ANDROIDPOLICE VIDEO OF THE DAY Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro certainly feels like an apt name for what we’re getting — the rectangular, pill-shaped notch in the display surrounding the selfie camera and Face ID hardware just floats there like an island in a sea of pixels. When you touch a notification on the pill, it responds with movement and resizing, creating the illusion that the pill-shaped cutout is physically expanding (helping to adjust indications for notification icons, ongoing background tasks, and incoming notifications). These effects are a visual treat on the OLED displays used by iPhones (not to mention many Android, mid-range, and high-end devices), as they are able to deliver much deeper blacks than an LCD display. Last week, theme developers showed what a Dynamic Island could look like on a Xiaomi phone. While promising, this was also a fix specific to one company’s devices, and last we checked, the issue was still awaiting approval. However, XDA Developers managed to spot a new app in early access called dynamicSpot, and after taking a look for ourselves, this could be the perfect solution if you’ve been craving the Dynamic Island visual experience on Android phones — specifically, on those with center-aligned holes, such as the Google Pixel 6 series or the Samsung Galaxy S22 series. The app is the brainchild of developer Jawomo, who is also known for their Bixby Button Remapper app and Notification Light app for OnePlus phones. Once installed, the lightweight app creates a pill-shaped black bar surrounding your screen’s camera cutout with notification icons. You can zoom in on the island with a long press on the pill, while a short press connects you to the notification app. If this seems counterintuitive to you, a small IAP allows you to change these interactions. As you would with any other notification on Android, you can swipe to dismiss, and if the pill disappears before you can access the notification, just open your trusty notification shade. To get started with dynamicSpot, you’ll need to give it permission to read your notifications and draw over other apps. We also suggest turning off power saving restrictions so the process doesn’t shut down in the background. The developer notes that the app doesn’t connect to the internet itself, which sounds good for privacy, but the absence of other permissions like Bluetooth and GPS means it loses the ability to display notifications when Bluetooth devices are connected — a feature that appears on the iPhone 14 Pro. For an application still in early access, dynamicSpot is already quite capable. It supports notifications for all installed apps, with detailed controls for each and quick action buttons for some of them. The personalization app’s clean UI features a toggle to turn the notification island on or off, as well as settings that let you adjust its vertical position, width, and height to line up perfectly with the camera punch. There’s even a handy test button so you don’t have to wait for a friend to ping you to see how your notifications will look. What the app doesn’t have is any sort of slider to adjust the island’s horizontal position, so it doesn’t support phones with selfie-cam notches in the corner like the OnePlus Nord 2. If you pony up the small amount for the Pro version, you can control how long the pill stays up after a notification arrives, as well as how the island behaves when the screen is off. You can also unlock notifications for when the battery level drops below 15 percent and when the phone is fully charged. For an app that was probably developed in such a short period of time, dynamicSpot already offers an impressive level of polish. However, we understand that this is an ongoing beta version and users can expect some hiccups while they get up to speed. For example, at first you’ll see notification pop-ups next to your pill icons, creating a copy, but the solution is simple — turn off animated notifications for installed apps. You’ll probably want to set this up manually, as while dynamicSpot has a toggle to do this for you, it’s another paywalled Pro feature (plus, it doesn’t seem to work). The floating notification must be turned off if you want to use only the pill Other minor annoyances include the incorrect media duration being displayed on either side of the playback progress bar, the absence of quick action buttons for some notifications, and the incorrect system time and date being displayed on the charging indicator. Importantly, going back to your phone’s home screen doesn’t minimize an app running on the island, one of the biggest behavioral changes that differs from Apple’s app. It would be great to see apps like this benefit from closer integration with Android launchers like Nova Launcher because they control app launch animations. We wouldn’t be surprised if the developers behind the upcoming launchers incorporate some sort of island-style feature into their own apps. It would be unfair to expect iPhone-island-level dynamism and polish from Android replicas to be rolled out in a week or two, but apps like this are already on track to become the go-to solution for theme and customization enthusiasts for a look in iOS style. the budget. The developer promises to add more custom animations, interactions, and improve app support, but hopefully also solve the minor issues. If you like how this all sounds and are interested in giving it a go, you just need an Android device to install dynamicSpot that has an OLED display — and all the best Android phones come with one.
