Off iPhone 14 Pro And the 14 Pro Max has a new screen notch for the first time since the 2017 iPhone X. Like the previous notch (“Notch”), the new “Dynamic Island‘ selfie camera and face scanner, but it’s functional now. The size and shape of the patch changes depending on how the iPhone is used. For example, telephone calls show the duration and the timer shows the remaining time.

The discovery was the result of “years of discussions,” Apple’s head of interface design, Alan Dye, told Japanese design magazine. axis. Die magazine spoke with Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software development, who he described as “the first major change in how the iPhone works in five years.”

The biggest change since the removal of the home button

“We lost the home button five years ago with the iPhone X,” Federighi said. “It was a fundamental change in many ways the iPhone worked, like unlocking the lock screen, returning to the home screen, and switching between apps.”

“This new feature also changes the look of iPhone, forcing us to rethink running multiple apps at once, managing notifications and background processes. Such a small space,” says Federighi.

Turnaround: Resize

According to Dye, Apple has been preparing for years to shrink the screen notch. The question asked was how best to take advantage of that change. “At Apple, it’s very complicated to source ideas,” Dye said. “But there was a discussion with shrinking the sensor area: What do we do with the free screen space? That’s not last year’s discussion, but it’s a topic we’ve been discussing for years.”

According to Dye, the turning point was the realization that animations shouldn’t be limited to the status bar. “It gets a little bigger and lets you know what you’re doing,” Dye said. “This is an example of a major breakthrough, and I hope people who use it will experience that effect.” Dye talks about an “Apple-like” development where hardware and software intertwine and blur the boundaries between each other.