This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice about Apple’s hottest product.
If you’re one of the many people who love to hate the iPhone’s notch, the white space that houses the camera lens and speaker, at the top of the screen, you may find that the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max from Apple are exciting. Both new models have a smaller, island-like cutout that makes that space a little more useful.
On the new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max phones announced Wednesday, the notch is revised as a pill-shaped cutout that can be part of other things you do naturally while using the phone. Apple calls it the Dynamic Island. (Yes, Apple has been the butt of jokes about that name.)
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Along with the always-on display on the iPhone 14 Pro and Max, Dynamic Island is one of two new display features exclusive to the more expensive and higher-powered models in the iPhone 14 line. The new Dynamic Island around the static cutout transforms a seemingly dead space into a small notification center with different animations for whatever you’re doing on your phone, whether it’s charging the battery, making a call, or listening to music.
If you’re thinking about buying a new iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max — pre-orders began Friday, with a September 16 release date — or just curious about Apple’s updated take on the notch so maligned, here’s everything. need to know
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island Cutout: What is it?
Dynamic Island is a new feature at the top of the iPhone 14 Pro models that reimagines the notch as a cutout. It changes shape and size to show timely notifications and information for current actions and ongoing background activity, depending on what you’re doing on your phone.
Here are some of the things Apple said Dynamic Island will display as a kind of notification or informational ticker at the top of the iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max screen:
- Arrival time for ride-sharing services like Lyft
- Turn-by-turn navigation with Apple Maps
- Contact information and duration of phone calls
- Battery percentage when your iPhone or AirPods are charging
- Cover when playing Apple Music songs
- Payments with transit card
- Sports results
- Flight information
- Timer duration
- Payments with Face ID
- Files sent with AirDrop
- Silence icon
We’ll continue to update this list with more features as we learn more, especially when we get a chance to play with the Dynamic Island feature on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max ourselves.
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What if you’re doing two things on your iPhone 14 Pro at the same time?
If you have two things in the background, such as a phone call and a timer, the dynamic island on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will split into two to show you information from the two activities, for example, a timer and a phone call
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Can you touch the dynamic island? Yes!
On the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, if you press and hold the dynamic island while it’s showing information, it can expand to show even more.
For example, if you tap the clip when you’re playing a song in Apple Music, you can see the song title and artist name and control the music (pause, play, rewind, and fast forward). If you tap the widget when it shows your flight departure time, it can also show locations, baggage details, possible delays, and more.
Tapping on the dynamic island will redirect you to the app that is currently displaying information in the widget.
Which apps and services will the new iPhone 14 Pro notch work with?
You can expect Dynamic Island to work with most Apple features, services and apps, and some third-party apps like Lyft.
Live Activities, which is a new iOS 16 widget on the lock screen that displays interactive and up-to-date notifications, will work seamlessly with Dynamic Island to display information from third-party apps on both the lock screen and home screen . We expect more app makers to join in the future.
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So does the dynamic island replace the notch entirely?
Yes, Dynamic Island’s pill-shaped cutout replaces the larger notch featured on previous iPhone models, such as the iPhone 13 and iPhone 12. However, a smaller, hidden notch still exists under the dynamic island, which houses the camera, speaker and Face ID components. Although the dynamic island changes in size, it can never completely disappear because of the notch – it’s like a disguise.
Will Other iPhones Get Dynamic Island?
Dynamic Island is currently only available on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Both models will launch on September 16, but you can pre-order both phones starting this Friday, September 9. We can’t say for sure if Apple will bring Dynamic Island to future iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch models, but we’ll be keeping an eye on how the feature works and if it lives up to its promise.
For more details, here’s a rundown of everything Apple announced, including the new AirPods Pro 2 with updated noise cancellation and three different watches from the Apple Watch 8 series.