Other Dynamic Island makes it impossible to use iPhone 14 with one hand

[Andrew73875]

So, here's one of the reviews that shows how the dynamic island works (time stamped)

First of all, it's an amazing achievement. Looks very cool and futuristic.

However, to make use of the "island" you have to push to the upper part of the display. It's safe to say that it's impossible to do so with one hand. Especially considering that Pro models have rather large screens.

We tend to make fast gestures with one hand in the lower part of the screen (that's why home button was there). And Apple already elaborated on this topic earlier:

It seems that the design process for this feature was reversed. Not "how are we going to make our phone more comfortable to use", but rather "how are we going to make use of this notch and make it less distracting".

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[WilliamG]

Not to mention spending your whole day smudging the front camera. Nice.

 

[NARadyk]

It’s a nice feature indeed but it will be great to see how quickly the “brilliance” of it wears off once the hype dies down.

 

[Pilot Jones]

The only issue with Dynamic Island it its utterly goofy and overindulgent name.

The feature-set itself actually introduces quite a phenomenal step forward for iOS usability and while omnipresent, does not force anyone to use it. I'm sure you can continue to play/pause your music through control center, or check your timer on the lock screen instead of using the Dynamic Island. But it's there if you need it.

If you're a one-handed phone user, just don't use it and continue using your device as you have been.

 

[Royksöpp]

You don’t have to use it. It’s just there as a convenience.

 

[Moakesy]

On the Pro Max maybe so, but not true for the regular Pro.

It wasn't that long ago you had to click that area of the screen when using safari. No-one complained then, so why now?

 

[MandiMac]

Not to mention spending your whole day smudging the front camera. Nice.

You're talking as if we never swiped downwards up there to get to the notification center multiple times a day...

 

[Mercifull]

Impossible to know until people get their hands on it, but can you still "pull down" the display (reachability) by swiping? I use that a lot during one-handed use to reach things at the top of the screen. It'll be interesting if the dynamic island slides down as well. If not then reachability won't be much use. But if it does what gets left behind? A second pill?

 

[WilliamG]

You're talking as if we never swiped downwards up there to get to the notification center multiple times a day...

Why would you swipe there? You swipe to the left or right of the notch (or just below the notch).

 

[NARadyk]

Why would you swipe there? You swipe to the left or right of the notch (or just below the notch).

I’ve never heard this before and just tried it a few times with little success? But I’m probably just holding my phone wrong.

 

[lkalliance]

Impossible to know until people get their hands on it, but can you still "pull down" the display (reachability) by swiping? I use that a lot during one-handed use to reach things at the top of the screen. It'll be interesting if the dynamic island slides down as well. If not then reachability won't be much use. But if it does what gets left behind? A second pill?

I'm assuming that Ultrafluid Atoll stays put when you invoke reachability, as its "anchor" is a physical thing (the pill) with a software thing built around it (the Archipelago Unit). If it DOES swipe down, then I would guess that the pill is still rendered there in software for continuity, and the hardware pill just stays where it is.

 

[lkalliance]

So, here's one of the reviews that shows how the dynamic island works (time stamped)

First of all, it's an amazing achievement. Looks very cool and futuristic.

However, to make use of the "island" you have to push to the upper part of the display. It's safe to say that it's impossible to do so with one hand. Especially considering that Pro models have rather large screens.

We tend to make fast gestures with one hand in the lower part of the screen (that's why home button was there). And Apple already elaborated on this topic earlier:

It seems that the design process for this feature was reversed. Not "how are we going to make our phone more comfortable to use", but rather "how are we going to make use of this notch and make it less distracting".

What are your thoughts on this?

I do get it when people talk about one-handed use...but I have never used my phone one-handed, even back when it was much smaller. I guess I never took to it. Once in a while I do so, under physically limited circumstances, when I probably shouldn't be using the phone anyway, lol. But I'd expect that something between 99.5% and 100% of the time I am holding it with my left and interacting with my right.

