Dynamic Island: What It Is, How to Use It, and Feature Functions

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Get the most out of your new iPhone by learning how to use Dynamic Island

Co-authored by Bryzz Tortello and Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: July 17, 2023

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What is Dynamic Island?

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How to Use Dynamic Island

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What does Dynamic Island do?

If you have an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max, you may have noticed the black, oblong-shaped cutout at the top of your screen. This is Dynamic Island, a new feature in the iPhone 14 generation. You can use various touch gestures to expand, collapse, and view activities happening on your phone. This wikiHow article will tell you what Dynamic Island is, how it works, and how to use it.

Things You Should Know

You can press and hold or swipe on Dynamic Island to expand, collapse, or view background activities on your iPhone.
Dynamic Island will display various alerts when you are doing activities on your phone, such as using Apple Pay or Face ID.
This feature is only available on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max; the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus do not have Dynamic Island.

Section 1 of 3:

What is Dynamic Island?

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Dynamic Island is essentially an information hub. It was introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, and is a black, pill-shaped cutout at the top of the phone's screen. Various alerts are displayed in Dynamic Island, including outputs from your current activities and background activities.
- Dynamic Island replaces the notch used in previous iPhone generations. The notch previously housed the phone's front-facing camera, but didn't have much function beyond that.
- The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus do not have Dynamic Island. These models have the same notch that was present in previous models of the iPhone.
- It isn't possible to disable Dynamic Island as it's used in many iPhone 14 functions. However, you can collapse Dynamic Island background activities by swiping from the left or right of the island to the center.^{[1]
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Section 2 of 3:

How to Use Dynamic Island

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This includes playing music, starting a timer, or using the map.^{[2]
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This shows more detail about the activity and allows you to interact with it, i.e. pausing a song or timer.
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Swipe from the left or right to the center to collapse the activity. This will make Dynamic Island smaller.
- To bring the activity back to your Dynamic Island, swipe from the center to the right or left.

Section 3 of 3:

What does Dynamic Island do?

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Dynamic Island will display various alerts when you do activities on your phone. These alerts include the following:
- Apple Pay transactions
- Indicators when microphone or camera is in use
- AirDrop file transfers
- Low battery alerts
- Silent mode turned on or off
- Face ID unlocking
- Apple Watch unlocking
- AirPlay connections
- Focus mode changes
- Shortcut actions
- SIM card alerts
- Accessories connect
- Find My alerts
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Dynamic Island will also display various background activities. These include:
- Upcoming Maps directions
- Duration of phone call
- Currently playing song
- Timers
- Screen or voice memo recording
- Hotspot connection
These include Google Maps, Spotify, YouTube Music, Flighty, CARROT Weather, and more.^{[3]
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