Apps that Work with Dynamic Island (Continuously Updated)
Even though the Dynamic Island is in its infancy right now, there are plenty of apps and features that work right out of the box. We’ll be continuously updating this list as more apps take advantage of the Dynamic Island to show ongoing activities, and multi-tasking capabilities.
Notifications and Other Alerts
First, let’s take a look at all the notification styles and other alerts that show up in the Dynamic Island.
1. Incoming Calls
An incoming call on your iPhone will now show up in the dynamic island, complete with controls for answering or rejecting the call.
2. Face ID
Every time your iPhone uses Face ID to authenticate you, whether its for downloading a new app from the App Store, or making a payment with Apple Pay, or Gpay, or anything similar, the animation will now show up in the pill cutout.
3. Connecting Accessories (AirPods, etc)
With the iPhone 14 Pro, when you connect your AirPods (AirPods Pro, etc), to your iPhone, you will see the connected status (as well as the battery) in the island itself. This way, your view won’t be obstructed with the pop up that shows currently on other iPhones.
4. Charging
Connecting your iPhone to charge will now show the charging status, as well as the current battery level in the dynamically resized cutout on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
5. AirDrop
One of my favourite features that is enabled by the Dynamic Island is the new AirDrop animation. When you’re receiving a file over AirDrop, you can see it happening right up top. What’s more, simply long press on the island and you will be able to see the transfer progress as well! Finally!
6. Ringer/Silent Mode
While in other iPhones, when you use the alert slider to switch between the ringer mode and the silent mode, you can see the notification pop up from the top of the screen. With the new iPhone 14 Pro series, these animations show up within the island.
7. Focus Mode
When your iPhone changes focus modes the animation will show up within the Dynamic Island now. However, the focus symbol doesn’t stay there. Instead, it moves out towards the left after a few seconds, leaving the island available for other tasks and activities.
8. AirPlay
If you often use AirPlay on your iPhone, this is gonna be quite useful for you. You can now see the AirPlay status right within the pill cutout on your iPhone 14 Pro. You can long-press on the pill to quickly see the device to which your iPhone is connected, and to stop the mirroring when needed.
9. Personal Hotspot
The island also shows the personal hotspot icon when you have any devices connected to your iPhone’s mobile hotspot for internet sharing. Tapping on this will take you straight to the hotspot settings page where you can change the password, or turn off the feature.
Activities
10. Ongoing Calls
When you’re on a call, the iPhone 14 Pro now shows the progress counter in the island. Here, you will also see waveforms for the audio (both incoming and outgoing). What’s cool is that the waveform for the incoming audio is green, but the waveform for your speech is yellow/orange.
11. Timer
If you set a timer on your iPhone 14 Pro, the countdown will appear in the pill area. This way you can keep a track of the timer without having to jump back to the timer app. You can long-press the pill to access quick controls such as play/pause, and you can tap on it to open the clock app.
12. Maps
Navigation directions via Apple Maps now show up in the Dynamic Island as well. You will see the direction (including turns, etc) and the distance you need to move both around the cutout area.
13. Google Maps
Google Maps works with the pill as well. However, right now, Google Maps can’t show navigation directions or distance on the Dynamic Island. Instead, it simply shows a navigation icon. Hopefully, this will be fixed by Google in a future update.
15. Voice Memo (Voice Recordings)
Recording a Voice Memo now shows a waveform and the elapsed time around the cutout on the iPhone 14 Pro. You can tap here to open the voice memos app, or long press to expand the widget and stop the recording or view the time, etc.
16. Screen Recordings
Similar to voice recordings, recording the screen on your iPhone now also shows up in the Dynamic Island. You will see a countdown in the island, and then the recording icon (a red dot) remains on the island. You can tap on this to expand the widget and stop the recording once you’re done.
17. Camera and Mic Indicators
The camera and microphone indicators that show up on iPhones towards the right side of the notch, now show up in the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro. The green dot for the camera and the orange dot for the mic shows up in the area between the pill and the punch-hole cutout on the display.
Music and Audiobook Apps
Most of the popular music and audiobook apps show up in the Dynamic Island. You will be able to see a cover image (album art) for the music that’s playing, as well as a waveform. What’s more, if you connect your iPhone to HomePod, or something similar, you will see the HomePod icon or Apple TV icon instead of the waveform. The following apps support this functionality on the iPhone 14 Pro. Note: Since the functionality remains the same across these apps, I am simply mentioning the names of the apps below. Describing their functionality with the Dynamic Island would be redundant.
18. Apple Music
19. Spotify
20. YouTube Music
21. Audible (Audiobooks)
22. Overcast (Podcasts)
24. NPR One
25. Soundcloud
26. Pandora
Calling Apps
Incoming calls from third party apps also show up in the Dynamic Island. The feature is not limited to just the built-in Phone app, but can also be used by other apps. In fact, since some of the most popular apps already use Apple’s CallKit to enable calling features, they are readily working with the island.
Note: Since the incoming call feature on the Dynamic Island works the same way for every app that uses CallKit, I’m simply mentioning the names of the apps below.
27. WhatsApp
28. Instagram
29. Google Voice
30. Skype
Other Apps and Games
31. Hit the Island
Hit the Island (free) is a fun new game where you play Pong with the dynamic island. Basically, you have to control your paddle and hit the Dynamic Island to score points. The ball gets faster over time, splits into two balls, and your paddle gets smaller so the game keeps getting more and more difficult to play.
32. Apollo for Reddit
The third party Reddit client, Apollo (free), also makes really fun use of the island. When you’re in the app, you can have a pixel animal basically live on top of the Dynamic Island. There are a total of five animals available, but you can only use the Cat or Dog in the free version of the app. To get the Fox, Axolotl, etc, you will have to pay to unlock the paid version of the app.
All the Apps and Features that Work with “The Island”
Well, those are all the apps and features that currently work with the Dynamic Island. As you can probably see, there’s a lot that the iPhone 14 Pro series can already do with the new island. So, which functionality of the Dynamic Island is your favourite? And are there any other apps that we may have missed out in this list? Let us know in the comments.
