What are Live Activities? A marketer's guide 

There's a category of customer moments that's always been hard to serve well. Not a one-time alert. Not a campaign. Something in between. An event that's actively unfolding, where your customer wants to stay informed without having to keep opening your app. A delivery en route, a flight about to board, or a game in the final quarter.

Live Activities were built for exactly that.

• Live Activities (iOS) and Live Updates (Android) show real-time, continuously updating information on a customer's lock screen without them opening your app. In Customer.io, you will see these terms referred to as Live Notifications.
• They're built for ongoing events with a clear end, like a delivery in progress, a live score, or a flight about to board, rather than one-time promotional sends.
• Apple's Live Activities and Android's Live Updates are separate implementations built on different frameworks, so the terms aren't interchangeable.
• Your developers build the on-device design, and a customer engagement platform like Customer.io handles when the activity starts, updates, and ends, who receives it, and how it performs.

A Live Activity is a notification that stays visible on a customer's device and updates in real time without them having to open your app or even unlock their phone. It stays on the lock screen for the duration of an event, reflecting the current state as it changes.

The job is different from a push notification. A push is designed to deliver a message at a specific moment. A Live Activity is designed to reflect an ongoing situation or something your customer is actively tracking. It works less like a tap on the shoulder and more like a scoreboard that stays on the wall for as long as the game is running. Common examples include food delivery progress trackers, live game scores, or your upcoming flight boarding.

Live Activities (iOS) and Live Updates (Android) work best when there's an active event with a clear end, something your customer cares about tracking more than once. A few patterns that show up most often:

Countdowns and timers. Something is ending soon, and the customer is watching the clock; an auction about to close, a parking meter running out, a limited-time offer expiring.

Step-by-step progress. A multi-stage process with a visible current state, an order moving from confirmed to prepared to out for delivery.

Live scores and stats. A number that updates continuously as events happen, like a sports score, a bid amount, a live ranking.

Real-time location and arrival. Something or someone is moving toward the customer, a driver, a delivery, a departing flight, and the ETA is updating as it goes.

The short answer: on the surfaces people look at most when they're not actively using their phone.

The lock screen is the primary home for a Live Activity. It appears as a card that stays there and updates in place so your customer can glance at it any time without unlocking their phone. Both iOS and Android support this.

On newer iPhones (iPhone 14 Pro and later), Live Notifications also appear in the Dynamic Island—the pill-shaped area at the top of the screen. It shows a compact summary by default and expands when tapped. Android 16 introduced something similar called a status-bar chip that works the same way.

When a phone is charging or resting face-up, Live Notifications stay visible there too—on iOS via a feature called StandBy, and on Android via Always-On Display (Android 16+). On Android, Live Updates also appear in the notification shade. These real-time updates automatically extend to tablets and foldables on both platforms, too.

On Apple Watch, iOS Live Activities surface automatically in something called the Smart Stack, which is a meaningful built-in advantage for iOS. Android watches don't currently get this. Similarly, CarPlay supports iOS Live Activities, while Android Auto doesn't yet support Live Updates in the same way.

Live Activities and Live Updates earn their place when something is actively happening that a customer wants to follow. Here are the ones that work well today:

Delivery tracking: A card showing the driver's location and when they'll arrive, updating as they move. Customers stay informed throughout the delivery window without having to open the app to check.

Live scores: The score, the clock, and the current state of the game are visible on the lock screen and updating in real time throughout the event.

Flight status: Gate changes, departure times, boarding status, the information travelers are constantly checking, surfaced automatically so they don't have to.

Auction bids: The current bid and time remaining, updating live as bids come in. For time-sensitive auctions, this keeps customers in the moment without requiring them to stay in the app.

The visual design of a Live Activity (what it looks like on the device) is something your development team builds. That's true regardless of which messaging platform you use; it's just how the technology works on both iOS and Android.

A messaging platform like Customer.io handles everything around delivery: when the Live Activity starts, how it updates, when it ends, who it goes to, and how it performs. Think of it as a collaboration. You and your dev team define the experience, and the platform handles the infrastructure.

If you want to get this moving, the best first step is a conversation with your developers about a specific use case. Come in with the what: what event triggers it, what information it needs to show, when it wraps up, and the technical conversation gets much easier from there.

Customer.io supports Live Activities natively on iOS, with the delivery infrastructure, lifecycle management, and analytics built in. Learn more here.

Live Activities (iOS) and Live Updates (Android) open up a category of customer experience that was difficult to deliver before—the ongoing moment, the thing that's actively unfolding, the update your customer wants without having to ask for it. As customers expect more from mobile experiences, this format is becoming a standard part of the toolkit. The teams investing in it now will be ahead when that shift is complete.

Does Customer.io (http://Customer.io) support Live Activities?

Yes. Customer.io (http://Customer.io) supports Live Activities natively on iOS, including the delivery infrastructure, lifecycle management, and analytics. Your developers build the on-device design, and Customer.io (http://Customer.io) handles triggering, updates, ending, targeting, and reporting.

What are Live Activities on iPhone?

Live Activities are a feature on iOS that lets apps display real-time, continuously updating information directly on the lock screen and Dynamic Island—without requiring the user to open the app. They're designed for ongoing events like deliveries, live scores, and flight status, where a single push notification isn't enough.

What is the difference between Live Activities and push notifications?

A push notification delivers a single message at a moment in time and then disappears. A Live Activity stays visible on the lock screen for the duration of an event and updates in place as the situation changes—no additional notifications required.

What is the difference between Apple Live Activities and Android Live Updates?

Apple's Live Activities and Android's Live Updates are similar concepts but different implementations. They're built on different frameworks, support different surfaces, and the terms aren't interchangeable. Apple's version is more mature today—it automatically reaches Apple Watch and CarPlay, for example—while Android's is expanding quickly, particularly with Android 16.

Which apps use Live Activities?

Live Activities are most commonly used by delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats, ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, sports apps, and airline apps. Any app that needs to surface a continuously updating status—an ETA, a score, a countdown—is a natural fit.

Do Live Activities require user permission?

Live Activities don't require the same opt-in permission prompt as push notifications. A user does need to have notifications enabled for your app, but there's no separate Live Activities permission request, which lowers the barrier to reaching customers on the lock screen.

How long do Live Activities last?

Live Activities end when the event they're tracking is complete—when the delivery arrives, the game ends, or the auction closes. They can also be ended programmatically by the app. Apple sets a maximum duration, after which a Live Activity will automatically dismiss if it hasn't ended already.

Can Live Activities be used for marketing promotions?

Live Activities are designed for ongoing, time-sensitive events rather than promotional messages. They work best when there's real data to display and update — a timer, a location, a status — rather than static marketing copy. Using them for pure promotions without a genuine live event to track would feel out of place for most users.