A recent Tesla app update has expanded Tesla’s use of Live Activities. In addition to leveraging Live Activities for Supercharging, a Live Activity is now also shown while your vehicle is being serviced by a mobile technician.
This quality-of-life improvement allows owners to view the status of their service visit directly on the phone lock screen or dynamic island.
While Tesla keeps you updated throughout a service appointment via notifications, this new feature makes it easier to see the current status of your vehicle without having to go through multiple notifications or open the Tesla app.
iOS Live Activities
For those unfamiliar, Live Activities is a feature that Apple introduced in iOS 16 to provide persistent, real-time information from an app directly on the Lock Screen or Dynamic Island. This provides glanceable updates, no matter what you’re doing on your phone.
Tesla previously added real-time Supercharging updates with iOS Live Activities, and support for Supercharger Virtual Queuing is next. Tesla also supports Live Activities in their Robotaxi app.
Android Live Updates
Android is expected to introduce Live Updates, a feature similar to Apple’s Live Activities, in Android 16. Google has recently started rolling out early betas for Android 16, and Samsung is pushing updates to newer Galaxy devices in certain regions starting this month.
We expect Tesla to introduce similar functionality to Android with the Live Updates feature in the future.
Service Live Activity
Previously, checking the status of your vehicle at the Tesla Service Center or during a mobile ranger appointment required either waiting for a notification or manually opening the app to view the service status. While Tesla provides detailed information under the Service area of the app, a Live Activity keeps you informed in real-time, which is especially useful for quick visits.
Tesla utilizes the dynamic island by displaying a Tesla logo and the estimated time of completion. Tapping this area will expand the Live Activity, revealing more information.
The Live Activity includes the technician’s estimated time of arrival, when they’re on their way, when they’ve arrived, estimated time of completion, and when service is complete.
This feature is currently limited to mobile service visits and does not include visits to your local service center, which can sometimes span more than a day.
More Live Activities
Live Activities are extremely useful for time-sensitive, short-lived tasks. Supercharging was the most obvious inclusion. Tesla is now including them for service, and we believe they’ll continue to expand this feature to other areas as well.
We’ll likely see Live Activities expanded to include more features, such as Roadside Assistance, in the future. Tesla could also add one for items such as preconditioning the cabin, or while Sentry Mode or Dog Mode are active, letting owners view real-time information about the status of their vehicle when it’s in these modes.
Thanks to Scotty4Scott for sharing this with us.
