Aside from discovering that iPhone 8’s virtual Home button might be resizable, as well as automatically hide and show as needed, iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith has uncovered alleged metrics for a split status bar at the top of the phone’s OLED display.
Located on the left and right side of that notch at the top (that will accommodate the camera and sensors), the redesigned status bar would presumably include standard indicators such as Wi-Fi and cellular signal strength, current battery charge level and, possibly, other items.
These are the metrics used by the status bar on the edge-to-edge iPhone, including notch height and ear width. Designers, have fun pic.twitter.com/lPD2RbEJFA
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) August 10, 2017
Working from these metrics, French designer Olivier Charavel has created a mockup illustrating what the split status bar might look like on the real iPhone 8.
It’s just a mockup that may or may not depict the real thing. With so many iPhone 8 leaks based on a botched release of HomePod’s version of iOS, we really are not sure anymore if Apple is trolling us so it’s advisable to apply healthy skepticism to these reports.
According to Steven, the new status bar is “more complex and powerful” in terms of design than meets the eye, adding that it could be “interactive” without providing specifics.
They should make it swipeable so that additional indicators could be revealed with a simple gesture. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that’s probably going to be the case.
Otherwise, I don’t see how longer carrier branding such as “Vodafone UK” could fit into it.