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iPhone 18 Pro Dynamic Island to Shrink, Add Third Live Activity

Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro will come with a narrower Dynamic Island that will allow it to display more Live Activities than the current iPhone 17 Pro, according to Bloomberg.

smaller dynamic island iphone 18 pro Filip Vabrousek

iPhone 18 Pro mockup by Filip Vabrousek

Mark Gurman reports that the new "smaller and improved" Dynamic Island on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will allow users to "toggle between three live tasks" at the top of their screen.

Previously, the Dynamic Island could only display up to two Live Activities at a time. This design has been in place since the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, which launched in 2022.

Otherwise, Gurman says the look of the iPhone 18 Pro models is similar to the iPhone 17 Pro models, save for a new "burgundy red" color option replacing the popular Cosmic Orange. Sky blue and Silver have also been reported previously as potential color options.

Internal upgrades include a new A20 Pro chip manufactured using TSMC's 2nm process, longer battery life, a revamped vapor chamber cooling system, and a mechanical aperture lens that enables more precise depth of field and better low-light performance – though this latter feature may be exclusive to the larger iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Apple's "Surprise and Shine" event kicks off at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time later today, and we'll have full coverage right here on MacRumors.

Related Roundup: iPhone 18 Pro
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Top Rated Comments

8 weeks ago

how does it become smaller AND show more?
The Dynamic Island is hardware+software. The whole Dynamic Island (cutout+software/display functions) can remain the same size or get larger while just the hardware (cutout) component shrinks.

A lot of reporting about the Dynamic Island conflates the hardware (pill-shaped cutout) with the entire Dynamic Island, which includes the software functions around the pill.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 weeks ago
how does it become smaller AND show more?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 weeks ago
Highly possible that this will be only for 18 Pro but will be disappointing if the option to have 3 live activities is not made available on the 17 Pro/Pro Max and older iPhones. See no reason why it cannot be done.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 weeks ago

I agree, I get frustrated when Apple touts something as an amazing revolutionizing "feature" only for the developers to never utilize it.
As a developer, the reason, in my experience, is that Apple either failed to properly document the APIs, choose APIs that were terrible (meaning that it takes so much code to support the features that it is not worth it), or failed to make the APIs work correctly.

It usually takes 2 to 3 years for new non-OS Apple features to work correctly. You see Apple just throws something together to make the Keynote and see if the new functionality sticks. If it does, then they move on, if not they may or may not work to improve it over the next few years.

It seems like OS code is done by quality engineers that seem to know what they are doing, but Apple's App APIs appear, because of their quality, to be done by foreign born teenagers that have never worked around or with a knowledge of usability and production quality software techniques.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
User 6502 Avatar
8 weeks ago

how does it become smaller AND show more?
It can show more only because the hardware cut out is smaller, so there are more pixels that can show actual information in the same pill dimension, as less of it is taken by camera and faceid array.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
8 weeks ago
The Samsung implementation is so much better because I can actually reach it with my thumb.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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