With Dynamic Island, Apple has taken advantage of screen cutouts in ways that Android brands have not yet been able to

The one thing everyone can agree on when it comes to “Dynamic Island” is that it’s a bad name. Other than that, opinions about the actual usability or aesthetics of the new pill-shaped interactive slot in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max were completely divisive. Personally, I was sold off from the start, but I know colleagues who hate it, including my colleague Karthik who wrote this excellent editorial on why a dynamic island creates more problems than it solves.

I don’t really disagree with his points. Switching from the notch to the pill-shaped slot for the new iPhones doesn’t give any meaningful extra screen space. The class is actually located further down the screen than ever before. The smart UI elements that Apple created as part of the Dynamic Island UI are already difficult to reach with one hand — although that’s not the only UI element in iOS that isn’t easy to use with one hand.

So, if I agree with my colleague’s points criticizing the dynamic island, why would I love it? Because I love that the island embraces a necessary compromise of modern smartphones – the need to have selfie cameras to take on the screen – by building a fun and smart user interface in and around dropout. Instead of ignoring screen imperfections, or even trying to hide them the way many Android brands do, Apple embraces them, draws attention to them, and takes advantage of them.

Android brands see the hole as a flaw, and Apple sees it as an opportunity

I’ve been covering the Android landscape for years, and the most exciting period in my opinion (at least until next year when the foldable wars are raging on a global scale) was when Chinese Android brands leaned back in 2018 trying to find ways that didn’t need a degree. We have phones with pop-up camera modules, sliding mechanisms, and full-size screens on their backs — all so that a selfie camera can exist without eating on the screen.

Nubia X, released in 2018, with a fully functional screen on the back.

These phones were a lot of fun to test out for a hardware expert like me, but they weren’t practical, and those brands knew it. Because before long, they’re all back to top notch, finally settling on the ubiquitous punched-hole solution in the Android scene.

But so far, Android brands seem shy about the presence of the selfie gap, because some brands like Xiaomi may dedicate marketing materials and prime time to boasting that their phones have a “smaller gap than competitors”. Samsung and ZTE sacrificed selfie camera quality in favor of the nascent under-display camera technology.

Samsung chose to sacrifice the selfie camera on its Z Fold series in order to give us a less visible punch hole.

Some Android skins, like Oppo’s ColorOS or Motorola’s MyUI, give users the option to hide the aperture with a digital frame.

Meanwhile, here’s Apple, not only embracing the hole, but also designing software for it Make it bigger. Depending on the context, Apple will use black pixels to fill in the space around the class to make it morph into different shapes and sizes.

For example, start a song on Spotify (or Apple Music) and swipe out from the app, and you’ll see the app fly to the island, which then expands to show the album cover art, along with the sound wave bar beating along to the melodies. Apple even built a small physics engine for this action, so depending on how you swipe, the app navigates to the island in a different path, and the island “captures” the app with the corresponding animation.

O people. When apps are minimized to the dynamic island when they are rejected, they drop the island differently based on the physics of your “throw”…!

Throw the app straight up, and it bounces back naturally. But throw a curve ball, and the other side swells up to catch.

i love this 100% pic.twitter.com/GWjjTDvXZb

– Cabel September 17, 2022

Like the Twitter user above, I’m fond of the burgeoning vibe, and little touches like these make the iPhone feel alive.

But it’s not just superficial flair, the dynamic island makes a real functional use. Navigate with Apple Maps running in the background, for example, and you’ll see a steady arrow pointing in the direction you should go. Connect to a flight with Lyft, and you’ll see the status of your flight. Start the timer, and you’ll see the clock ticking the seconds, all on the island.

And since Apple is Apple, there’s a good chance all major apps will eventually take advantage of the island. Google Maps will certainly adopt similar real-time navigation. If you’re flying with a major airline, particularly a US-based company, you’ll likely see something like boarding time and gate information right on the island. There are countless different ways in which the island could be used, and I am sure they will be used much more than they are now.

Like it or not, the dynamic island is here to stay

Just like the original iPhone X, there will always be Android diehards who will criticize it. But I’m almost certain that Dynamic Island won’t alienate existing iPhone users, nor will it scare the average consumer open to the iPhone experience. Remember, there was a similar cry about First Class too when it debuted in 2017, and guess what, go to any major city in the US or Europe, and you’ll see cracks everywhere. In a year or two, you’ll see dynamic islands all over the place. The question that intrigues me the most is whether Android brands will follow suit and design similar UI interfaces.