iOS 13 includes a redesigned volume HUD that starts as a bulbous slider and shrinks down to a more discreet thin line
you can drag it with your finger after it is visible. If you ignore it, it shrinks down to a sliver — like a scroll bar. https://9to5mac.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : (Google Street View launched in 2007) https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The volume HUD is the loudest remaining piece of old-style iOS: a full-screen overlay that interrupts whatever you are watching. In iOS 13 — the same release that brought dark mode, new Maps, and Reminders per The Verge's public beta hands-on — Apple replaces it with a draggable slider that shrinks to a sliver when ignored.
What makes this small change worth tracking is where the pattern leads: Apple spent the following years turning interruptions into compact, glanceable surfaces, from compact banners for Siri and incoming calls to the Dynamic Island's pill-shaped notch, which gives those transient elements permanent custom hardware.
First-order effects
- iPhone users watching video or playing games stop having the screen obscured by a volume overlay — the indicator now starts as a bulbous slider and collapses to a thin, scroll-bar-like line they can drag or ignore.
Second-order effects
- Once volume proves that transient UI works, Apple applies the same treatment across its interruption stack — iOS 14 ships compact UIs for Siri interactions and incoming calls as banner-style notifications rather than takeover screens.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, system status stops being something iOS borrows your screen for and becomes something the device reserves space for structurally — the Dynamic Island's dedicated pill-shaped hardware is the endpoint of that migration, with each release adding more custom UI elements like calls, timers, and turn-by-turn navigation.
The trend: iOS interfaces are shifting from modal, screen-hogging overlays toward compact, transient, glanceable indicators — a redesign arc running from the iOS 13 volume HUD through Dynamic Island hardware.