What is a Live Activity?

A Live Activity is an iOS surface for information that changes while somebody is doing something else. It sits on the lock screen and updates itself, which makes it well matched to a conference day.

In practice at an event

The natural content is the next thing: which session is on, where it is, when the break starts. An attendee glances at a locked phone and has the answer, without unlocking, opening an app or navigating.

It is complementary to notifications rather than a replacement. A notification interrupts to tell somebody something changed; a Live Activity sits quietly and stays current. Because it does not interrupt, it does not spend the permission budget that notifications do.

It is iOS only. Android has no direct equivalent, so it is an enhancement for part of your audience rather than a channel you can rely on for all of it.

What to look for

If a vendor offers this, ask what it actually shows and how often it updates, since a Live Activity that reflects a schedule from this morning is worse than none.

Do not weight it heavily in a purchase. It is a genuine convenience for iPhone users and it is not a reason to choose one product over another.

How event67 handles it

event67 provides an iOS Live Activity driven by the same dispatcher that refreshes Apple Wallet passes while the event runs. Like the wallet pass, it is an iOS enhancement layered on top of the app rather than a channel that reaches every attendee, and the web event site and native Android app carry the same information in their own surfaces.