Apple introduced Dynamic Island over two years ago, and since then it has become an important part of the design of all iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 models. However, Samsung has just got on this train, which is a similar concept that we currently find on the Galaxy S25 series.
But how do the two compare? That’s what I want to know when I look into the full functionality of these versatile features. Each version of this multi-up widget from Apple and Samsung does a lot of the same thing, but I’ve identified some important differences that I’ve read all about below.
How well a dynamic island works against the current bar is unlikely to change your mind about which one is the best phone for you. But seeing different implementations of the same basic idea is all equally beneficial. So let’s get to that.
What do they look like?
Both Apple and Samsung use pill-shaped bubbles to hold their respective widgets. Both also have the option to expand to show more information or controls with longer taps. Samsung’s Now Bar is bigger by default, but can only be found on the lock screen or notification shade. Apple’s dynamic island is always visible around the camera crop at the top of the iPhone’s display, with live activity displayed in detail on the lock screen. If it is always enabled, you can see both the current bar and live activity on the display that is always on, but limit the visible information when the phone is locked.
The ever-present nature of dynamic islands means you can be distracted, but you can swipe over a swipe to fire or resume widgets on demand. The left or right swipe of the Now bar does nothing on the lock screen (other than shaking), but doing that with the notification shade removes the widget completely. If you want to get the bar back, you will need to resume the app and close it again.
In Samsung, Now Bars can stack multiple widgets on each other, making it easy to switch between active widgets on the lock screen. Dynamic islands are much more restricted, with only one full-size widget, and the options show the widgets minimized at a time. Both display all active activities in the notification window.
What can they do?
Functionally, there is ample overlap between the current bar and live activity and the dynamic island. However, there are still some interesting differences.
One can turn off or turn on the bar now for each compatible app or completely disable it in the Settings app. The dynamic island is burned into the core of iOS and cannot be switched off.
Live activities can be blocked from appearing on the iPhone lock screen, but that’s as long as it goes.
Current bar compatible apps are similar when it comes to built-in apps. View active matches scores for selected sports or teams, and view clock functions such as future navigation instructions, ongoing audio recordings, and timers and stop clocks.
However, Now Bar is newer and does not support third-party apps at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Apple’s live activities are used for a variety of apps, including streaming, ride service, and task management apps.
One slightly confusing part of Now Bar is that it allows you to showcase the music and videos currently playing on the lock screen, but not appearing in notification shades. This is probably because the main media player is just swiping in the Quick Settings menu, but Apple doesn’t mind double the media controls on Dynamic Island, even if the Control Center is open.
Which is better?
If you’re picking the winner, it must be a live activity pairing with the iPhone’s dynamic island for me. It simply does more, but much of it is due to the value of it being two years older than the brand new Now Bar.
Now Bar is extremely refined for its newly debuted features, with some of its elements, including the option to easily shuffle multiple widgets and its granular app settings, and some of its elements are the winner in the long run. It may be. But for now, we need a more supported app to unlock that possibility.
Both of these functions allow you to learn one or two things from each other. That’s certainly true. So, when Apple introduces iOS 19 this summer and Samsung One UI 8 at the end of the year, we hope there will be a convergence between Dynamic Island/Live Activity and Now Bar. And all other Android brands inspired by the dynamic island can also take notes.
