People were excited, curious, and laughing as Apple unveiled the Dynamic Island for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max in 2022. The name of the function, which displays live updates on background-running applications and brings up system notifications, overshadowed it.
People made fun of Dynamic Island’s moniker on social media, claiming it seemed like an unusual travel destination. Apple fans were concerned that the name lacked the elegance of other Apple feature names, such as FaceTime or AirDrop. In a message on Twitter, well-known YouTuber MKBHD even gave a backhanded praise, calling it “the most Apple thing they’ve ever Appled.”
Regardless of how you feel about the moniker, the Dynamic Island has managed to attract fans—and presumably some Android users as well. The much-maligned iPhone notch that contained the True Depth camera system needed for Face ID was replaced with the pill-shaped cutout and alert UI.
The Dynamic Island is a region on top of the iPhone’s display that functions as an interactive hub and changes form based on the situation, in contrast to the notch, which was a static physical cutout. Two discrete cuts for the camera and sensors are still present inside the Dynamic Island, but the rest of the space serves as a kind of interactive canvas for different types of material.
Apple broke with its competitor Android phone manufacturers when it decided to make the Dynamic Island a hallmark feature of the iPhone. The latter chose to use hole-punch cutouts for the selfie cameras in lieu of the screen notches on their handsets. Apple was able to utilize the space around the cutout for a variety of purposes, including monitoring live actions, app controls, and system warnings, thanks to the Dynamic Island.
A camera indication on the Dynamic Island of an iPhone 14 Pro
Various animations and symbols are shown on the Dynamic Island. A green camera symbol appears on the left side while on a FaceTime call.
Bulgatti, Celso/CNET
The Dynamic Island occupies less screen real estate than the previous notch, taking up just around an inch when it is not in use. The Dynamic Island will morph into one of three shapes: a long oval, a huge pop-up window, or a mix of a medium-sized oval and circle, depending on the applications you’re using, any background activities that are ongoing, and any iPhone system warnings.
It turns into a long oval while using a single app, such as Apple Music, and displays the waveform for the song being played on one end and the album cover on the other. In this situation, tapping the Dynamic Island will launch the current song in the Music app. Holding down on the Dynamic Island will cause it to expand into a bigger window with mini-playback controls that spans the top of your iPhone. Similarly, the pill-shaped hole stretches to reveal caller information when you accept a call.
The Dynamic Island will appear as a lowercase letter “i” on its side if you have two applications open at once, such as Apple Maps and the Music app. Maps is one of the programs that displays turn-by-turn instructions on its own medium-sized oval. Off to the right in its own circle is the second app, Music in this instance, which shows the album artwork.
In Dynamic Island, an iPhone making a call
When the Dynamic Island receives a call, it acquires this shape.
Clifford Colby’s screenshot of Apple/CNET
The Dynamic Island can also provide a real-time estimate for the arrival of your Uber and food delivery orders due to its integration with third-party applications. When you press and hold on the Dynamic Island, it will physically enlarge into a pop-up window to display that information.
Among other system operations, the Dynamic Island also offers visual feedback for privacy indications (such when the camera or microphone is activated), AirDrop file transfers, or Apple Pay transactions.
Among the things the Dynamic Island may display are the following:
Alerts from the system
Using Google Maps or Apple Maps for turn-by-turn navigation
Contact details and duration of phone calls
% of battery life when charging your iPhone or AirPods
Locate My Alerts
Duration of screen recording
When playing tracks via Apple Music, the cover art
Payments using transit cards
Scores for live sports
Details of the flight
Duration of the timer
Face ID payments with AirDrop Mute icon-sent files
Real-time operations for services such as Uber
The entire user experience is improved by the capability to dynamically alter form and show pertinent material. Apple has gradually rolled out the shape-morphing cutout to its basic models since its introduction, so in addition to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus also have it. Read our evaluations of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 to find out more about the Dynamic Island.