Samsung S25 Now Brief & Now Bar: Personalized Updates on Your Lock Screen

This new feature "Now Brief" and "Now Bar" is a standard inclusion across the Galaxy S25 series

Image: Samsung

The buzz from Galaxy Unpacked 2025 is still echoing, and one of the standout announcements was Samsung's unveiling of Now Brief and Now Bar for the Galaxy S25 family (S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra). These innovative features bring personalized information directly to your lock screen, transforming it into a dynamic hub of relevant updates. Forget unlocking your phone and navigating through countless apps – the information you need is now available at a glance.

This isn't just about showing the time and date. Samsung is leveraging the power of Galaxy AI and the Personal Data Engine to deliver a truly personalized experience. "Galaxy AI works for you to encourage simplicity and convenience in your daily life," a Samsung representative stated at the Unpacked event. This philosophy is at the core of Now Brief and Now Bar.

Your Personalized Daily Snapshot

Personalized Update on Galaxy S25 Lock Screen.  Image: Samsung

Imagine this: you reach for your phone first thing in the morning, and your Galaxy S25 greets you with a personalized overview of your day. This is Now Brief in action. It proactively shares information tailored to you, anticipating what you need to know when it matters most.

Here’s how it works in practice:

• Morning Briefing: Now Brief provides a daily snapshot of your schedule, weather forecast, health metrics, and even home care updates – all on your lock screen. No more manually checking multiple apps; everything is consolidated for quick and easy access.
• Contextual Updates: Need to leave for a meeting? Now Brief will display relevant updates like directions and traffic conditions right on your lock screen, ensuring you're always on time.

Real-Time Information at Your Fingertips

Beyond the daily briefing, Samsung also introduced Now Bar, which delivers real-time updates throughout the day. "With Now Bar, I can catch updates on scores, highlights, and more for teams I follow on Google right from my lock screen so I don't miss a thing," shared Drew, a presenter at Unpacked. This means you can stay informed about the things that matter to you, whether it's sports scores, breaking news, or social media updates, without constantly checking your phone.

The Power Behind the Personalization: The Personal Data Engine

You might be wondering how the Galaxy S25 knows what information to display. The answer lies in the Personal Data Engine. This innovative technology organizes information into a "knowledge graph" tailored to you, understanding your context, preferences, and routines.

As Ian Horrocks, a leading expert in knowledge graph technology from Oxford Semantic Technologies, explained at Unpacked, "The Personal Data Engine allows us to overcome this limitation by understanding a user's experience along with the surrounding context and storing it in the user's personal knowledge graph".

This means:

• Personalized Insights: The Personal Data Engine learns from your interactions and habits to provide highly relevant and personalized information.
• Seamless Integration: It combines data from various apps and services to provide a holistic overview on your lock screen.

The Future of Mobile Convenience

Now Brief and Now Bar are more than just convenient features; they represent a fundamental shift in how we interact with our smartphones. By bringing personalized information directly to the lock screen, Samsung is minimizing the need to constantly unlock and navigate through apps, saving you time and effort. This personalized, at-a-glance information hub, powered by the Personal Data Engine and Galaxy AI, makes the Galaxy S25 family a truly intuitive and user-centric experience. With the Galaxy S25, Samsung isn't just keeping up with the future of mobile convenience—they're defining it.