- Google Maps has become the first app that supports live updates in the latest Android 16 Beta
- The new message style allows some information to continue on the lock screen and status bar
- Android 16 is expected to release some time between April and June 2025
Although many of the best Android phones recently received support for Android 15, Beta versions of Android 16 are already available to Google Pixel users, bringing key upgrades to the operating system as well as to Google’s Suite with standard apps.
One of the most expected upgrades coming with Android 16 is live updates, a new message feature that allows messages to show much more information as well as persist on the lock screen. A comparable feature, called Live activities, rolled out to iOS devices last year.
It turns out that Google Maps is the first app to support this new feature with Android 16 that adds the opportunity to see directions, time until your next turn and your estimated arrival time in a live update message.
This new live update is visible on the lock screen, and an estimated arrival time persists in the status bar when the phone is unlocked, but as Android Authority notes, the new review style is currently collapsing on the always-on-screen.
In a prior building of Android 16, live updates were available on the always-on-screen as a contour, so Google is likely to activate this again in the stable release or later betas.
Live updates were technically introduced with the first beta of Android 16 back in January 2025, but as mentioned, no apps have supported them so far.
The Android 16 rolls out at a faster pace than usual, and we have heard in the past that the next Mainline update to Google’s mobile operating system arrives faster than usual in the second quarter of 2025 – it is somewhere between April and June.
The update should bring live updates to a wide selection of the best Google Pixel phones as well as Android phones from other brands such as Samsung and OnePlus. Of course, there is a lot more on the way than a new message style – others expected picked up Android 16 features include new camera tools and better app that changes size to folding phones.
We have the latest through our dedicated Android coverage, but now let us know what you would like to see from Google’s next mobile operating system in the comments below.
