14 Ways to Actually Use the Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island is not just a meme, it's an actually useful feature on the iPhone that most people probably aren't using to its full potential. Here's a bunch of ways I think the Dynamic Island can be used effectively and to optimise our iPhone experience!

🛒 GET THE STUFF 👇

⏩ SKIP TO THE STUFF 👇
0:00 The most low-key useful feature on iPhone 16?
0:29 Some secret features and limitations
1:06 Some basic actions
1:28 Music and podcasts
1:50 Headphone and battery level
2:31 Airplay requests
2:46 Uber, Lyft, and food order tracking
3:32 Travel/flight tracking
4:44 Countdown timers
5:26 Sports apps
5:37 Gym app (Hevy)
5:48 Flashlight / Torch (New)
6:15 Navigation (inc. Google!)
6:32 Screen recording on your iPhone
6:43 Bonus apps/games

🎬 WATCH THE STUFF 👇

🤝 COMMUNITY STUFF 👇

💬 SOCIAL STUFF 👇

MY TOP RECOMMENDED TECH:

Disclosures: All opinions are my own. Some links in the descriptions are affiliate links that if you click on, I’ll receive a commission at no additional cost to you.

[PeteMatheson]

Thanks for checking this one out! Hope this is interesting to those of you who’ve just picked up a new phone!

Funny, watching this back I never realised how many times I said ‘SUPER’ 😂

[brechtdebaene]

I am diabetic, I display my current glucose levels in the Dynamic Island. It’s brilliant for this

[spidermn]

Actually love my Dynamic Island. Use it a lot when I’m using driving navigation and music

[internetfrnd]

Honestly the Dynamic Island is one of my favorite features period. I almost always have some sort of timer (clock app, Forest), music or podcast (Spotify), or even my workout tracker (Hevy) going in the background. Even my weather app (Carrot) will bubble up when it’s about to start raining.

It has genuinely made my life easier and I’ll be sad to see it go in the future.

[wyzemann]

This was very interesting and helpful.

Too many people expect their smartphones to behave like advanced lifeforms instead of computerized tools with ongoing updates embedded with access to personalized preferences 🤔

[gloc]

just upgraded from my 13 to finally use the dynamic island and this video made me set a timer for an hour and order a uber to catch a flight and listen to music all at the same time in my dynamic island. thank you

[Treborray]

I still don’t have an island. Stuck in the ghetto

[Tha-King-Arthur]

I really don't understand the negativity of the dynamic Island. I find it very useful for exercising and listening to music, setting timers while cooking, live sports scores, battery and flashlight and Apple Carplay. Complaining people who say; Yes, but I find the dynamic island very disturbing while watching a movie or gaming. It is a telephone, and with a telephone you call, message and read news and results. If you want to play games, buy an Xbox, PS5, a desktop or a laptop.

[Foxis]

I really like the Dynamic Island but I do wish it had more use cases, but there’s always the future

[louisefindlay]

Sweet. I loved the bonus app section. I love how Flighty offers week/two week subscription for different time periods to suit occasional holiday travellers as well as the more frequent flyer.

[TheCiardellas]

Coming from the notch to the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 16 pro
It’s pretty clever and cool while we still need the cutout

[Adrianek]

I didnt knew you can swipe lef or right, thats so cool, thanks for a tip.

[feralanis]

I use it 24/7 to check my blood glucose levels at a glance. Really helpful!

[alex_m]

I love the hevy app! not given enough credit

[itsnavsub]

Nice video. One thing to add for 'Food & Drinks' category - the 'Starbucks' mobile app supports dynamic island to track your mobile order before pickup from the store.

[thepopmanbrad]

sadly barely any apps use the dynamic island i literally never use the dynamic island at all which is a shame i really like the feature

[Caspppui]

Picked up the iphone 16 (upgrade from iphone 11) the dynamic island is heavily underused by many apps!

[rcinematic]

I feel like the new camera slider button also brings up a dynamic notch on the side now. One day the island should disappear and only have a dot, one can dream

[dylanguerrero]

Giving us solutions for a problem they created is classic Apple.

[TheHuztlazgreed]

Cruelly, you did give me some ideas. I had my action button as a quick way to get to translate. Which isn’t bad. But maybe I’ll change it to where the camera is since we have a camera button now. Then make the quick action button my screen record if that’s available since I do that quit often.