Uber Rides Now Easier to Track on iPhone's Lock Screen and Dynamic Island as Live Activities Expands Worldwide

Uber today announced it is updating its iPhone app with Live Activities support in over 1,200 cities around the world following several months of testing. The new version of the app will be available on the App Store starting this morning.

Uber iPhone Activities Support Feature
Live Activities is an iOS 16 feature that allows iPhone users to stay on top of real-time events right on the Lock Screen on all iPhones and in the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The feature will make it easier for iPhone users to track the live progress of an Uber ride at a glance without opening the app, including the latest ETA, the trip status, and the vehicle's description and license plate number.

Apple announced that Uber would support Live Activities back at WWDC 2022, and the feature has been in testing in select countries since late last year. With the latest update to the Uber app, the feature is available around the world.

Live Activities will also be supported by the Uber Eats app for food deliveries "in the coming months," according to a company spokesperson.

Other popular third-party apps that support Live Activities include Flighty for flight tracking, Citymapper for public transit, ParkMobile for parking, CARROT Weather for weather forecasts, and soon Google Maps for turn-by-turn navigation.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Top Rated Comments

JoshNori Avatar
15 months ago

WTF just now? Apple demoed the Live Activities feature on-stage last June with Uber.
I’ve made this exact point several times. They are so slow to the punch, it’s completely unreasonable. The software developers there are hot messes, and they release UI updates far too frequently. They manage to be both neurotic AND slow. And Lyft just sits there like a complete bump on a log. Again, these are the same companies who launched entire classes of competitive categories in the span of a year. Now they’re both operating like fat cats: completely stagnant and slowly declining… just like their share values. No seriously… what do they do all day besides coming up with some fictitious prototype once every 5 years that never sees the light of day? Third party companies are doing all the work in the autonomous driving. They’re both entrenched and pathetic monopoly market companies who need to go.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gklka Avatar
15 months ago
WTF just now? Apple demoed the Live Activities feature on-stage last June with Uber.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
phenste Avatar
15 months ago

I’ve made this exact point several times. They are so slow to the punch, it’s completely unreasonable. The software developers there are hot messes, and they release UI updates far too frequently. They manage to be both neurotic AND slow. And Lyft just sits there like a complete bump on a log. Again, these are the same companies who launched entire classes of competitive categories in the span of a year. Now they’re both operating like fat cats: completely stagnant and slowly declining… just like their share values. No seriously… what do they do all day besides coming up with some fictitious prototype once every 5 years that never sees the light of day? Third party companies are doing all the work in the autonomous driving. They’re both entrenched and pathetic monopoly market companies who need to go.
I would love to see more competition in the space. Uber is a hot mess with maps worse than Apple Maps (even if I use it, it's…just not easy to help others get around) and they screw drivers over big time in terms of $$$ while doing basically nothing on the backend. for what? these are people (the drivers) that I rely on to get almost everywhere I need to go since I cannot drive myself. they deserve better.

can't speak on Lyft. barely ever touched it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gklka Avatar
15 months ago

That was probably just a mock-up for the video.
Probably, but developing the real thing should not take more than a week. I did similar. Also they had a lot of time, because 16.0 initially did not support it, just 16.1 or .2 as I remember.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
deeddawg Avatar
15 months ago
F Uber.

Incessant promotional popups with no apparent way to turn those off without turning off all notifications from the app.

Also, a couple months ago I had my first business trip since start of COVID and used them to get back to the airport. After getting home I get an alert the driver upgraded the vehicle type and charged an extra $75 for the trip. Finally got the charge reversed.

Deleted the app and won't reinstall unless Lyft can't do something I need.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacFan23 Avatar
15 months ago

A lot of Apple’s ‘gimmicks’ are falling flat these days. I hope this one proves useful. On my recent holiday, I saw Live Activities but just kept the app screen open until the driver got around. Too many gimmicks to keep tabs on.
This is one feature I hope to see every time I use an app which involves a wait, food and grocery delivery, ride shares, anything where I need to constantly be opening the app.

Combined with the always on display and the dynamic island it seems pretty useful to me.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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