Apple caused a great deal of excitement when it unveiled the Dynamic Island on the new iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max handsets earlier this month (although it turns out it’s not for everyone).
The feature brings to life the otherwise boring pill-shaped cutout at the top of the display by changing its appearance according to the information or controls that it’s showing.
In a move that would surely have had Steve Jobs shaking his head in dismay — and possibly speed-dialing Apple’s top lawyer — the Dynamic Island has now landed on … Android!
No, it’s not part of a recent update to Google’s mobile operating system. Rather, an impish developer has brought it to Android via an app called dynamicSpot that targets the hole-punch cutout that comes with many Android handsets.
A video (below) shared by Jawomo, dynamicSpot’s creator, shows an early version of the app in action.
Like Apple’s Dynamic Island, dynamicSpot functions as a multitasking tool, offering a fast way to access recent notifications or phone status changes, among other things.
Staying with the theme of lifting all of Apple’s Dynamic Island features, you can also tap on the spot to open the displayed app, and long press it to expand it and view more details.
Jawomo notes that while the iPhone’s Dynamic Island is not customizable, dynamicSpot is, explaining: “You can change interaction settings, select when to show or hide the popup or which apps should appear.”
The developer adds: “As dynamicSpot uses Android’s notification system, it is compatible with almost all apps, like messaging notifications, timer apps, and even music apps.”
You can also shift the location of the app’s spot, an important feature as makers of Android phones don’t all put the camera cutout in the center of the display.
Whether Android users go for the dynamicSpot remains to be seen. It could be fun to try, though as it’s in the early stages of development there may be bugs — and don’t expect (not yet, anyway) the smoothness and richness of Apple’s effort.
The dynamicSpot app is currently in beta and is free to download from Google Play. To obtain its full functionality, however, you’ll need to hand over $5.
