Dynamic Island will come to the Mac next

[mectojic]

First we had the notch on the iPhone. The iPhone notch came to the MacBook. The notch has now been replaced by the pill. The pill will be next.

I'm calling it now. The 2nd gen 14 & 16-inch MacBook Pros will have a pill and the dynamic island; this will be then copied by the M3 MacBook Air, and of course the iPhone 15/16.

The advantages? Not many. I suppose if you mouse over the dynamic island, it'll react, expand/contract and you'll get clickable options. As for the cursor, obviously it will have to disappear in that region (because no under-display camera exists yet), so inside the expanded black 'island' area, the cursor will probably transform into an iPad-like mouse cursor (a round spot that 'locks' onto clickable items).

 

[senttoschool]

It's a pretty cool software gimmick to a physics problem.

However, I don't see how it's useful on a Mac. It seems like Dynamic Island tries to make use of the limited horizontal space on a phone. Laptops don't have this problem. Dynamic content like this would be pretty annoying on a laptop because one of the main benefits of a laptop over a phone is that you get to see more things at the same time.

 

[leman]

Probably less useful on a Mac and not clear how it would work with the menu. I do like how Apple is trying to fuse together elements of software and hardware design. The notch on the Mac is already a good example I think - it’s a way to blend a software component (menu bar) into the display bezel.

 

[ian87w]

It's a pretty cool software gimmick to a physics problem.

However, I don't see how it's useful on a Mac. It seems like Dynamic Island tries to make use of the limited horizontal space on a phone. Laptops don't have this problem. Dynamic content like this would be pretty annoying on a laptop because one of the main benefits of a laptop over a phone is that you get to see more things at the same time.

Agree. The island thing is a smart UI solution for the lack of desktop space on a phone. The Mac doesn't have that problem to begin with. The animation in fact can be annoying on a desktop OS. I mean I never even bother with notification side bar on my mac as I can have the app window on my desktop all the time.

 

[mectojic]

Agree. The island thing is a smart UI solution for the lack of desktop space on a phone. The Mac doesn't have that problem to begin with. The animation in fact can be annoying on a desktop OS. I mean I never even bother with notification side bar on my mac as I can have the app window on my desktop all the time.

You say that, but there was no "lack of desktop space" on the Mac, yet they still added a notch.

 

[Zest28]

First we had the notch on the iPhone. The iPhone notch came to the MacBook. The notch has now been replaced by the pill. The pill will be next.

I'm calling it now. The 2nd gen 14 & 16-inch MacBook Pros will have a pill and the dynamic island; this will be then copied by the M3 MacBook Air, and of course the iPhone 15/16.

The advantages? Not many. I suppose if you mouse over the dynamic island, it'll react, expand/contract and you'll get clickable options. As for the cursor, obviously it will have to disappear in that region (because no under-display camera exists yet), so inside the expanded black 'island' area, the cursor will probably transform into an iPad-like mouse cursor (a round spot that 'locks' onto clickable items).

Nope.

It took many years for Mac's to adopt the notch. So it will take Apple many years to adopt Dynamic Island.

 

[leman]

You say that, but there was no "lack of desktop space" on the Mac, yet they still added a notch.

Users were complaining about camera quality and the thick bezels. The notch is a way to address both complains while adding a recognizable, unique branding.

 

[maflynn]

I don't see notifications being used the same way on phones as computers, so I'm not entirely sure it makes sense on the Mac.

Not every Mac has built-in displays and trying to get developers to adopt the use and keep the existing area for notifications seems problematic.

 

[dugbug]

yeah, its a great idea for the iphone. very clever to use the negative space in unused portions of standard indicators and statuses however the mac is just a different animal.

 

[stevemiller]

i can see them reducing the webcam into more of a pill shaped design language at some point sure, but in terms of all the dynamic island stuff - most of its utility is that its a touch-target for various quick tasks. on a touchscreen that makes sense, but on a cursor based system, where the cursor is hidden by the notch, it kinda breaks the illusion and would just make for a more fiddly version of the system tray we already have.