The Now Bar is one of the best new features Galaxy smartphones will get with the Android 15/One UI 7.0 update. Now Bar displays colorful live notifications for ongoing activities, such as music or video playback, navigation, and an active timer, on the lock screen and the notification shade.

We called it a bold philosophy that ushers a new era for One UI when the first One UI 7 beta update was released for the Galaxy S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra, but it seems we will have to withdraw that compliment for the time being.

We say that because with the third One UI 7 beta update for the Galaxy S24 lineup, Samsung has downgraded the Now Bar's functionality. Before this update, the Now Bar supported live notifications for the Clock app, emergency sharing, Interpreter, Bixby, Maps, Samsung Health, Samsung Notes, and Voice Recorder. Now, it only supports the first three.

Here's the Now Bar menu from the first two One UI 7 betas (left) alongside the Now Bar menu from the third beta:

A moderator on the Samsung US community forums offered an explanation for this downgrade: Samsung removed the options “as an intentional refinement” and is planning to bring them back with the official/stable version of One UI 7 after making some improvements.

Samsung is essentially still making tweaks to Now Bar, suggesting that there's still some work to be done and the One UI 7 beta program for the Galaxy S24 lineup may go on a little longer. Our first look at the finished version of the feature will likely come with the Galaxy S25 series, which is set to be unveiled on January 22.

The post Samsung’s awesome Now Bar feature downgraded in latest One UI 7 beta, here’s why appeared first on SamMobile.