What is iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island?

The notch on iPhones is getting replaced. Not yet on all 2022 iPhones though. Apple is moving to a new design on its high-end models. While the new non-Pro iPhone 14 and iPhone Plus sport the same old notch, the two new ‘Pro’ iPhones have a new pill-shaped cutout replacing the notch, which got smaller last year. It is more than a notch; it is “Dynamic Island”.

What is Dynamic Island

What exactly is Dynamic Island? You may ask. In simple terms, it is an island, not rhetorically, as it sits amidst the sea of lit-up pixels and is dynamic. Rather than being a cutout that every other smartphone has, Apple made its pill-shaped cutout a core of the ‘Pro’ iPhone experience.

While it is smaller than the notch, there are the usual Face ID sensors and a front-facing camera inside the cutout, making it large enough for a phone. So, Apple transformed the cutout into a notification centre showing dynamic or, you can say, interactive notifications.

Dynamic Island stretches out to show different sorts of notifications. Say you have music playing; the notification appears in a banner stretching out from the cutout, while the Face ID unlock animation is shown in a square. It also shows the battery of your AirPods and Apple Watch.

“The Dynamic Island blurs the line between hardware and software, fluidly expanding into different shapes to clearly convey important activities,” says Apple.

So what happens when you tap on Dynamic Island? Well, it expands the notifications further to show detailed information. Activities such as navigation or order tracking show up as Live Notifications, and one can tap and hold to expand to show more information.

In a nutshell, it shifts shape and size, thus Dynamic Island.

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Apple iPhone 14 specification

Apple iPhone 14 Plus specification

Apple iPhone 14 Pro specification

Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max  specification

Apple did not spill many beans on what is going on the technology behind this, but if one were to guess, this is being achieved with the new A16 Bionic chip, which has enough AI prowess to do such a thing. So, maybe this could be the reason why the non-Pro iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus did not have this feature since they have the older A15 Bionic chip. Well, it is a pure guess. We would have to wait for Apple to detail the behind-the-curtain process of Dynamic Island; only then can we know how they have made the notch fun.

What apps does Dynamic Island support

So far we have only seen a few but the list will not be limited as Apple will be giving third-party apps a chance to utilise the Dynamic Island.

• Apple Music
• Phone
• Apple Wallet
• Maps
• Voice Memos
• Clock