it looks way sweeter, with the progress bar showing you how much your device is juiced up in a glimpse.
Not Just an Apple Copy
When the images of the Now bar showed up online alongside other One UI 7 features, many started drawing parallels to Apple’s Dynamic Island pill. Now I have seen my fair share of manufacturers straight up copying Apple’s homework and even Samsung has been at fault for the same. But the Now bar doesn’t fit in that category.
Rather than keeping everything at the top, making it difficult to access them with the ever-increasing size of phones, Samsung made a clever decision to place it at the bottom. You don’t need to make that uncomfortable journey all the way to the top of the phone like you would to bring up the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. Instead, the Now Bar is easily accessible from the bottom where your fingers naturally rest, perfect for one hand usage.
So I don’t have to pull off any gymnastics with my hand to reach the top of Samsung’s behemoth S24 Ultra. Heck, I willingly skipped to the lockscreen to manage music using the Now bar. It also layers activities, allowing me to focus on multiple tasks at once. I know Apple lets you do something similar, however, unlike iPhones, there is no large camera cutout blocking the view.
Think of All the Possibilities
I know I have swooned quite a lot over this new feature, but it can only do so much. Currently, it only works with a timer, stopwatch, voice recording, and music playback. Now I don’t consider myself an athlete, nor a creep so the only time I found this thing handy was when I was listening to music or podcasts. But it doesn’t take rocket scientists to see other ways to reap its benefits.
I can see it showing up for ongoing calls, download or upload progress, snooze alarms, delivery progress, screen recording, Google Maps, quick replies and even turning off the torch. Samsung could allow us to set a custom action or app to it so we can quickly jump into it right from the lockscreen itself.
These are just a few examples. My colleague Abubakar shared with me a Reddit thread showing a concept of other things that could be possible with the Now Bar.
I know this is the first beta, so by the time a stable version comes out, we could see the Now bar getting more fleshed out. Samsung has caught a genie in a bottle with this feature, and the more I look into it, the more I feel that they can create something truly unique to their UI skin if they invest time and effort instead of abandoning it.
What do you think about Samsung’s newest approach for One UI 7? Do think the Now Bar would be helpful for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
