When Apple announced the iPhone 14 series in September 2022, they "shocked" the world by announcing the Dynamic Island, which made the former notch more useful than just dead space on your screen. Now that the hype has died down and more people are using the iPhone 14 Pro, the Dynamic Island doesn't have the same charm as it did when it was announced in September.
One of the reasons for its lack of hype is the sparse app support. Developers haven't taken advantage of Apple's ActivityKit framework, which is a vital framework for not only Live Activities, but for the Dynamic Island too. If a developer does choose to support the Dynamic Island, they usually lock it behind a paywall, which is more often than not a subscription to the app's premium services. One example of a developer locking Dynamic Island support behind a subscription paywall is the app "Carrot Weather", which costs $19.99/yr for their premium services. Now, it is understandable that you're not just paying for Dynamic Island support (you also get the app's premium services for that tier), but to lock a functionality of iOS behind a paywall is beyond absurd. I get that apps like Carrot Weather have to make a call to an API every time it updates the Live Activity (which can be super expensive, depending on what API you're using), but other apps locking Dynamic Island functionality behind a paywall is just unjustifiable.
Another reason why the Dynamic Island isn't as innovative as you'd think is because it just gets boring after a while of using it. I got the iPhone 14 Pro in November 2022, and for the first 2 weeks, I loved the Dynamic Island. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I still think it's useful in some ways, but now I often find myself swiping it away because sometimes it's more of a distraction than a functionality.
With all that being said, there are some welcome changes that the Dynamic Island brings. One of those being the new low battery warning system. When you have a low battery on iPhones that don't have the Dynamic Island, there is an annoying popup that presents you with 2 options; either close or turn on Low Power Mode (LPM). If your phone's battery is low and you have an iPhone with the Dynamic Island, instead of a popup, it uses the Dynamic Island, which you can either simply swipe away or hold if you want to enable LPM.
The main idea of this article is that you shouldn't buy the iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max just because of the Dynamic Island. The 14 Pro/PM offers so much more than just that, with its 48mp camera, 128hz screen, and all-around more premium feel.
