where is the island: Dynamic Island? ?

By ming, 16 September, 2022

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

anyone got the IPhone 14 pro or pro max.
i am wondering the if it have any different when touching the Dynamic Island? ?
or how to find it if we are totally blind?

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Comments

By Squirrel on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 - 17:26

+1 for being curious to hear more about the Dynamic Island and how it's accessed with VoiceOver. Is it part of the Status Bar as far as VoiceOver is concerned, or a distinct UI element? If the latter, how hard is it to locate?

Hoping to hear from some lucky iPhone 14 Pro owners soon 😀

By Andy Lane on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

Hi, I understand the island is between the front facing camera and Face ID sensor so its in the centre at the top however it either isn’t going to be used with VO or they haven’t got round to doing it yet because touching it does nothing and there’s no new information in the status bar sadly. A bit of a disappointment to be honest. The phone is great though, quick and great speakers. A really really good upgrade from 11 Pro Max but as for dynamic island. No bueno. Startup sounds are great though. I hope that helps even though its not good news.

By Andy Lane on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

Ok, you know the sound VO makes when you are not on an element it can interact with, say an empty part of the Home Screen. It makes that noise when you move over the dynamic island. So it’s showing there is a touchscreen there that knows my finger is there but VO isn’t aware of any UI under it. I’m running 16.1 beta.

By Andy Lane on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

I was wondering what they were going to do with the ear peace / speaker that had a grill over it in previous phones. Well they have just moved it up so it’s under the metal lip and still part of the glass screen. It’s about the thickness of my fingernail and there’s no glass above it, just the metal frame above. I was wondering if they were going to move it into the frame but they didn’t.

By Karina Velazquez on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

Thank you very much for all your explanations.

However, I am very disappointed to know that the dynamic island will not have any use for us, I was urge to change my iPhone 12 for an iPhone 14 Pro just for the dynamic island, but now I am very sad knowing the die will better get an iPhone 13 Pro maybe.

Greetings

By 1drew on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

Just to capture my experience with the dynamic island on my Iphone 14 pro max. I don't think the dynamic island always has info in it that is useful. Sometimes It seems that area just shows the network and cell signal. That said, I do see it with VO. When using Youtube music in the background, the dynamic island shows the artist and song title and says double tap to expand app. Double tapping expands to show the player. I will play with it more but I do think it is there with Vo.

By Andy Lane on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

Hi, That’s great you are having some success with now playing. After seeing your post I tried it myself but nothing. Which version of iOS are you using? I’m on 16..1 public beta 1. I’ve started a track playing then gone to home but nothing for me. I then went to various apps while the music was still playing in Apple Music and still nothing.

By hllf on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

I got my iPhone 14 Pro Max yesterday, and the dynamic island is fully accessible with VoiceOver, so I'm a bit confused as to why people are claiming otherwise.

The dynamic island appears at the very top of the screen, right in the middle. It shows up when there is background activity. So far, I have tested it with both playing music from the music app and when a timer is running in the background.

For example, if I start playing a song from my Apple Music Library, about 5 seconds after the song starts, I can touch the dynamic island, and it tells me the title of the song that is playing. I then have VoiceOver actions to either activate (which opens the music app) or to expand, which is the sighted equivalent of touching and holding. This makes the island larger and provides more information. In the case of a song playing, I now see a little more info about the song and have buttons to skip and play/pause and do AirPlay. When the island is in an expanded state, VoiceOver actions give me the ability to activate like before or now to collapse, which makes the island go small again.

When I set a timer, it's the same behavior. The neat thing is when the activity disappears, such as if I do a magic tap to stop a song, the dynamic island disappears. If I magic tap again to start the song, a few seconds after the song starts playing, the island re-appears.

Overall, I think it's really neat and am thrilled Apple made it fully accessible with VoiceOver out of the box. When third-party apps start supporting it like Uber, this has the potential to be super amazingly cool in my opinion.

By Andy Lane on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

I just tried the timer as you also had success with that but again no luck. Nothing there but blank space. Comically I set the timer for 30 seconds then put the phone on my chest to type this. Didn’t realise the timer was on full blast and it very nearly blasted me through the roof. Lol. I’m hoping they bring functionality back in the next beta if that is what the problem is. I hope the OP sees your comment because I had said it didn’t work to which they were understandably disappointed.

By hllf on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

That is certainly possible. I'm running 16.0.1. They may have broken it with the current latest beta. I'll start a new thread with the title that the island is accessible, so everyone sees it.

By David Goodwin on Friday, October 14, 2022 - 17:26

From our testing and what we've heard, it appears that the iOS 16.1 beta might indeed be the reason for conflicting reports on the accessibility of the Dynamic Island.

We believe that if you are running the beta, you will likely find accessibility issues. However, on 16.0.1 the Dynamic Island should be fully accessible.

It is integrated into the VoiceOver status bar, located at the top of your iPhone screen (and available via keyboard command or braille shortcut if you use an external keyboard or braille display with your iPhone). You can also drag your finger over Dynamic Island to hear VoiceOver describe an activity or alert. Typically, a long press will expand the activity/alert, whilst a double-tap will open the associated app.

Note that Dynamic Island is only available when there is an alert or ongoing activity to display — for example music that’s playing, a timer, an AirDrop connection, and directions from Maps. When Dynamic Island does not have an activity or alert to display, VoiceOver status bar will not include Dynamic Island.

If your experience on either 16.0.1 or the current 16.1 beta release does not match the above, please let us know by adding a comment below.

If you are on the beta and encountering problems with the Dynamic Island, please be sure to file a report through the Feedback Assistant so that we can hopefully get this resolved before the public release.