The iPhone Duo Is Here, and Our Clients’ Apps Were Ready for It
Apple released the iPhone Duo today, and the apps we build and maintain for our clients already support it.
The Duo’s headline feature is its folding screen, and with it comes a screen shape apps weren’t designed for. Most apps were built for a tall, narrow phone. On the Duo’s new proportions, folded or open, they can look stretched, crowded or oddly spaced.
Apple’s fix is a new side area: a narrow strip beside the main display where an app’s navigation can live, so the main screen keeps proportions that suit the content. It doesn’t happen by itself, though. Each app has to be updated to move its navigation over, and until it is, the strip just sits there empty. That’s the complaint coming up in early reviews: the phone feels unfinished. The hardware isn’t the problem. Most apps simply haven’t done the work yet.
What we changed
One of our client apps on the iPhone Duo, folded and unfolded, beside a standard iPhone.
On a standard iPhone, an app’s main navigation sits in a bar along the bottom of the screen. On the Duo, we moved it into the side area as a vertical rail. The navigation sits where your thumb already is, and the main screen gets its full height back for content. Unfolded, the extra width lets the feed show several posts side by side.
The app feels like it was designed for the Duo, because by launch day it had been.
Staying ahead, so you don’t have to
New hardware doesn’t wait for your app. The day a device ships, your users start opening your app on it, and their first impression is whatever your app does that day. If it leaves a gap on the screen or crowds its layout, people notice, and they don’t blame the phone.
So we keep an eye on the platforms our clients’ apps run on. When Apple or Google announce a change, we work out what it means for each app we look after and bring our clients the options: what’s changing, what it would take, and what happens if they wait. They decide. If they want to be ready, we build and test the update in time for the release, so the app is ready when the device is.
Our clients stay ahead of changes like this without having to track them themselves.
That’s how we think about looking after software. An app is something people use every day, and it should keep up with the devices they use it on.
If your app isn’t ready yet
The empty space on the Duo will fill in as apps update, and the ones that update first will feel noticeably better than the ones that don’t. If your app doesn’t use the side area yet, or you’re not sure how it looks on the Duo, get in touch. We’ll look at it and tell you honestly what it would take. And if you’re planning a new app, our mobile work starts from the devices your users actually carry.