 

[revs]

I can quite easily tap the top of my iPhone XR when holding with one hand, I use my thumb.

 

[eyoungren]

Dynamic Island makes it impossible to use iPhone 14 with one hand

Me: Hey, I broke my phone. Going to have to spend a few $$$ to replace it.

Wife: Oh? How did you break a ~$1000 phone?

Me: Uhm, I dropped it on accident.

Wife: How?

Me: Uhhhh…I was one-handing the phone.

Wife: So you broke a ~$1000 phone because you dropped it when you were trying to be slick and one-handing it. How stupid was that?!

I know how this conversation will go.

TWO Hands!!!

 

[OW22]

It's why I still love my iPhone 12 Mini!

 

[DJLC]

Maybe I'm being dense, but I don't see how this is any departure from current functionality...

Want to switch apps? The home bar thing and app switcher is still at the bottom.

Want to control music or timers or whatever? Control center has been at the top for a while now. The Dynamic Island adds more convenient access to some of those functions, but they're still physically at the top just like they have been.

So what about this is different? If you buy a bigger phone and have smaller hands (like me), you get used to it.

Anyways, excited to trade my 13PM in for the 14PM.

 

[Andrew73875]

Maybe I'm being dense, but I don't see how this is any departure from current functionality...

Want to switch apps? The home bar thing and app switcher is still at the bottom.

Want to control music or timers or whatever? Control center has been at the top for a while now. The Dynamic Island adds more convenient access to some of those functions, but they're still physically at the top just like they have been.

So what about this is different? If you buy a bigger phone and have smaller hands (like me), you get used to it.

Anyways, excited to trade my 13PM in for the 14PM.

But that's why they moved everything to the bottom in Safari etc, to make it easier to use an iPhone with one hand. Dynamic island is the move in completely different direction, which is strange.

It's kind of the same story with Delete button in the Phone App.

It was in the bottom of the screen since the very first iOS

It was moved up starting iOS 7 (when screens got larger, which makes no sense)

And since iOS 12 or so, it's again in the bottom of the screen (which makes more sense).

Same with the dynamic island concept, it's just not consistent. Either we move all important stuff to the bottom of the screen for reachability (like in Safari), or we just don't care about it and do whatever we want. Someone should decide on design direction of the iOS.

 

[JPack]

I don't know anybody who one-hands their iPhone, not since iPhone 5.

 

[usmaak]

I always go for the largest phones and my hands aren’t quite big enough to use a phone one handed.

My question is, can dynamic island be turned off in settings?

My other question - who in the hell came up with that name? A random word generator?

 

[madrigal77]

Not to mention spending your whole day smudging the front camera. Nice.

Why would you care about the front camera? They should delete it anyway.

 

[zakarhino]

I don’t think people understand the majority of interactive content in the dynamic island is literally just iOS 16 live events or whatever they’re called. They are dynamic live notifications that ordinarily sit in your notification tray so if you don’t want to use the Island you can just swipe down your notification tray instead.

The dynamic island just gives you a convenient way to access those live events which is why I wasn’t blown away by it yesterday: we’ve already seen the functionality at WWDC this year!

 

[Geckotek]

I don't recall the last time I was able to use an iPhone one-handed without some sort of rear "holder" like an iRing or pop-socket.

 

[IJBrekke]

I do get it when people talk about one-handed use...but I have never used my phone one-handed, even back when it was much smaller. I guess I never took to it. Once in a while I do so, under physically limited circumstances, when I probably shouldn't be using the phone anyway, lol. But I'd expect that something between 99.5% and 100% of the time I am holding it with my left and interacting with my right.

Everything changed when I had a kid. One-handed use became a necessity when holding the kid in the other arm, so the mini was the only realistic choice at that point.

 

[mpavilion]

Why would you care about the front camera? They should delete it anyway.

Yes, no one uses FaceTime or takes selfies... great call

 

[Paddle1]

Notification Center, Control Center, notifications (including phone calls) all already appear at the top. It's not really anything new. Sure a lot can be done lower on the screen, but not everything.