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Apple said on November 6 that more than 100,000 apps built for the iPhone Duo are now live on the App Store, about two weeks after the foldable went on sale. According to MacRumors, the figure refers to apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later, which fill both the inner and outer displays.
Key facts
- Apple says "well over 100,000" apps are optimized, with thousands more added each day, per a statement from Susan Prescott, vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.
- Optimized apps carry a "Made for iPhone Duo" badge in their App Store listings on the device.
- Apple has held more than 50 in-person workshops in 19 cities, and GSMArena reports more than 2,000 developers attended.
- The Duo starts at $1,999 for the 256GB model, according to TechCrunch.
- iOS 27.2 added Apple Pencil (USB-C) support, MacRumors reports.
Which apps are ready, and which are not
Apple named recent additions including Microsoft's Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word, plus Etsy, Goodnotes, Halide Mark III, NBA, NHL and Zoom. Netflix, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube were already optimized. TechCrunch lists many more, among them Spotify, ChatGPT, Canva, Strava and The Weather Channel.
MacRumors also compiled apps that are still not optimized. They include Delta, DoorDash, Duolingo, Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, PayPal, Starbucks, Steam, Venmo and Wells Fargo. GSMArena notes that Google Maps only recently caught up.
TechCrunch cautions that not every listed update has fully rolled out. Its reviewer found Spotify still showing a black bar on the side, with no update offered in the App Store on its review unit.
Why it matters
App support has been a main criticism of the Duo. According to MacRumors, apps built with the iOS 26 SDK or earlier run but sit in the center of the inner display with empty black space at the sides. Apps built with the iOS 27 SDK fill most of the inner display but avoid the status bar on the right edge. TechCrunch adds that non-optimized apps can hide functions under an overflow menu.
Optimization does not guarantee polish. The Verge notes that users found Instagram messy at launch despite its "Made for iPhone Duo" label, and that Instagram chief Adam Mosseri called the Duo a "bit of a tricky form factor."
For developers, the effort is described as modest in the simple case. Apple says apps using standard SwiftUI and UIKit components adapt automatically, with controls moved to the status bar and multi-column support on the inner display. New APIs cover custom layouts and device poses. India Today adds that Xcode includes tools to find layout problems and test resizing.
What to watch next
The key question is whether the large apps still missing, especially banking, travel and delivery services, update soon. The 100,000 figure is also Apple's own count and comes without a breakdown of how many of those apps are widely used.
