The Dynamic Island is such a low-key useful feature to have on the iPhone, that I never quite appreciated enough, until I picked up my iPhone again after using an Android phone for the last few months.
How to actually use the Dynamic Island
Not many people realise, for example, that if you don’t want to see something in the dynamic Island, you can just swipe across to dismiss it.
I actually did this once by mistake and thought I’d dismissed something that I actually wanted to keep, and then I realised that you can simply swipe back again to bring it back.
You can have up to 2 apps running on the Dynamic Island simultaneously, such as Music and a Countdown timer. But I have noticed that if you have two timers for example, you can’t display both at once. And if you have more than 2 apps that work with the Dynamic Island, it can get pretty difficult to control which ones display there. It’s meant to be the most recent 2 apps, but I’ve found on a lot of occasions that just doesn’t work.
And some super basic controls here, but tap once on the dynamic island will open the app in full screen view.
But a tap and hold will give you a small pop-up, usually with some like shortcut controls so you don’t need to go into the full app.
Music / Podcasts
The first is an obvious one, play Music or Podcasts from any music app. Apple Music, Spotify, Podcasts, and it will show up the top here. You can tap and hold to get to the quick controls to play, pause and skip tracks, and of course tap once to open the full app.
I’m not going to say that again because it’s the same for every app, tap once and the full thing opens. No need to repeat myself each time!
Headphone Connection & Battery level
The next thing, and genuinely useful thing I’ve found is another music one, but it’s when wearing headphones, and you can briefly see the headphones connect AND their battery level up there in the dynamic island.
This is SO useful as someone who has a pair of in-ear headphones specifically for the Gym each day, it’s useful to know when they’re running low so I can remember to throw the case on charge again when I get back in the car or at home.
It does also show up when your headphones reach a low battery level, but I find that the notification disappears pretty quickly that I often miss it.
But when I don’t miss it, is when I’m putting in my headphones because you’re probably on your phone already choosing what you want to listen to, so that little graphic right there is super useful.
Airplay
Also speaking of music, another handy one is when I open Spotify whilst sat near to an Airplay speaker like a Homepod, and the Dynamic Island pops up asking if I want to Airplay to something nearby. One tap and I can play on a nearby speaker. Very handy.
Uber / Lyft
Next up is another SUPER useful one that I think is quite underrated and that’s Uber, and I believe it works for Lyft as well.
It will show the time until your ride picks you up, SUPER useful because if you’re waiting for an uber then you’re probably sat there waiting, and probably playing on your phone already. Messaging people or whatever, so it’s nice to not have to keep going in and out of the Uber app to check how far away your ride is.
And then when you are in the uber, it shows the time that you’ll arrive, and if you tap and hold, you get more of a progress indicator that also shows where you are in your journey, just excuse the poorly filmed footage here. This was shot at midnight as you can see after a VERY long day of flight delays, but you get the idea.
Food delivery apps
Similarly with Food delivery apps like Deliveroo which will show you how long until your food gets here.
Flighty / United Airlines Apps
Speaking of flight delays!
A number of airlines like United support Dynamic Island in their apps, but there are also third-party flight apps that are super useful.
On said day of flight delays, I was using an app called Flighty to keep an eye on what was going on. And I found that I was getting updates to my phone WAY before they were showing on the boards in the airport.
Now this one is a Paid subscription at like £50 per year, but if you fly a lot, then this is WELL worth the cost.
You can get updates to your flights, gate information, delays, even predicted delays for your flight, and it also shows your seat number.
All again within that little dynamic island, which, if you’re sat in an Airport waiting - super useful without needing to constantly go into your airlines app and refresh to see if you’ve missed something. Or having to constantly get up and keep checking the boards every 20 minutes or so.
And so even though this is like, £50 a year - as someone who just spent about £400 on re-booking flights and an uber after my flights were delayed, then cancelled, then re-booked, I think it’s well worth it to give you the best chance at getting ahead of what’s going on with your flights. And like I said before, the more you travel, the more it’s worth using some form of app that can keep you updated on what’s going on.
Countdown timers
Now of course, you’re all probably aware that countdown timers show up in the Dynamic Island as well, just start a timer and swipe up for it to go up to the top. And you can pause and cancel it if you tap and hold on it.
Parking Timers
But another GREAT way that I’ve used Dynamic Island has been when paying to park my car, and then be able to keep an eye on how long I have left.
And it’s not like you’d keep getting your phone out to check how long you had left on your car, but when you are naturally checking your phone for notifications or messages or emails, being able to at a glance remind yourself that you only have like, 15 minutes left, is a handy dandy reminder. Because a few times I have totally lost track of time and not realised, then been stung with a parking ticket.
So yeah, that one is cool.
Sports Scores / NFL App
There’s also a number of sports apps like the NFL app where you can pin games to the dynamic island to see what time the game starts and then keep track of the scores if you can’t watch the live game.
Workout Routines
There’s gym workout apps like Hevy which I’ve been using for years now, where it will count down your rest timer between sets using the Dynamic Island, and then a tap and hold will show you what the next exercise is.
Torch / Flashlight
You’ve also got the new Torch, or Flashlight which shows when it’s on, and tapping on this will expand to give you more controls.
Swiping up and down will change the brightness
And switching left and right will change how thin or wide the light is, just in case you want a really bright but also really focussed beam of light, instead of just a general wash of light.
I use this almost every day when I walk upstairs to bed at like, midnight, trying not to wake anyone else in the house with bright lights.
Apple Maps Directions
Navigation also goes up into the Dynamic Island, for both Apple AND Google Maps. As soon as you swipe up and out of either app, they’ll go into the Dynamic Island area so you can see the next turn you need to take, and if you tap and hold you’ll get a little more information on those directions.
Screen Recording
If you ever screen record on your iPhone, Dynamic Island puts a red dot up in the top so you can quickly get to and stop the screen recording.
Love how quick and easy it is to get to that.
Other Apps
Outside of these, there are of course, plenty of other apps.
Pixel Pals puts a tamagotchi-like animal in the dynamic island to feed and play with.
Hit the Island lets you use the dynamic island to play a fun game.
Apps that turn the Dynamic Island area into a quick shortcuts area, quick access to notes, or to see your clipboard history.
And many more!
