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Google bans Android phones from having three or more notches

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signal

signal

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Oct 28, 2017
40,199
The Verge

Google is building official notch support into Android P, but it's laying down some ground rules first: two notches is the limit.

In a blog post for developers yesterday, Android UI product manager Megan Potoski wrote that Google is working with device partners "to mandate a few requirements" for app compatibility purposes. Among those are limits on notches.

The mandate says that Android P phones can't have "more than two cutouts on a device." Only one notch is allowed per side, and notches are only allowed on the top and bottom edges — not the left and right.
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At this point, we haven't even seen phones with two notches, so the ban on tri- or quad-notch phones and left- and right-side notches is all theoretical. But the switch over to notched phones felt like it happened overnight (well, in the span of a few months), so putting some restrictions in place before things devolve should be helpful for making sure that apps continue to run properly on these strange new screens.

But it's worth noting that Google doesn't have complete control over Android, so it's not as though there can never be a phone with three or more notches. Google said it's working with its "device manufacturer partners," which likely means any company with the Play Store and other Google services built into the device. That's most Android phones; but it's entirely possible some manufacturer not bound to Google's restrictions could go out on its own and make some multi-notch abomination.
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By default, Android P will expand the status bar on the top of the screen so that it takes up the entire notch, rather than cutting off part of an app. And in landscape mode, the notch will be blacked out. "The good news is, for the most part your app should work as intended even on a cutout device," Potoski wrote.

But if app developers want to, they'll be able to embrace the notch and have their app wrap around it. That's something you're probably more likely to see with maps, games, and other apps where you aren't cutting anything out, and are instead adding screen space and creating a more immersive feeling.
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Top and bottom notches only smfh. Why is Google against an all sided quadnotch phone or the "single bottom notch, dual top notch" one?
 
imbarkus

imbarkus

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Oct 25, 2017
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26916-39098-apple-store-ad-l.jpg
 
Mengy

Mengy

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Oct 25, 2017
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Okay, I gave an S5, what the frack is a "notch"? I googled it but it sounds like it's just a physical black tab? Why would anyone want this? O_o
 
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