Dynamic island

The iPhone 14 Pro will arrive in stores and on millions of doorsteps today and one of the first things people will want to try out is the Dynamic Island. One of Apple’s most unique interface elements in years, the Dynamic Island isn’t an app or even a setting—it’s a visual representation of things going on in the background while you use your phone. It can be a multitasker—tap the island and it’ll open the app inside it—a shortcut—tap and hold and it’ll expand to show more information—or just a notification tray. In his General iPhone alerts • Accessories connect • AirDrop • AirPlay • Airplane mode • AirPods connect • Apple Pay • CarKey • Charging • eSIM alerts • Face ID • Find My • Focus changes • Incoming calls • Low battery • NFC interactions • Shortcuts • Silent switch on/off • Watch unlock Live Activities (Apple apps) • Apple Music/Now playing • Camera indicator • Maps directions • Microphone indicator • Ongoing calls • Personal Hotspot • Screen Recording • SharePlay • Timer • Voice memos Now Playing (Third-party apps) • Amazon Music • Audible • NPR One • Overcast • Pandora • SoundCloud • Spotify • Stitcher • YouTube Music Incoming calls (Third-party apps) • Google Voice • Instagram • Skype • WhatsApp

A developer has just brought the Dynamic Island – currently exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max – to any iPhone running iOS 16 through iOS 16.1.2. While the Pro iPhones have a physically different shape to the screen for this island, the software portion is still able to be run in the location of the notch on previous iPhones and show directions, battery charging, and currently playing media in the updated style. DynamicCow brings Dynamic Island to any iPhone While it would be great if this app were easily downloadable from the App Store… that is most definitely not the case. A version of this modification for jailbroken iPhones (called Dynamic Peninsula) has existed for a while now, but this modification doesn’t require a jailbreak. Still, in order to get it working, you have to install software on your computer, use that software to get a third-party utility onto your phone, and then use that utility to install DynamicCow – the app that enables the dynamic island – on your phone. You also can’t be on the most recent version of iOS 16 – it only supports iOS 16 through iOS 16.1.2. Finally, you have to put your Apple ID and Password into third-party software to get it installed, and that’s reason enough not to do this. But the Dynamic Island was a 9to5Mac’s Take I installed DynamicCow to see how well it worked… and it does technically do as it describes – bringing the exact dynamic island from the iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max to the older iPhones… but that’s (o...

Many apps are starting to use the Dynamic Island, and it has fast become one of our favourite features on the new iPhone 14 Pro models. It'll certainly be interesting to see the different ways the Dynamic Island can be implemented as a growing number of developers learn how to best use it. Indeed, with iOS 16.2 having added more features for the Dynamic Island, let's sit back and go through how to use the Dynamic Island on an iPhone 14 Pro. How to use the Dynamic Island on an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max 1. Often the animations displayed in the Dynamic Island are simply informative such as when you use Face ID to unlock your iPhone. In a case such as this, you simply need to wait for the animation to complete. (Image credit: Future) 5. You can also use a feature called Live Activities which is great if, for example, you want to follow an active sport score. It will update Dynamic Island in real-time. Live Activities is also used by a growing number of parking, flight, workout and task apps among others. Read our full guide on (Image credit: Future) 6. It's also possible to close the Dynamic Island so that it doesn't show any information. Just gently touch the edge of the Dynamic Island and swipe inwards. The black area will still remain (you can't get rid of that) but you can then gently swipe back out towards the edge to bring the information back. (Image credit: Future) And there you go. You now know how to use the Dynamic Island on iPhone. The Dynamic Island is sure to beco...

The notch at the top of the iPhone has been a familiar sight for the past several generations. But other than housing the True Depth front camera, it's wasted space that eats into your screen. To make that space more useful, Apple has turned the notch into an interactive feature called the Dynamic Island for the The Dynamic Island is not available on the iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Plus, though the feature is reportedly See It (Opens in a new window) What Can the Dynamic Island Do? The Dynamic Island can display notifications for Apple Pay transactions, low battery warnings, AirDrop transfers, and privacy indicators. It can also reveal various background tasks, such as Apple Maps directions, incoming phone calls, music being played, In many cases, you can press down on the Dynamic Island to open the activity in a larger window. In other cases, you can tap the Dynamic Island to launch the activity in its full-screen app. You can also swipe on it to expand or contract the window. Here are several examples of how this works. Apple Pay Transaction Your iPhone displays a visual privacy indicator whenever an app or service is accessing your camera or microphone. On the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, those indicators appear in the Dynamic Island. Open an app that can access your camera, and a green dot appears in the display. Open an app that can access your microphone, and an orange dot appears. (On other iPhones, these indicators (Opens in a new window) on the right side of the screen.)...

I will attempt to get through this entire blog post without referring to Dynamic Island as ‘Monkey Island’. I really will. I promise. As I noted during my Four years later, the combination of the lovely new Lock Screen stuff in iOS 16 and the Dynamic Island provides a genuine “ooh this really is the new iPhone!” experience when you first switch the thing on. However, I’ve been using Dynamic Island for a week now, and I have some thoughts. It disappears When it comes to Apple, there’s a subsection of the world’s population that loves to have something to moan about. I sit among that crowd, too; whether it’s the stupid I don’t get some of the disdain, though. I’ve never understood the hate for the notch on the iPhone – and certainly not on the new MacBooks (where I’m cool with that. If it was in the middle of the screen, that’d be a different matter. But it isn’t – the notch is tucked out of the way and has, in the iPhone’s case, become a brand indicator. Dynamic Island is still a notch of sorts. It has just been detached from the top of the screen, moved down slightly, encompassed by the screen itself, and given a new role in iOS. As a result, it disappears just as quickly as the notch always has done, and only makes itself known when absolutely needed. Honestly – you barely know it’s there 99% of the time (and, no, it isn’t present during landscape video viewing, unless you zoom in, which I never do, because that ruins the framing of whatever it is you’re watching). So, wh...