iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

[Unregistered 4U]

Bookmarked. We’ll revisit this next September to see who is right. If the pill goes away Apple will have to renovate live activities. And by definition live activities take up screen space.

That’s what I think. Live Activities was created to give a black space on front of the phone a reason for existing. No under display camera will ever have the quality of a camera that can simply “collect all the light” (Samsung’s even given up on it because, in the end, consumers take a LOT of selfies and that’s more important to them than ‘you can’t see the camera!’).

So, since consumers want better selfies and Apple has a reason for there to be black space on the front, they’re set. And, that’s before taking into account that no other manufacturer is trying to do anything like FaceID, and that’s a much larger problem to move under a screen.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Bookmarked. We’ll revisit this next September to see who is right. If the pill goes away Apple will have to renovate live activities. And by definition live activities take up screen space.

You don’t need a pill to do that. They could have done exactly the same thing they do now with the notch, or a pill, or a circle, or nothing at all.

 

[SmugMaverick]

They'll copy Google's way of doing live activities with just a little pill in the corner of status bar

 

[Kidseeghost]

…

 

[CarAnalogy]

I hope the Dynamic Island 🏝️ will still be available as an option (via virtual means) from within settings for all of us who have gotten so used to using it on a daily basis on so many apps these days

I finally accepted it and don't mind it on my 17PM, due to the aspect ratio there's not really anything in that space anyway.

They could have always had the DI design, whether it was the notch, a cutout, or nothing. They can still just use that area of the display. They backed themselves into it out of necessity but it actually works out.

 

[mabaker]

Serious Q: why has Apple struggled with this for so long? Isn't this "old tech" by now?

They are just a startup. Give them a break!

 

[jecowa]

Please give it under-the-display Touch ID.

 

[The Game 161]

only took like 10 years, we should have faster innovation

nobody else has this on the market with high level cameras. so this would be a first

 

[The Game 161]

so all this is on track for all under screen for 2027 then....very interesting

 

[tomtad]

I hope the Dynamic Island 🏝️ will still be available as an option (via virtual means) from within settings for all of us who have gotten so used to using it on a daily basis on so many apps these days

It's not going anywhere, just the central camera part will get smaller enabling it to display more information if needed. Currently it can get a bit tight especially if there's multiple live activities happening.

One thing I'd like to see are some more options for the DI. For Podcast playback it would be great to how long is left rather than just the waveform for example. A toggle to just tap rather than long press to expand it would also be nice.

 

[tyrnnsrs]

Strangely the smaller dot on my Androids bothers me more than the pill shape of dynamic island like it's more "in your face" in a way?

I think because it is symmetrical in the middle of the screen and the shape itself is nicer than just a random circle. I also think Apple did a really good job incorporating it with the software to make it seem seamless and not just a cutout in the display.

 

[satchmo]

The current Apple playbook requires customers to be milked, so it's almost assuredly going to be a phased out process with a smaller island > pinhole > smaller pinhole > semi-circle > nothing. 😛

 

[one more]

Nah, I am skipping iPhone 18 for the real deal - iPhone XX! 😉🖐️

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I hope the Dynamic Island 🏝️ will still be available as an option (via virtual means) from within settings for all of us who have gotten so used to using it on a daily basis on so many apps these days

How many apps do you have the use it? For me it’s Spotify (which I wish it wouldn’t), timers and DoorDash. That’s it. It always seems a lot of work for not much gain.

 

[yanki01]

finally this gimmick can die. the "island" isn't a feature! such laziness to not innovate something better instead thinking the users like this "feature". time to get rid of this gimmick.

 

[I7guy]

The Dynamic Island will just become like the liquid glass UI instead of black and will only pop up when there is a timer, music, notification etc. Its definitely not going to be black and visible all the time.

Yes I agree. it will probably disappear and only show up when needed as needed.

It’s only black and permanent there to hide face ID and the camera. The goal since the iPhone X was a full screen iPhone and this matches also the reports about the iPhone 20 becoming exactly that with a display similar to the Apple watch.

Yes. Possibly.

 

[I7guy]

How many apps do you have the use it? For me it’s Spotify (which I wish it wouldn’t), timers and DoorDash. That’s it. It always seems a lot of work for not much gain.

Timers, uber, flights/airport etc.

 

[klasma]

You don’t need a pill to do that. They could have done exactly the same thing they do now with the notch, or a pill, or a circle, or nothing at all.

They’ll probably have to keep it in iOS though for ~7 years after the last DI iPhone is released.

It will be interesting to see what they’ll do on the foldable. It won’t have Face ID and the outer screen is less than 3:2. Will it have a notch?

 

[klasma]

Please give it under-the-display Touch ID.

Touch ID is useless if you have to look at the phone to place your finger in the correct spot. The great thing about Touch ID is that you can use it blindly.

 

[User 6502]

That’s the defining feature from the front and will not go away.imo

They said the same thing about the notch. Thankfully that monstrosity did go away. Hopefully the pill 💊 will go too.

 

[ThailandToo]

I hope the Dynamic Island 🏝️ will still be available as an option (via virtual means) from within settings for all of us who have gotten so used to using it on a daily basis on so many apps these days

You want your screen real estate blocked out by black pixels. LMAO

 

[ThailandToo]

Hard disagree. I find the notch far more intrusive and annoying - prefer the Dynamic Island x10000. I wish Macs would get rid of the notch in favour of either a Dynamic Island or a pinhole.

But I get why there’s differing opinions on it. Eventually these workarounds will both be phased out for ultimate edge to edge screen real estate.

I would rather have the stupid island than the stupid notch. Agree with you there but they’re both terribly stupid and design decisions so everyone knows you’re using an iPhone. Just like the Mac has the notch so everyone knows it’s a MacBook from the front. I would prefer them put MacBook on the bottom of the display than a stupid design standard notch. Apple really has to ruin the user experience with design features to tell the world this is an Apple product. This is the biggest problem of Apple since Jobs was CEO. He would have never stood for stupidity. He thought the user interface was the most important part. And it’s been getting worse along with software for years.

Cannot wait until someone with some design sense can say no to marketing. The CEO obviously only cares about money by making himself wealthy by making shareholders wealthy. All the others stakeholders have gotten the shaft under Crook. This is why there’s a mass exodus of senior personnel and brain drain. Meta will pay in stock. Apple is so worried about the shareholders they’re willing to lose every bit of their employees, to ensure shareholders make bank so the very senior most people like Crook get bank and everyone else gets the shaft. Sad company to not look out for all stakeholders and this is what monopolistic capitalism looks like where a few big companies end up controlling everything. It’s not a good look and I applaud the EU for standing up against Apple. Now I would prefer all governments stand up for consumers and all stakeholders in companies. Companies are meant to return a profit not to only care about the top 1%.

 

[mkush]

…but that doesn't mean there won't be no Dynamic Island at all…

Grammar oops!

 

[I7guy]

They said the same thing about the notch. Thankfully that monstrosity did go away. Hopefully the pill 💊 will go too.

The notch morphed. While a part of it did go away a part stayed.

 

[tennisproha]

Dynamic Island is a really useful feature, similar to the active apps icons at the top of the watch face on Apple Watch. This is sort of akin to the menu bar status icons on macOS.