Realme, a sub-brand of Chinese phone maker Oppo, may be the first Android OEM to clone Apple’s Dynamic Island, a deleted tweet from a company executive And a leaked animation to suggest. It comes at a time when Apple seems to be proving that Dynamic Island is worth copy, as the mostly decorative UI fixture is finally getting real third-party support.
This comes as no great surprise. If 9to5Google points out, Realme basically told everyone it wanted to clone Dynamic Island back in Sept. It seems that a feature called “Mini Capsule” has been in the works since then. Indeed, a photo in the deleted tweet shows a pill-shaped UI element at the top of the screen with Oppo’s SuperVOOC charging logo displayed. The animation, shared by reliable leaker OnLeaks via Smartprix, shows the capsule expanding and collapsing to reveal charging status information. Cute!
In the meantime, Apple’s Dynamic Island has been something of a placeholder since the launch of the iPhone 14 Pro. It does a few interesting things, like alerting you when your AirPods’ battery is low. But mostly it has been waiting for third party app makers to use it with iOS 16.1 Live Activities API. That went live in October with a disappointing list of supported apps – unless you’re a Carrot Weather stan.
That’s finally changing with some major apps coming on board. Uber is releasing an app update that uses Dynamic Island, so you can see, for example, how many minutes your ride takes without keeping the Uber app open. Even as a rare rideshare rider, that sounds incredibly helpful to me. Google Maps will also add support for Live Activities “in the coming months,” which could mean turn-by-turn directions in the Dynamic Island in the same way Apple Maps uses the feature.
For example, you can see how many minutes your ride is left without keeping the Uber app open
In my book, seeing how far my Uber driver is or checking if I’m on track to find a coffee shop are two key use cases for Dynamic Island. Here are the things Apple promised us the feature would do, but just weren’t there when it launched. We’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out what a full-featured Dynamic Island can do on iOS and what an Android clone looks like. Meanwhile, impatient Android phone owners can download an app for that.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.