With just three days to go until the iPhone Duo is released, Apple is getting ready for the launch. Behind the scenes, the App Store now has screenshots of Apple’s built-in apps running on the Duo. We’ve seen some apps in marketing materials, but images of the ones we haven’t seen give us an idea of what it will be like using the iPhone Duo day to day.
Many apps are shown in landscape orientation with an iPad-like interface that uses some of the screen real estate for sidebar navigation. Other apps use the full screen for more viewing space.
Some apps have a dual view that goes beyond sidebar navigation. In Contacts, the app is divided into a list of names and a view for editing information.
The Siri app doesn’t have a traditional sidebar, but it also doesn’t get a full split. The left part of the interface is a tiled view of conversations, while the full conversation can be viewed on the right.
The iPhone Duo adopts a vertical dock and vertical navigation bars on the right side of the display in both open and closed views. The exception is an open view with the iPhone Duo held vertically, similar to an iPad in portrait orientation. When positioned that way, navigation bars remain at the bottom of the interface.
Apple’s screenshots don’t show many apps in the unfolded vertical orientation, but it is a viewing option. Apple says it’s ideal for apps that use the keyboard or for browsing in Safari.
Apps like Preview have palettes at the bottom for selecting tools, and those are combined with sidebars, navigation bars, or both. Markup editing gives a good preview of what drawing and photo editing apps will be like, with a large amount of display space paired with a bottom tool palette.
Apps that don’t need large navigation bars have widescreen views that take up the whole display. Apps that do have navigation bars have an option to tap to hide the bar.
Floating popovers show up when you press and hold on an icon. The popovers aren’t scaled up and take up less room on the display than they do on Apple’s smaller iPhones.
When you’re on the Home Screen, you’ll see the Today view on the left of the display with your widgets, while app icons are on the right. The status bar is in the upper-right corner, and the Lock Screen icons like Flashlight and Camera are in the bottom right. The inner display doesn’t have an always-visible Dynamic Island because there is no Face ID and the FaceTime camera is under the screen. Apple is still using the Dynamic Island, which expands out from the side of the display for Live Activities and alerts. The outer display has a small vertical Dynamic Island that includes the camera cutout.
Most of the App Store screenshots have the iPhone Duo unfolded in landscape orientation, though some also show what apps will look like on the smaller outer display.
Apps will be able to transition quickly from open to closed and to different positions, and Apple made an effort to keep navigation buttons in the same place for a unified experience no matter how you’re using it.
Open and closed aren’t the only options for the iPhone Duo. Few screenshots show the positions, but the Duo can be used laptop-style at an angle for watching videos or standing in a tent shape with the outer display visible. You can also use it partially open and held like a book.
Screenshots also don’t show two apps used side by side or multiple windows of the same app like Safari, both of which are options. We’ll see a deluge of iPhone Duo updates for third-party apps when the device comes out.
The iPhone Duo is launching on October 23, which is this Friday. We should be getting media reviews and first impressions as soon as tomorrow since we’ll be two days out from release.
(Thanks, Alireza!)