How to have the dynamic island of the iPhone 14 Pro on your Android mobile.In the iPhone 14 Pro , Apple had a surprise for us: we went from the notch to an elongated perforation that transforms to show us contextual information, such as what song we are playing or multimedia playback. Apple has called this the dynamic island and obviously it wasn’t long before someone thought of duplicating it on Android .
Approximately ten days have passed since the launch of the new iPhone and we already have an app to have the dynamic island of the iPhone on Android that works quite well . One drawback: it’s in Chinese, but even for that the community has already taken it upon itself to find a fix.
How to have the dynamic island of the iPhone 14 Pro on your Android mobile
- Install Smart Bird
Interested in having an island on your Android mobile? Time will tell if Android makers will decide to include something similar in future versions – probably yes – but for now you’ll have to settle for getting something similar with apps . As time goes by, these types of applications are more and more polished and provide us with an experience that is really similar to the one we have in iOS 16.
Today, the best alternative to the dynamic island for Android is Smart Bird, a Chinese application that is still only available in Chinese. Don’t let that discourage you, the app is quite simple to use even if you don’t understand anything. Also, someone has bothered to unofficially translate the app into English .
- Download original Smart Bird (in Chinese)
- Download Modified Smart Bird
We have analyzed both versions with Virustotal, obtaining the same result of 0/64 , but in any case you must take into account that you use this application at your own risk . And it is not something trivial, because for its correct use you will need to grant it advanced permissions .
- Add the permissions
Then open the application and you will find a series of sliders at the top and then buttons in red or orange. These buttons in red indicate the status of the configuration and that you still have to grant certain permissions .
The first permission you’re going to need to grant is to display on top of other apps , which is obvious since the island’s graphics need to be overlaid on top of everything else. If you press the first button in red that starts with the (!). The button just below it allows you to accept the accessibility permission for the app, although this appears to be optional.
Finally, the last button at the bottom allows you to give the app permission to find nearby devices . This is used to display a notification when headphones are nearby, for example.
- Configure your island
With all the permissions ready, the button with the play icon turns green and includes the text All done, have fun! , but it is possible that the “island” in the app does not match our camera . We can adjust it with the four sliders at the top. Here are the options in order from top to bottom:
- Height
- Width
- Distance from top edge
- Distance from the side
Also, with the three buttons at the top you can choose where your camera hole is : on the left, center or on the right.
- Enjoy
You already have it ready. Don’t expect a complete alternative to Apple’s dynamic island just yet, but do expect the camera’s punch-hole to come to life from time to time to show you information. You can test it by connecting headphones or when you put the mobile to charge .
Bearing in mind that not even a couple of weeks have passed since we got to know the dynamic island of the iPhone first hand, the implementation is quite good , beyond the language problem.
