Samsung Galaxy phones could soon receive features similar to iPhone’s Dynamic Island and Live activities.
Samsung is currently developing its One UI 7 operating system, which is based on Android 15, and it will soon be open for beta testing. While Samsung has not made any official announcements about the update, early leaks indicate that the company may have taken inspiration from Apple for some features. Reports suggest that Samsung will introduce iPhone-like Dynamic Island and Live Activities to Galaxy phones with One UI 7.
What is Dynamic Island on Apple iPhones
As I recall, Apple first introduced the Dynamic Island feature on the iPhone 14 Pro before it started appearing on later models. Dynamic Island is an all-in-one center for monitoring background activities during the process. It allows users to interact with multiple notifications at the same time. For example, users can interact with important background notifications while using the front camera tilt, monitor a timer, play a song or podcast, and receive low battery notifications at the same time. The feature allows users to multitask and switch between different actions seamlessly.
Dynamic Island also displays information about apps such as media controls, timers and tracking of “live” activities such as location and deliveries.
Samsung draws inspiration from Apple
Although Samsung phones do not have a feature like Dynamic Island, users can perform some similar functions using the advanced status bar of Android smartphones and its more powerful notifications. However, Android phones don’t have the polished design of Apple’s Dynamic Island.
According to Twitter/X’s Chun Bhai, Samsung plans to release its own version of Dynamic Island and Live Activities with One UI 7 in the near future. There is no word on how Samsung would implement the feature.
In addition to Dynamic Island, Samsung has recently taken inspiration from Apple and imitated its design and features. For example, the Galaxy Buds 3 looks very similar to Apple’s Airpods, and the Galaxy Watch Ultra is quite a “copy” of the Apple Watch Ultra.
In addition to Samsung, other smartphone manufacturers have tried to copy Apple’s Dynamic Island. Realme and OnePlus released their own version of Dynamic Island last year. Both had limited functionality for specific applications. Currently, Honor is making a similar feature with a larger cutout that is available on the Magic 6 Pro. It is also limited to media and timers.
