This is what apps look like on the Apple iPhone Duo
With only three days until the Apple iPhone Duo goes on sale, Apple is preparing for the launch. Behind the scenes, screenshots of Apple’s pre-installed apps for the Duo have surfaced in the App Store. Some of these apps have already appeared in marketing materials, but the images of the previously unseen apps give us a glimpse into what everyday use of the iPhone Duo will be like.
Apple iPhone Duo Apps
Many apps are displayed in landscape mode with an iPad-like user interface that uses part of the screen for sidebar navigation. Other apps use the entire screen for more display area. Some apps offer a dual view that goes beyond sidebar navigation. In the Contacts app, the view is divided into a name list and a view for editing information.
Siri
The Siri app doesn’t have a traditional sidebar, but it also doesn’t offer a complete split-screen layout. The left side of the interface displays a tile view of conversations, while the full conversation is shown on the right.
The Apple iPhone Duo features a vertical dock and vertical navigation bars on the right side of the display, whether open or closed. The exception is when the iPhone Duo is held vertically, similar to an iPad in portrait mode. In this position, the navigation bars remain at the bottom of the user interface.
Apple’s screenshots don’t show many apps in the expanded vertical view, but the option is available. According to Apple, it’s ideal for apps that use the keyboard or for browsing in Safari.
iPhone Duo tool palettes
Apps like Preview feature tool palettes at the bottom of the screen, combined with sidebars, navigation bars, or both. Editing text snippets provides a good insight into the functionality of drawing and photo editing apps, which offer ample screen space and a tool palette at the bottom.
Apps that don’t require large navigation bars offer a widescreen view that fills the entire screen. Apps with navigation bars allow you to hide them by tapping them. Floating pop-ups appear when you press and hold an icon. These pop-ups don’t resize and take up less screen space than on Apple’s smaller iPhones.
Home Screen
On the home screen, you’ll see the Today View with your widgets on the left and the app icons on the right. The status bar is located in the top right corner, and the lock screen icons, such as the flashlight and camera, are in the bottom right corner. The inner display doesn’t have a permanently visible dynamic island because there’s no Face ID and the FaceTime camera is located below the screen.
Apple continues to use the dynamic island, which flips out to the side for live activity and notifications. The outer display has a small, vertical dynamic island with the camera cutout.
Most screenshots in the App Store show the iPhone Duo unfolded in landscape mode, but some also show how the apps will look on the smaller outer display.
Apps can quickly switch between open and closed states as well as between different positions, and Apple has made an effort to keep the navigation buttons in the same place to ensure a consistent user experience no matter how you use the app.
The iPhone Duo isn’t limited to open or closed positions. Some screenshots show the various positions, but you can also use it like a laptop at an angle for watching videos, or prop it up in a tent shape with the outer display visible. You can even hold it half-open like a book.
The screenshots also don’t show how to use two apps side-by-side or multiple windows of the same app, as in Safari – both of which are options. We’ll see a flood of updates for third-party apps after the iPhone Duo is released.
The Apple phone will be released on October 23rd, this Friday. Since sales start in just two days, we already have various prices in our iPhone Duo price comparison.
