When Apple introduced the new iPhones in September 2022, one feature particularly stood out: the iPhone 14 Pro received the so-called “Dynamic Island”. This is the pill-shaped cutout that also found its way into regular iPhone models a generation later and has been exploiting its full potential since iOS 16.1: Since then, developers have been able to display live activities via the Dynamic Island in order to provide certain information and, if necessary, allow interactions with the app without having to call it up full screen. The well-known application Duolingo also makes use of the function, although recently in a rather questionable way. Advertising in the Dynamic Island
There are a number of apps in the App Store that can be used to learn foreign languages. Duolingo is probably one of the best-known representatives of this type. The application is not exactly stingy with notifications to remind users of their workload: notifications pop up again and again that refer to the daily learning routine. With the latest development, however, the developers seem to have overstepped the mark a bit: the app used the Dynamic Island for some users to display self-promotion. This involves a reduced-price in-app purchase:
The reaction to the banner is, unsurprisingly, predominantly negative: Users view the display via the Dynamic Island as unpleasantly aggressive advertising. However, it is unclear how many are affected. Duolingo may have stopped this practice now.
Violation of Apple’s policies
Apple actually puts a stop to this approach: The design guidelines for developers stipulate that live activities must not contain any advertising. Users should be kept up to date about events and tasks, so it is important to only show related information. It is unknown whether Apple has already intervened with the developers.
