iPhone Duo - Six observations that we need to know
The iPhone Duo simulator has now been made available in Xcode 27.1, and it’s quite the experience. Despite a few quirks here and there (this is beta software as of today), it runs relatively smoothly, and does everything we need it to do to test our apps and get them ready for this new and exciting form factor. I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces, all six layouts, including portrait and landscape, for closed, half-open and fully open, with some recent business apps, as well as several games, and here’s a non-definitive list of some key items I’ve seen that have cropped up.
1. The pinhole camera when closed
Starting with the closed form factor, I think it’s fair to say that the pinhole camera on the front of the Duo is not small. In fact, it’s nearly the size of the navigation and information icons running along the side. For some apps, this is probably a non-event; there will be an amount of avoidance in this area simply due to the use of navigation and toolbar buttons, and any adjustments will likely be minor. Some apps however are going to need to think harder about how to deal with it, particularly games, where buttons, icons and other vital pieces of information spend much of their time in the corners. Apple’s APIs are there to make all the adjustments necessary to work around it, but the “best way” will be down to the individual development teams and designers.
2. Alerts when half-open
We knew alerts would be a tricky area; plenty of companies have avoided the standard iOS alerts over the years, and for good reason: they can look somewhat cheap, and more often than not, take away from an apps’ branding instead of adding to it. But of course on half-open screens they now sit on top of the crease, right where we don’t want them to. Thankfully we do get alerted to the hinge state at various angles of the device opening and closing, so we have options, but it is always a shame that these things don’t work out of the box. Several of my previous apps have a wide array of custom alerts that will definitely need some work.
3. Navigation bars top, right or a square top-right?
Amongst the business and retail-focused apps I’ve been looking at on the Duo, I’ve seen blocks of colour at the top, bars along the side, and UI under the pinhole camera that look like an amalgam of both. Design teams are going to have to get their heads together to decide what they want to display, how they want to display it and where. I’ve also seen navigation buttons to the left of the new combined device status symbol top-right, where they could perhaps be below it, but I suspect dev teams are going to really need some steering on how business want to cover all of the edge cases. Considering all of the available layouts, there are plenty of discussions to be had.
4. Screen layout issues
This kind of challenge is always going to be problematic. There isn’t another device on the market that can dramatically change layouts like the Duo can, and apps are going to have to deal with these rapid transitions, along with their many variations. Some layouts are just breaking, with UI shrunk or hidden, some are obscuring UI that should otherwise be visible, some are underlapping icons and buttons where they shouldn’t, or cropping where they should be sliding underneath, carousels being a great example. And some screens are suffering from all of the above mixed together. All of these issues will need some digging around to uncover and figure out how best to handle the combination of UI elements on a single screen.
5. SwiftUI and iPad
If you’re lucky enough to have been through a SwiftUI transformation, or even luckier enough to have been working on a purely-SwiftUI codebase, you’ll most likely see a good selection of element resizing, edge-to-edge UI avoiding the tab bar or sliding under it where appropriate. If done correctly, it looks great, and just works. If you happen to have a codebase catering to both the iPhone and the iPad, I suspect you’ll be in the best position when it comes to Duo compatibility. It’s a phone and a tablet all combined, and it acts and reacts in many similar ways. If your apps haven’t made their way to the iPad yet, getting your iPhone app working beautifully across all of the Duos screens and orientations will set you up perfectly for an iPad release.
6. Closed landscape
As a sixth and final point, I thought it worth mentioning that the landscape orientation of the iPhone could now be a serious consideration moving forward. On the Duo, this screen orientation actually plays really well with a number of apps, with it being a little wider when held in portrait, and thus a little taller in landscape. Potentially more than enough extra pixels to give a great user experience with a little investigation and massaging around the safe areas. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of people using this device in landscape, especially considering the so-called “tent” mode looks so good. One for teams to seriously consider moving forward.
And that’s it for now. I’ve only had the simulator a couple of days and it is already throwing light on so many areas of opportunity for teams to take their apps onto this fantastic device. It’s purporting to be a delightful piece of hardware, so this is a great opportunity to get things polished off so that apps can be as delightful as the device they’re running on. I’ll likely take an opportunity for another dive into the device when I pick one up next month, definitely something to look forward to.
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