Google sets limit to number of notches on Android P devices

MANILA, Philippines – While we have yet to see a device with more than one notch cutout, Google has gone ahead and set the ground rules for the maximum number of notches an Android device can have.

In a developer blog post, Android UI product manager Megan Potoski wrote that Android devices may only have up to one notch cutout per side and two cutouts at most. Meanwhile, notch cutouts can only be placed on the top or bottom side – not on the long edge of the device, either on the left or right. 

This mandate is to ensure that the cutouts do not negatively affect how apps run and appear on Android P devices.

Android, however, is open-source which means Google cannot entirely stop a manufacturer from making a device with a notch cutout on each side, for instance.

Google said that there are currently 16 devices with notch cutouts from 11 manufacturers that are already running Android P and there are more on the way.

The notch cutout has drawn a lot of attention since it was first introduced on the Essential Phone, and eventually popularized by the iPhone X. Before pop-up mechanisms, the notch cutout was the best compromise device makers could come up with to achieve a full-screen display, and which was why the design had been incorporated in numerous recent smartphone releases. – Rappler.com