Dynamic island's behaves contrary to logic

Submitted by Teulis t3_yhh1lv in iphone

Let's compare two scenarios:

  1. you're listening to music and want to quickly skip song - quick action
  2. you're listening to music and want to find a different playlist - long action

To quickly change song, you must hold onto the island, then tap. Quick tap on the island gets you to the app to find a different playlist. Other way around - quick action on island for quick action in app, long action for long action would be more logical.

Please explain how this makes any sense. Changing the settings is impossible afaik so I hope someone can convince me this is the right behavior..

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Comments

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lgparagon t1_iue26br wrote

If you treat the dynamic island like a notification banner, its function makes sense. If you tap a notification, it takes you to the app. If you hold on a notification, you get a context menu. Same setup for the dynamic island

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Sylvurphlame t1_iufk39y wrote

To me the DI seems more aligned with a (persistent) Notification Banner so the interaction model makes sense. But I can understand how others might see it differently. However I agree with the current logic of treating it like a banner or control center item.

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lgparagon t1_iufmrsp wrote

Yeah, I can see the merit behind the criticism. Apple isn’t particularly known for giving users much choice, but it would certainly be nice if they did this time

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biscuittt t1_iugpe72 wrote

> but it would certainly be nice if they did this time

every week there’s at least three settings that people say this about.

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Sylvurphlame t1_iuh7lnm wrote

> every week there’s at least three settings that people say this about.

Always will be. The ideal balance between customization and simplicity is ever elusive.

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Exempt3 t1_iufgucs wrote

But it’s not a notification banner, it’s meant for quick actions, where OP is right.

The fact it acts like a notification banner is what confused my GF the first couple hours as she was wondering why only some notifications were showing there, which is a pretty fair question I thought as I’ve used my 14 more and more.

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lgparagon t1_iufm3g0 wrote

That’s fair. I can see the point with quick actions. Let me change the example to better explain my point though.

  1. App icons on the Home Screen
  2. Icons in the control center
  3. Links in Safari
  4. Mail, Messages, Files, etc.

All of those also use this same functionality. It’s how most of iOS functions. A tap takes you to the tap target (app/link/etc). A hold gives you a context menu with more options.

I’d argue it’d be more confusing to most casual users for the dynamic island to function opposite the rest of their phone. However, I’m 100% in the camp of giving users the choice. Options are always best

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Exempt3 t1_iufmdlb wrote

The option is definitely the way

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sleeping5dragon t1_iufrygn wrote

Exactly and same with apps, idk why so many think it’s backwards apple has always done this

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ledzepfan1981 t1_iuisnka wrote

Originally I agreed with the OP. Now that I've read your post, I understand and agree with your POV. So thank you.

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squareswordfish t1_iuezkbk wrote

Just makes me miss 3D Touch even more. It would work so well with the island.

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errolian22 t1_iugcxbc wrote

Yeah I miss 3d touch too, I wish they bring it back I wouldn’t mind if they put it on the pro iPhones only.

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squareswordfish t1_iugftcz wrote

Yeah, super sad that they killed such a good feature. I understand that many people didn’t even know it existed, but it had so many useful uses. Feels fitting for something called “pro”, actually.

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ebtexam t1_iuh25rj wrote

I still have 3D touch in my good old 7

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SirMaster t1_iuhxobs wrote

But they removed the interactive widgets when 3D touching apps from the OS itself. That's what I miss the most about it.

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ebtexam t1_iuhyi0e wrote

Which is why I’m on 14.4 and jailbreaked.

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fuckingnihilists t1_iue1t1a wrote

I've seen a number of reviewers state the same; they feel the tap functions are opposite what they should be. I'm good either way, but you're not alone in thinking this.

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writeswithknives t1_iuee15n wrote

I thought that as well at first but long-press on other things is always for bringing up a contextual submenu/quick actions so I just think about it that way and it all of a sudden feels more intuitive.

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Clearskies37 t1_iudrqzj wrote

Makes sense the way it is for me

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Teulis OP t1_iue04d9 wrote

But how? My toilet has two buttons; small one a big one. Small one flushes only a bit water, big one flushes a lot. By dynamic island logic it should be the other way around then?

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MileenaVoorhes t1_iuesujt wrote

Dynamic toilet incoming? You should work at Apple, comparing toilets and mobile phone cutouts is brilliant

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Kindnexx t1_iue27vc wrote

They went with the same logic they have in control center, for instance if you just press the timer button, it takes you to the app but long pressing gives you an integrated quick timer selection.

I thought the same as you when it was presented and I understand what you mean. But now that I have it, I find myself wanting to go to the actual app more often than just wanting to peek into the shorthand version. For instance, when using the new Apollo live activity, when I interact with the island, I want to go to the thread in-app not just peek into it.

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johnson91047 t1_iue62zi wrote

I think It’s like tapping on app icon to open it or long pressing for more options.

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kelter20 t1_iufs74t wrote

Exactly. The opposite way would feel so clunky.

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tahmid5 t1_iufb3p3 wrote

The dynamic islands behavior is consistent with how the OS operates as a whole. A tap anywhere in the whole OS leads directly to an action whereas a long press always brings up contextual menu. If the dynamic island behaved in reverse then it would be very out of place.

