Aug 31, 2025
Super excited to share this! Here's an early look.
A recent Threads post by “alta1r” caught my eye….he showed a concept of “a camera popping up from the Dynamic Island” on iPhone.
For iPhone my goal was to achieve something close to this:
…but Apple doesn’t allow live camera feeds inside the Dynamic Island or Live Activities. Those are meant for glanceable info (status, text, controls) — not persistent utilities like a camera. This also goes against Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, since the Dynamic Island is intended for time-bound live activities with a clear start and end point.
Getting the live camera to adopt the same concave inset as the Dynamic Island was especially challenging. I managed to approximate it, but achieving a seamless fit would likely require a more sophisticated use of GeometryReader and custom layout logic.
So I built a workaround: an in-app header that morphs into the Island.
How I Built It
SwiftUI → handles the expanding/collapsing surface
AVFoundation → powers the live camera feed + barcode/QR detection
Haptics + AudioToolbox → system-style feedback (Apple Pay “ding”)
Here’s a small snippet that handles the Apple Pay sound and haptics.
I also spent hours refining the shape and placement of the live camera so it felt like a natural extension of the Dynamic Island—this proved to be more difficult than I initially thought.
Since Apple’s exact Live Activity animations are system-restricted, I emulated by designing my own spring-based transitions — smooth expansions and collapses that echo iOS’s fluid motion language.
First Use Case: Scanning
On iPhone today, scanning a simple QR code means opening the full Camera app — which feels heavy for quick actions like scanning a QR code on a restaurant menu or poster.
As a first use case, I built a lightweight QR + barcode scanner:
Double tap the Camera button on the lock screen→ the camera expands downward like a Live Activity.
Hold up a code → instant scan with haptic + audio confirmation.
I plan to develop this app further.