Someone just copied Apple’s Dynamic Island on an Android phone

Apple’s new Dynamic Island was easily one of the highlights of its iPhone 14 series launch. Available only on the new Pro iPhones, the iOS feature essentially camouflages Apple’s new pill-shaped camera housing with information on things like notifications, calls, timers, music, accessory pairing, and more.

Like many Apple features before its time, Dynamic Island could be a prime candidate for being copied by Android makers. It’s not like Apple doesn’t pinch features from Android, but we all know the reverse also happens all the time. Keeping with that spirit, a Mi Theme developer has already implemented an Android version of Dynamic Island on a Xiaomi phone.

Spotted by TechDroider‘s Vaibhav Jain, a short video clip shows how Dynamic Island-style notifications and a now playing section look on Xiaomi’s MIUI software. The theme is reportedly called Grumpy UI and is available only in the standard Chinese language. As you can see, it successfully manages to hide the pin-hole selfie camera in the corner when the Island is exanded.

The theme developers told Jain that their Dynamic Island update is still under review. If Xiaomi approves the theme, it’ll go live on the MIUI Themes store.

It’s too early to say if Xiaomi or any other Android OEM will go ahead and officially adopt a version of the Dynamic Island on their phones. Android phones have been actively moving away from pill-shaped notches or notches of any kind, so it would make little sense for Android OEMs to implement a similar feature. But if we’ve learned something over time, anything is possible in the smartphone space, and for all we know, some iteration of the Dynamic Island might make it to Android devices in the future.