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pentg123 t1_iues6iq wrote

TIL I can use my dynamic island to skip songs

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arpan46 t1_iuh9eh7 wrote

Yes, I agree. Long touch and short touch should behave the opposite. They just want you to switch apps quickly. Apple give us an option maybe?

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JustAnotherRyan5 t1_iugd2wh wrote

Am I the only one that keeps trying to swipe down on it or like pull it down to see the options only for it to do nothing! You can pull the sides, but can’t pull it down which sort of bugs me. Then I click on it and now I’m in the app 🤦🏼‍♂️. Definitely still getting the hang of it, but holding down for sure doesn’t feel natural to me.

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scoredly11 t1_iugjx8k wrote

I’m hoping it gets better. I switched to 14 PM this year and the #1 thing i miss is Android’s vastly superior notification system. I was hoping the island would help somewhat. And it has a little. I wish music/podcasts would be persistent in the island when paused but they go away when you pause in the app and swipe away. I definitely see the potential here though.

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UtterNylon t1_iufe6wn wrote

Who would've thought a half baked feature that adds no value is doing that

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Keep-Left t1_iuhfvnm wrote

at first i was thinking the same… but now i like the fact i can switch to the app quickly with short press.

ideally i’d like to config short vs long press action per app.. i guess we’ll have to wait for iOS 17 on the iPhone 15 for that feature tho. (new hardware would be required of course)

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Ditto_Ghost_Swayze t1_iuhtfcb wrote

People can debate the behaviour of DI all they want, but it would be nice if Apple just gave the option to switch what a “tap” and “hold” does.

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Rezdawg3 t1_iui1ua0 wrote

MKBHD said the same thing in his review. It’s not intuitive. I agree.

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dezeta_ t1_iufb10d wrote

Makes sense to me the way it is. I have never found it to be counterintuitive, if it was the other way it would be so weird to navigate. Treat it like you would any notification, or as a shortcut so you don’t have to open control center and then perform the action.

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mf_doomerville t1_iufe5xa wrote

Lol I don’t even use dynamic island. Should’ve kept my 12PM.

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RotenTumato t1_iugiiys wrote

I feel like it makes more sense this way. Tapping on a notification (or an app icon) brings you straight to the app whereas long pressing on either one expands a menu with options. It would feel weird if tapping on the dynamic island expanded it and holding it down opened the app. That’s not how anything else in iOS works.

As another example, long pressing expands the tiles in the control center in a way that feels just like expanding the Dynamic Island

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Disastrous_Wash484 t1_iugqdqq wrote

I agree! It is a feature to make the user interface simpler and easier to access without actually switching to the app. By that logic a tap should do just that i.e. expand the Dynamic Island and allow the user to control the music or whatever without switching to the app (somewhat of a multitask or apple's version of it). A long-press or a double tap (or maybe another tap after the DI expands) should take you to the app which it does, as that is when I would like to get more options not present on the DI.

For example, you are driving somewhere with music on Spotify and using maps for navigation. The DI is looking all nice and pretty with its colored waveform but you quickly wanna skip the next track in the playlist. What would be the easiest way to do that?

A. You tap on the Dynamic Island, it expands giving you the controls, you skip the song and job done.

B. You try to touch and hold the Dynamic Island for which you have to hold your breath and keep your finger on the same spot which is a challenge and if there is a slight bump on the road, your finger moves on the screen and then you have to repeat the process again which is a pain!!

For me, the tap to expand and long-press (or even double tap) to take you to the app would make much more sense. I do know that apple fangirls would say that it is consistent with the rest of iOS or to treat it like a notification panel or whatever, but I really don't care about that if it makes things more difficult.

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kplkqrthjklmnbtvcp t1_iuh0jk4 wrote

> with music on Spotify
I assume the music is playing via bluetooth or similar through the car speakers? If so, use the car controls to skip to the next track. At least, that's how it works in my car.

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Disastrous_Wash484 t1_iuhambf wrote

I would do that but my car is fairly old and the bluetooth on the stereo only allows media to be played but offers no control for going back or skipping songs. I'd have done that as it is much easier but sadly that doesn't work. Thanks for chipping intho

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alphabetsong t1_iugylvf wrote

whatever is used MOST (not takes the most amount of clicks or time) should take the least amount of effort to get done.

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Apex-GER t1_iuhog4m wrote

Also it's probably a bit of "damage control" for accidental taps - if your current song is gone with one tap people get annoyed, an app switch isn't as bad

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Paurus010 t1_iui30f8 wrote

Should have disable/off function

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chubbybator t1_iudwsu6 wrote

Does the 14 still have music controls when you swipe down on the top right with all the control toggles?

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garbage_melon t1_iuedy1j wrote

I'm in agreement, the phone should lean into the pill as a point of interaction. It exists to simplify, by default, it should open up the quick menu.

The Island exists precisely because (through live activities anyway) you shouldn't need to swipe down or open a separate app to access time-sensitive info immediately. So why hide the most frequent actions behind a long press?

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IMAC55 t1_iugrtgi wrote

How many songs you skipping a day bud? Maybe the problem is less with the phone, and more of your indecisiveness?

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Lumpy-Consequence485 t1_iuek8t5 wrote

Wait till you see how the system handles the refresh rate..

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