No more than 2 notches on display: Google directs manufacturers

Since Essential rolled out their PH-1 with a notched display last year, rivals have followed suit by adopting display cutouts to maximise the real estate of the screen. With Apple going for the notch on their flagship iPhone X, the notch has been considered as the guideline for narrow-bezel design displays this year. Google’s Pixel 3 is also rumoured to feature a notch cutout as well, which is why the Beta build of Android P features support for notches. In order to make it a uniform experience across all devices, Google has finally released guidelines for the usage of the notch on Android smartphones.

In one of the latest posts on the Android Developer Blog, Google has outlined all the methods to implement the notch for various apps. Similar to all the existing smartphones with notches, Android P will also require developers to use the space around the cutout for displaying status bar information only in normal mode — the status bar should be as broad as the notch. Apps by default will have to be letterboxed in the landscape mode; although developers can make use of the space around the cutout in landscape mode, with content around the cutout. To make it easier for users, Google has also built in a ‘Special Mode’ that displays a button on the navigation bar for toggling between a letterboxed view and a fullscreen view with the content wrapped around the notch.

However, one of the most striking points in the guidelines is a limitation of the number of notches that a manufacturer can implement on an Android smartphone. Android P will only allow developers to use a single tall display cutout, dual display cutout and a corner cutout. Apps on Google Play won’t be able to support more than two cutouts on the display. Moreover, Android P will support notches only on the top and bottom of the display, not along the left and right edges.

Up until now, no manufacturer has unveiled a smartphone with more than one display cutout. Additionally, a device with notches to the side would rather eat into the screen space instead of liberating more. Therefore, some of these rules might not make sense, unless Google has something secret planned for a launch later this year with multiple cutouts.

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