iPhone X Notch-alance
Learn about designing your mobile app (or adjusting your existing app) for the iPhone X and its new, distinct screen shape.
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Join For FreeRemember those innocent days a few short months ago when we all spotted the new safeAreaLayoutGuide and thought: "Our constraints are now with the top and bottom anchors of the safe area layout guide. This is not a big change..."
Oh, sweet naiveté. Did anybody actually call out in advance that subtle little change was foreshadowing THE NOTCHALYPSE? Yes, yes, every time something changes it brings out the fear and loathing no matter what it is, but the level of OMG NEVER BUY APPLE AGAIN ... we saw this time, that was unprecedented. Personally, we think a phone with a bat-eared screen is kinda neat, but we're weird.There's a certain level of enthusiasm out there for clipping and masking and otherwise working around the new roundedness and notchedness ... but we think Marco has it right here:
This is the new shape of the iPhone. As long as the notch is clearly present and of approximately these proportions, it's unique, simple, and recognizable.
It's probably not going to significantly change for a long time, and Apple needs to make sure that the entire world recognizes it as well as we could recognize previous iPhones.
That's why Apple has made no effort to hide the notch in software, and why app developers are being told to embrace it in our designs...
So, we've got some rewriting to do in the next few weeks to have our apps fit nicely into The Brave New Notched World, and you probably do too we imagine; let's see what resources are out there!
First off, go over the relevant stuff over at the mothership:
The great PaintCode people have updated their invaluableThe Ultimate Guide To iPhone Resolutions and also have specs for all the Notch attributes at iPhone X Screen Demystified.
More good reads on upgrading UI for the X at:
How iOS Apps Adapt to the iPhone X Screen Size - and the Adaptivity app showcased here looks like a good purchase! "Adaptivity is an app for developers and designers to visualize how iOS's Size Classes and margins for layout and readable content look on real devices and how they change with respect to orientation, iPad Slide Over/Split View and Dynamic Type size changes..."
Templates to help you out:
If you're concerned with how your websites will deal with the Notch, check out
And let's finish off with the niftiest idea we've seen for adapting in a non-approved way with the Notch:
ScrollSnake: "What if scroll bars on the iPhone X worked like the game "Snake"?"
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