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Apple lined up Netflix, Slack and Zoom before the iPhone Duo's October 23 launch
Tom's Guide reports that Apple worked directly with three large apps to fit them to the iPhone Duo's two displays, while the interview names no submission cutoff and no developer program for everyone else shipping on iOS.
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What happened
- Apple's first foldable, the iPhone Duo, has an October 23 release date, with Apple Pencil support, IP68 durability and a 7.6-inch main screen, according to Tom's Guide's hands-on and interview.
- Apple has reworked iOS 27 for the form factor and moved the main controls to the right edge of the screen on both the cover display and the main display.
- Tom's Guide reports Apple is making a large push to get apps optimized for the 7.6-inch screen before the phone goes on sale, working behind the scenes with developers on both displays.
- Asked whether the October 23 date leaves enough time for optimized apps, Joswiak compared the run-up to the original iPad, when Apple worked on development internally and with third parties.
- Apple built a new version of its nano-texture display for a polymer surface instead of glass, and the Tom's Guide reporter says the crease is barely visible and cannot be felt in use.
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Why it matters
- decision An iOS team that was not in Apple's partner group has to choose which of its screens get a genuine two-posture layout by launch and which ship as scaled-up phone views.
- constraint Apple's own controls sit under the right thumb in both postures, so any app keeping its primary action bottom-left makes the user cross a 7.6-inch panel for the next tap.
- precedent By invoking the iPad's third-party development push, Apple sets launch-day app quality as the measure, and apps outside the partner set get compared against the ones Apple helped.
- capability Stylus input on a phone-sized device opens markup and handwriting work that iOS teams have so far built only for iPad, though the interview names no API and no example app.
Pull up the comments on an Instagram post on an Android foldable and they cover the content you were reading. Open Slack and you get a phone app blown up to fill the panel. The Tom's Guide reporter names both, and calls the Android app ecosystem fragmented [12][22].
Joswiak reached for the same comparison. "What we saw others doing wasn't particularly inspiring," he said [14]. "Our history has never been to rush into something with something half baked," he said [15].
The part of that an app team has to answer for is reach. Ternus described the control layout in both postures. "It turns out to be an incredibly intuitive control system, because it's there under your right thumb when it's closed," he said [17]. "You open it up, it's there under your right thumb again." [18] An app that keeps its primary action in a bottom-left tab bar or a left-hand rail keeps it there when the device opens, on the opposite side of the panel from the system controls the user just touched [16].
Apple has been working behind the scenes with developers on both the cover and main displays, and Tom's Guide names three of those apps: Netflix, Slack and Zoom [13][23]. Slack sits on both of the reporter's lists, as the blown-up phone app on Android foldables and as an app Apple worked with on the Duo [25].
What the interview does not contain is a developer deadline. No submission cutoff, no SDK, no optimized app named outside those three [24]. The mechanism behind the push Tom's Guide describes is Apple calling large partners [6][13]. The fixed number for everyone else is the ship date, October 23 [19].
The useful unit here is the screen, not the app. Take the three screens your users open most often in the middle of a task and check two things about each. First, what survives the unfold: scroll position, open sheets, playback, half-typed text. Second, where the primary control sits once the panel is 7.6 inches wide and the system controls are on the right [16]. The first is a bug report on day one. The second is a layout you keep for years, and Netflix, Slack and Zoom had Apple's people helping them make it [13].
What to watch
- Whether Apple publishes submission guidance or a developer session on the two-display layout before October 23.
- Which apps outside Netflix, Slack and Zoom actually ship optimized builds on day one.
- Whether Apple Pencil input on the Duo comes with a public API for third-party apps.