Live Activities have become one of my favorite iPhone features, and they recently got even better thanks to upgrades and expansions in iOS 26. Here’s everything new.
Expand Expanding Close
Apple is bringing Live Activities to the Mac this fall as part of macOS Tahoe 26, and here’s a helpful compatibility tidbit: your iPhone doesn’t need to be running iOS 26 to make it work.
Expand Expanding Close
One of Apple’s most delightful software additions in recent years has been Live Activities, the iPhone feature that’s only gotten better over time. In macOS Tahoe and iPadOS 26, Live Activities are coming to the Mac and iPad too, but each in a very different way. Here’s how they’ll work.
Expand Expanding Close
Apple Sports was launched earlier this year as a dedicated app for iPhone users to track sports. It’s received regular updates all year, and today there’s a new version available that adds four key new features.
Expand Expanding Close
Live Activities are having a moment. Yesterday Apple rolled out a popular Live Activity for tracking election results via Apple News. Now, a new Safari Live Activity has been discovered in the latest iOS 18.2 beta for tracking a file’s download progress.
Expand Expanding Close
iOS 18 means we’ve had 18 years of iPhone software, so you’d think that adding meaningful new features would be tough. But one recent iOS addition, Live Activities, is among Apple’s best recent updates. And it keeps on getting better thanks to ongoing enhancements.
Expand Expanding Close
According to feedback that a developer received from Apple, Live Activities won’t be able to update as often as they were able to in iOS 17 and prior. While this won’t affect most apps, it’s still a change worth talking about.
Expand Expanding Close
Today the Shazam app has been updated to version 17.11, which adds support for Live Activities on all compatible iPhone models.
If you own an iPhone 15 or 15 Pro model, or an iPhone 14 Pro, you’ll now be able to keep Shazam’s music detection running in the background via the Dynamic Island while doing other things on your device.
Expand Expanding Close
When Apple unveiled the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022, the company showed off a Starbucks order in progress as one concept for Live Activities and the always-on display. Fast-forward to today and the Live Activities feature for Starbucks is finally available for everyone.
Expand Expanding Close
Evie is a new third-party app to offer a better experience controlling your Tesla from iPhone (and Apple Watch too). One of the notable features is Live Activities support to see your vehicle’s charge status on your iPhone’s Lock or Home Screen.
Expand Expanding Close
Withings has joined the growing club of iPhone apps that support iOS 16’s Live Activities feature. The feature puts a persistent status update on the Lock Screen of all iPhones running iOS 16. iPhone 14 Pro support goes further with the always-on display and Dynamic Island.
Expand Expanding Close
Uber Eats customers will soon be able to track food deliveries on iPhone without launching the app or being bothered with notifications. Live Activity support already launched for Uber’s ride-sharing app, but Uber Eats has only tested support in limited markets.
Expand Expanding Close
Just a week after the NCAA March Madness app was updated with support for iOS 16 Live Activities, the NBA app has followed suit. The handy feature arrives as the regular season comes to a close on April 9 and the NBA playoffs kick off on April 11.
Expand Expanding Close
Ahead of March Madness kicking off in just a few days are a handful of features coming to the NCAA’s March Madness iPhone app. Most notably, the NCAA March Madness Live app will support Apple’s new Live Activities feature this year…
Expand Expanding Close
Uber launched a significant redesign of its iPhone app today, including bringing Live Activity and Dynamic Island integration to everyone. Unfortunately, it looks like Uber Eats customers will have to wait until later this year for these features to roll out to everyone…
Expand Expanding Close