What Is Dynamic Island?
Dynamic Island is a unique blend of software and hardware that utilizes a technology called sub-pixel anti-aliasing to create a dedicated space for various tasks, indicators, and Live Activities on your iPhone. That’s nerd-speak for “Apple found a clever way to hide the front-facing camera and Face ID array while adding extra software functionality to a pill-shaped region on the display.”
How to Interact With Dynamic Island
The Dynamic Island offers a consistent and unobtrusive experience for tasks like setting a timer, answering an incoming phone call, checking out with Apple Pay, connecting your AirPods, and controlling your music. There are two primary ways to interact with the Dynamic Island while managing onscreen activities:
A tap: instantly opens the corresponding app that the Dynamic Island is displaying a status for.A long press: expands to reveal relevant controls for the app that the Dynamic Island is displaying a status for.
Understanding Privacy Indicators in the Dynamic Island
In iOS 16 Apple places color-coded dot indicators in the middle of the Dynamic Island on the latest Pro iPhone models. It give users more control over their privacy by informing them when an app may be accessing onboard hardware sensors without their knowledge. Learn what each dot indicator represents and how to identify which apps are accessing your data:
Orange dot indicator: an app is currently using the microphone on your iPhone. Green dot indicator: an app is currently using only the camera or the camera and the microphone on your iPhone.
To identify which apps are requesting sensor data from your iPhone:
Tasks and Activities That Work With Dynamic Island
iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max currently support a total of 41 apps and features. App-specific controls and information will automatically expand when you need to access them and recede when you are finished using them. The powerful new display engine in the A16 chip works in concert with the high-refresh-rate display to make Dynamic Island animations appear incredibly convincing and up to three times sharper than other animations in iOS. In fact, there is already evidence showing that the new iPhone 14 Pro Max beats the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in a number of silicon performance tests. The following is a complete list of what you can do with the Dynamic Island: Notifications and System Alerts
Incoming callAirPods connectedFace IDApple PayCarKeyAirDropWatch unlockLow batteryChargingSilent switch ON/OFFNFC interactionsAirPlayFocus changesShortcutsAirplane mode/no data alertSIM card alertsAccessories connectFind My
Live Activities:
Ongoing callSharePlayMusic/Now playing appsTimerMaps directionsVoice memosScreen recordingPersonal hotspotMicrophone indicatorCamera indicator
Now Playing: CallKit:
WhatsAppGoogle VoiceInstagramSkype
Upcoming:
Live Activities API
Tip: If your Dynamic Island displays a SIM card alert, you may need to transfer and activate eSIM on your iPhone 14. Note that the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max models sold in the United States do not have dedicated SIM card slots and only operate using eSIMs.
How to Answer Incoming Phone Calls With Dynamic Island
How to Manage Music Playback With the Dynamic Island
Tip: If you are looking to test playback controls in the Music app using the Dynamic Island, learn how to get free Apple Music.
How to Manage Two Tasks at Once Using the Dynamic Island
You can use Dynamic Island to keep track of more than one task at once by launching another supported app, then initiating another activity. In this example, we started a timer while playing a song in the Music app. Notice how the Timer icon breaks away from the Dynamic Island to reveal an actionable button. You can tap on either the pill-shaped or circular button to launch either the Music app or the Clock app. Long-press on either button to display more controls. Image credit: James Yarema via Unsplash. All screenshots taken by Brahm Shank.
