https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/3/28/17173232/iphone-x-halide-camera-notch-android

The Android fan community is having something of an emotional meltdown right now as it witnesses new phone after new phone embracing the notched screen design. Popularized by the iPhone X and Essential Phone last year, the notch at the top of the screen has been widely ridiculed as a dire offense against the principles of good design and x-axis symmetry. In short, people don’t like it. But there’s a certain inevitability to this notch-heavy future of ours, and I want to bring a cautious note of optimism to the conversation. Life with the notch isn’t so bad, and app developers can make it a hell of a lot better.

My stance on the notch has been softening since I started using the iPhone X at the beginning of this year, and one of the highlights of that experience has been the Halide camera app. This minimalist manual photography app has been around since before the iPhone X, but it was its thoughtful redesign to account for the X’s notch that really caught my eye. Halide doesn’t retreat from the iPhone X’s notched design and instead uses those two spare slivers of real estate on either side of the notch to insert useful information. On the left, you get to see a histogram of the photo you’re composing, and on the right, you have a readout of your exposure adjustment. The app and the phone feel like one, as if the notch in the iPhone was put there just to separate the Halide data readouts.