I don’t rely know why an Android smartphone user would want a Dynamic Island on their smartphone considering the fact that the Android OS itself is great at managing notifications even though it’s not as fancy as the new Apple’s integration.

For those unaware, Dynamic Island was Apple’s response to the aged notch on its premium iPhone which is basically an incorporation of both hardware (pill-shaped camera cut-out) and fancy software animation to show users what is going on on their device.

With Dynamic Island, you can easily click through to any ongoing activity, get fancy-animated notifications when they come in (like pairing your AirPods), monitor activities like voice recording, and so forth.

It’s just a matter of time before we see other third-party app makers take full advantage of the new feature.

Being a software-first feature, the Dynamic Island integrates seamlessly with the core of the new iOS 16 update that comes shipped with the new iPhone 14 Pro and the 14 Pro Max.

One none Apple smartphone brand that natively incorporates the Dynamic Island feature (although that’s not what it calls it) is Huawei on its newest Mate 50 Pro.

Huawei in fact started the whole dynamic island thing back when it first debuted the Honor V20 in 2019.

But we all know that Huawei has lost its relevance in the smartphone market so none of its inventions really matter currently. Probably until the company is able to scale through the whole sanction debacle it’s currently in.

But for an Android phone user, the hole-punch cut-out is the new norm which is a big disadvantage if you want to download a third-party Dynamic Island app to mimic the iPhone 14 Pros’.

However, there are some things you need to do first in order to prepare your Android smartphone for this incoming feature.

As mentioned above, most Android smartphones released between the years 2021 and 2022 all have a single hole-punch cut-out usually at the center (except for a few like the Huawei P40 Pro).

This means that notification icons would often overrun the entire top section of your device whenever you have them.

I mean this is a native Android feature that has been there since the first stable Android version in 2007.

However, downloading a Dynamic Island app and applying it will automatically lay the pill-shaped back pixel above some of your notification icons which will not be so pleasant to look at.

I mean it will be so easy for any to see through the fakeness. That is why I said you need to first prepare your smartphone for this.

But without any further ado, here’s how to prepare your Android smartphone for the integration of the Dynamic Island feature for seamless integration.

Prepare your Android smartphone for the integration of the Dynamic Island

For the sake of this tutorial, I’ll be using a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

The first thing you need to do is to swipe down from the notification area or status bar twice so you can see all the quick action icons.

Next, click on the three dots menu to open a short list of menu options, and then click on Status Bar.

This will open a settings page where you can modify the number of icons shown at the notification center or status bar area.

Due to the fact that the Dynamic Island will serve as your new notification center, I’ll suggest you either toggle off the entire notification icons or just select the “Number of notifications only” option which will in turn show only the number of all notifications instead of the icons that will flood the entire top section of your device.

When that is done, then you’re ready to integrate the Dynamic Island feature on your Android device in just a couple of minutes.

So below is a list of all the Dynamic Island apps I found on the Google Play store that promise the feature.

One thing though is that all of these apps aren’t made alike. Also, the feature wouldn’t work seamlessly with your device because it’s a third-party application. But it gives you the fancy animation whenever a message comes in.

Dynamic Island – dynamicSpot

This is the first on the list and just as the name suggests, it’s meant to bring the dynamic island feature to whatever Android smartphone you use.

The app already has over 1 million downloads with a 4.5-star rating from 12,700 reviewers. The app itself must be really good if you think about those numbers. But we don’t know how many that currently have the app installed on their device.

I personally tried the DynamicSpot app and while it worked very well, I can’t say for a fact that this is a solid replica of the Dynamic Island feature on an Android-based device.

For example, it sometimes freezes or outright forgets to show an animated notification when one comes in.

You also can’t click through to open an app directly by clicking on the app icon within the Dynamic Island pop-up. Instead, you have to click on the tiny icon located on the bottom left side within the pop-up to open the app that’s showing the notification (if you understand what I’m saying.)

Another thing is that it’s just a pixelated pill-shaped dot at the top of the notification area which means it doesn’t interact with the status bar in any way.

Let me explain: When a notification comes in or you’re performing multiple activities such as listening to a song and a message notification comes in, the original Dynamic Island will expand the pill-shaped section to accommodate all of these while it directly affects the date and the battery icons on the left and right part of the status bar respectively.

That doesn’t happen with this app. If something like that happens (such as plugging your smartphone into electricity), the expansion of the fake Dynamic Island just lays over your battery icon and the time icon in the most intrusive way possible so that anyone can see that it’s a complete rip-off.

But if you followed my previous guide above, you shouldn’t have too many problems making the app work as if it was developed with your Android skin.

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Dynamic Island iOS 16 – iLand

The iLand app is another alternative to the previous option. This app has over 100k+ downloads and a 4-star rating from 12,700 reviewers.

I personally like the fact that Dynamic Island from this developer can be customized. So if you want to take things to the next level and switch from how Apple had theirs, you can certainly do that with ease.

The clickthrough icon on the pop-up of this app is quite big and visible compared to the one mentioned above. So I sort of like it a bit more.

You also get notifications of ongoing activities on your device such as Bluetooth connection, battery power and connection to power, wireless earbuds or headphones’ connection, and music playback.

I also like the fact that you can easily manipulate tracks directly through the pop-up of Dynamic Island just as we have it on iOS.

One of its disadvantages is it’s ad-supported which may be a turn-off for some users. But I don’t think it’s really bad.

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There are others on the Play Store but they’re basically a repetition of the aforementioned two. One thing to note though is the fact that these two apps are ad-supported so you might start getting some random ads covering your screen.

The second option (iLand) can be purchased which is a good thing for those who are really serious about turning their Android smartphone into an iPhone.

I think it’s a matter of time before we see other Android smartphone makers incorporating this feature on their future devices.

Just for the record, Realme is actually crowdfunding a project to copy Dynamic Island on its future smartphone.