Live Activities and Live Updates on iOS and Android

Users increasingly expect real time status updates without needing to open an app or deal with noisy notifications. Apple addressed this with Live Activities, and Android 16 introduces Live Updates with a similar goal.

In this talk, we compare Live Activities on iOS and Live Updates on Android from a practical, cross platform perspective. We focus on the user experience they enable, how their lifecycles differ, and what it actually takes to deliver a consistent real time experience across both platforms.

You will leave with guidance on when these features are worth adopting, where platform parity breaks down, and how to design product and backend flows that work well for both iOS and Android in 2026.