Aviate, a flight live-tracking app for Android, has been approved for Samsung’s Now Bar and should appear in Now Bar settings on compatible Galaxy devices by the end of this month, the developer announced on X today.
Now Bar compatibility and Live Updates
Samsung introduced Now Bar on Galaxy phones and tablets with One UI 7.0 and expanded compatibility with supported third-party apps in One UI 8.0. The collection of Now Bar–compatible apps remains limited. It is unclear whether Aviate’s Now Bar integration will be exclusive to One UI 8.0 (Android 16) and newer or whether it will also extend to One UI 7.0, which does not use Android’s standardized Live Updates APIs. The report notes a hope that more third-party apps adopt Live Updates, which automatically brings Now Bar compatibility on devices running One UI 8.0 or newer.
Aviate’s features and Android fit
Aviate is described as a modern flight-tracking app that uses Material You design and offers home screen widgets and a companion Wear OS app for Galaxy Watches. The app provides digital boarding passes with Aztec and QR codes, terminal maps, gate predictions, lounge and restaurant guides, and secure storage for travel documents. It also lets users manage parking details, create packing checklists, and track personal flight metrics such as total flights, air hours, countries visited, and top airlines. Aviate can generate custom jet lag recovery plans after long flights.
The article contrasts the relatively small number of polished flight- and travel-related apps on Android with the wider selection available on iPhone, citing Flighty as an example of a well-designed iPhone flight-tracking app. It adds that apps for tracking sports scores, cab/flight/train journeys, workouts, food or parcel delivery, and timers or other utilities would be natural fits for Now Bar and Live Updates support.
