Thank Goodness! Android Phones Can Have Two Notches at Most, Says Google

Aug. 1, 2018

If you thought one notch is already more than you can handle in a phone, you might have just dodged a bullet. To save hapless users from overzealous OEMs who might some day hit upon the brilliant idea of incorporating a whole bunch of notches in their smartphones, Google has now laid down some ground rules about exactly how many of thoseunseemly ‘design features’can be included on each device, though how it will enforce these rules remains to be seen.

Ina poston the official Google Blog earlier this week, Android UI product manager, Megan Potoski, announced that manufacturers won’t be allowed to make devices with more than two notches – one on top and one down below.

According to Potoski,“devices may only have up to one cutout on each short edge of the device … You won’t see multiple cutouts on a single edge, or more than two cutouts on a device. You (also) won’t see a cutout on the left or right long edge of the device”.

The company is also mandating a few other design elements to ensure that the notch cutouts do not negatively affect the experience of third-party apps.“In portrait orientation, with no special flags set, the status bar must extend to at least the height of the cutout. In fullscreen or landscape orientation, the entire cutout area must be letterboxed”, says the company.

While Google has officially incorporatedsupport for the notch in Android P, the company says that 11 Android OEMs have already released 16 notched smartphones between them,“with more on the way”. While the Essential PH-1 was the first notched device in memory, it became a must-have feature after the release of the iPhone X last year, and only a few manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung have managed to stay away from it thus far. Even theGoogle Pixel 3 XL will likely have a notch, which is already become subject of ridicule even before the phone’s launch.

The notch is one of themost divisive design featureson modern smartphones, but thankfully, even as they are trulybecoming a ‘thing’this yearon many Android smartphonesacross categories and price points, new, innovative designs are coming to the fore, with Chinese manufacturers, long derided for being ‘copycats’, taking the lead with notch-less, all-screendevices like the Vivo NEXand theOppo Find X.

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