We’ve been curious how third-party developers would make use of the iPhone 14 Pro’s new Dynamic Island feature and we’re beginning to see results trickle in. Thank Jobs that at least one of these apps is a game.
If you’ve been living in a cave the last week or so, Dynamic Island is Apple’s new feature on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max that obscures the front-facing TrueDepth camera hardware while also offering developers anew way to provide alerts, prompts and other interactions.
Apple describes it this way:
Dynamic Island: An Interactive User Experience
The Dynamic Island enables new ways to interact with iPhone, featuring a design that blends the line between hardware and software, adapting in real time to show important alerts, notifications, and activities. With the introduction of the Dynamic Island, the TrueDepth camera has been redesigned to take up less of the display area. Without impeding content on the screen, the Dynamic Island maintains an active state to allow users easier access to controls with a simple tap-and-hold. Ongoing background activities like Maps, Music, or a timer remain visible and interactive, and third-party apps in iOS 16 that provide information like sports scores and ride-sharing with Live Activities can take advantage of the Dynamic Island.
Kriss Smolka, the developer behind apps like WaterMinder and HabitMinder, on Tuesday, shared a simple game concept for Dynamic Island. The game is reminiscent of classic arcade games like Breakout and Pong.
Who has an iPhone 14 Pro right now? Need to test this on device asap!
🏝️ Hit The Island – our game concept for iPhone 14 Pro, still laggy but it’s turning out nice 🙂 #iPhone14Pro #iOS16 pic.twitter.com/kWLU77gk6d
— Kriss Smolka💧 (@ksmolka) September 13, 2022
The “Hit the Island” game concept makes use of a paddle at the bottom of the screen to send a ball up to the Dynamic Island, scoring points by hitting the Island and causing it to animate.
It remains to be seen whether Apple would approve a game that uses Dynamic Island in this manner. However, it certainly demonstrates the type of out-of-the-box thinking that developers might approach the new feature with. We’ll likely see at least a trickle of apps making use of Dynamic Island this Friday when the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max pre-orders hit customer doorsteps.
