Apple announced Friday that more than 100,000 apps have been optimized for the iPhone Duo, the company’s first foldable smartphone that went on sale roughly two weeks earlier. According to MacRumors, the figure covers apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later, which fill the full width of both the device’s inner and outer displays and place controls vertically in the status bar.
Susan Prescott, Apple’s Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations, said in a statement to MacRumors: “It’s been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we’re grateful for their creativity and innovation. Today there are well over 100,000 apps built for iPhone Duo already live on the App Store, and thousands of optimized apps are being added to the store each day. In the last month alone, thousands of developers have joined us for workshops in 19 cities around the world to experience iPhone Duo firsthand and bring updated apps to their users. The enthusiasm has been incredible, and we’re excited to see the pace of updates continue to accelerate as more and more apps optimize for iPhone Duo.”
Optimized apps display a “Made for iPhone Duo” badge in App Store listings on the device itself. Recent examples include Microsoft’s Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word apps, along with Etsy, Goodnotes, Halide Mark III, NBA, NHL, and Zoom. Other optimized titles include Amazon Prime Video, Fantastical, Flighty, Instagram, MLB, Netflix, SmartGym, WhatsApp, and YouTube.
Apple said developers can update apps relatively easily. Those using standard SwiftUI and UIKit components adapt automatically to the Duo’s displays, with controls shifting to the status bar and multi-column layouts available on the larger inner screen. New APIs support the device’s various layouts and poses, and online resources plus the Apple Developer Forums are available alongside the workshops.
Despite the rapid progress, many apps remain unoptimized. Examples include AMC Theaters, Amazon Fire TV, the Apple Store app, Best Buy, Bluesky, Delta, DoorDash, Duolingo, Fandango, FedEx, Goodreads, Google Docs, Google Home, Google Sheets, Google Slides, GrubHub, JetBlue, Libby, Microsoft Authenticator, Microsoft Teams, Nike, PayPal, Ring, Starbucks, Steam, Uber Eats, Venmo, YouTube Music, and others such as UPS, USPS, Verizon, and Wells Fargo. With millions of apps on the App Store, incomplete coverage is unsurprising, though the absence of the Apple Store app itself has drawn particular comment.
Apps built with the iOS 27 SDK resize to fill most of the inner display but leave space around the status bar on the right edge. Those built with the iOS 26 SDK or earlier run centered on the inner display with substantial empty black space on either side. iOS 27.2 separately added Apple Pencil (USB-C) support for the Duo, enabling drawing, note-taking, and markup in compatible apps.
MacDailyNews Take: With millions upon millions of iPhone Duos hitting the market – and Apple’s App Store – those app gaps will close soon enough!
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
Like 🙂 or dislike 🙁 this post below!
