How to manage activity on the Dynamic Island in iOS 17

AppleInsider

Apple's launch of the Dynamic Island served as a practical method for showcasing alerts and activities on the iPhone. However, it's possible to hide these activities to keep the display clutter-free.

How to hide activity in the Dynamic Island in iOS 17

The launch of the Dynamic Island with the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max updated the iPhone interface. The feature, a pill-shaped area at the top of the screen, aesthetically blends into the iOS interface while serving as a hub for key iPhone alerts and activities, such as Face ID unlocking and Apple Pay payments.

But you can control the activities in the Dynamic Island to prevent clutter at the top of your iPhone's display.

How to manage activity on the Dynamic Island in iOS 17

1. Dismiss Activities: Swipe left or right across the Dynamic Island to dismiss activities.


2. Switching Between Activities: Use swipe-out gestures to bring back and switch between multiple activities.


3. Expanding and Collapsing Activities: Touch and hold an activity or swipe from the center to the sides to see more details.


4. Split Dynamic Island for Multiple Activities: The Dynamic Island can split into two parts, displaying different information simultaneously.

Dismissing activities won't impact any ongoing actions. For example, if you dismiss an Apple Music playback from the Dynamic Island, the music will continue to play in the background.

Apple's Dynamic Island is useful for displaying all sorts of information, but it can also be distracting

Managing the activity of the Dynamic Island on the iPhone is beneficial for several reasons. First, it enhances focus by allowing you to dismiss activities, thereby reducing distractions and enabling you to concentrate on the main content.

Second, it contributes to multi-tasking efficiency, as the ease of switching between activities facilitates a smoother, more user-friendly experience. Last, customizing Dynamic Island activity personalizes the user experience so you can tailor your device's functionality to suit your individual needs and preferences.



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Xed

I love the concept of the Dynamic Island and maybe it was always meant to be more of a sublet feature, but I do feel that its full potential has been fully realized (read: implemented) yet by Apple. What that potential is I cannot say, but every time I think about it I get this niggle that something seemingly obvious has been overlooked.

charlesn

Xed said:

I love the concept of the Dynamic Island and maybe it was always meant to be more of a sublet feature, but I do feel that its full potential has been fully realized (read: implemented) yet by Apple. What that potential is I cannot say, but every time I think about it I get this niggle that something seemingly obvious has been overlooked.

Shades of the Mac Touch Bar and 3D Touch on the iPhone, Apple seems to develop these genuinely interesting new ways to interact with a device, which then fail to attract much third party support or more robust development from Apple and then get dropped. Dynamic Island seems to be an obvious placeholder until Apple figures out how to do what other phone manufacturers have been doing for a while--put an all screen display on iPhone, unencumbered by a notch or an island or anything else. I"m not sure what's taking Apple so long. 

dewme

I have to admit that I pretty much ignore the Dynamic Island on my 14 Pro Max. Not by choice but simply by habit and conditioning. Something may appear in the pill hole every so often but my Pavlovian conditioning from several years of using notchy phones kicks in and my brain pretty much blocks it out. Poof! It's suddenly invisible. I may occasionally notice something in the hole, but it doesn't register as anything important because it's so tiny. If it was something I really needed to know it would be put into a notification and have persistence. I honestly cannot attest to ever seeing the Dynamic Island cleave into two smaller mini islands. As conditioning based responses go, this one's not too bad I suppose. There's no uncontrollable salivation or drooling involved. 

Xed

charlesn said:

Xed said:

I love the concept of the Dynamic Island and maybe it was always meant to be more of a sublet feature, but I do feel that its full potential has been fully realized (read: implemented) yet by Apple. What that potential is I cannot say, but every time I think about it I get this niggle that something seemingly obvious has been overlooked.

Shades of the Mac Touch Bar and 3D Touch on the iPhone, Apple seems to develop these genuinely interesting new ways to interact with a device, which then fail to attract much third party support or more robust development from Apple and then get dropped. Dynamic Island seems to be an obvious placeholder until Apple figures out how to do what other phone manufacturers have been doing for a while--put an all screen display on iPhone, unencumbered by a notch or an island or anything else. I"m not sure what's taking Apple so long. 

And now Macs now have a notch when the iPhone no longer does and seemingly no movement in getting Face ID HW into that space to make the large notch worth the effort. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