Realme is working on a follow-up to Dynamic Island

Mobile Dynamic Island: Features, Apps, and Mobile Apps vs. Smartphones: How much Android devices do we really need?

Less than six months after it debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple’s Dynamic Island has made it to an Android phone as a native feature. The Realme C55, which just launched in Indonesia (via GSMArena), includes a feature the company is calling the “Mini Capsule,” a pill-shaped black bar that expands out of the phone’s selfie camera.

This doesn’t come as a major surprise. As 9to5Google points out, Realme basically told everyone it wanted to clone Dynamic Island back in September. A feature called the Mini Capsule has been in the works. A photo in the removed tweet indeed shows a pill-shaped UI element at the top of the screen with Oppo’s SuperVOOC charging logo displayed. The animation, shared by reliable leaker OnLeaks via Smartprix, shows the capsule expanding and collapsing to display charging status information. Cute!

In spite of how shameless this all is, I’m broadly in favor of good new phone features being as widely adopted as possible. I love the Dynamic Island on my phone because it keeps my cooking timer visible while I check back on an online recipe or gives me a simpler way to control music without leaving my device. I am cautiously hopeful that more developers will make an effort to support the user interface when it is released across both iPhones and more than one device.

That’s finally changing as some big-name apps get on board. Uber is releasing an app update that utilizes Dynamic Island so you can see things like how many minutes away your ride is without keeping the Uber app open. Even as an infrequent rideshare rider, that sounds incredibly useful to me. Google Maps will also be adding Live Activities support “in the coming months,” which could mean turn-by-turn directions in the Dynamic Island the same way Apple Maps uses the feature.

The Realme C55 Mini Capsule: an affordable Android phone with a Dynamic Island-style interface on its Android phone, DynamicSpot

An animation on Realme’s website shows the Mini Capsule extending out of the left and right of the phone’s selfie camera hole-punch notch. Its capabilities include displaying the phone’s charges status, data usage, and your step count.

Apart from the Mini Capsule, the Realme C55 is a typical Android phone that’s also affordable. It’s powered by a Helio G88 processor, comes with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and a 6.72-inch 1080p 90Hz display. It can be fast charged to up to 33W and has a 5,000mAh battery.

The Realme C55 is on sale in Indonesia at an estimated price of around $195. Francis Wong, the CEO of Realme Europe, says he will be launching in Europe soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to try out a Dynamic Island style interface on your current Android phone, check out the DynamicSpot app.