Apple says more than 100,000 apps built for iPhone Duo are now live on the App Store, two weeks after the foldable went on sale on October 23. Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, gave the number in a statement reported by TechCrunch, saying “It’s been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo” and that thousands more optimized apps arrive every day.
That’s real progress for a phone whose launch reviews kept circling back to one problem: apps that didn’t fill the big inner screen. But 100,000 is not the same as every app you use, and some of the biggest names are still missing.
What Apple actually counts as an app built for iPhone Duo
Apple’s developer guide for iPhone Duo splits apps into three groups by the SDK they were built with. Apps built with the iOS 26 SDK or earlier sit in the center of the inner display with empty space around them. Apps built with the iOS 27 SDK fill most of the screen but still avoid the status bar on the right edge. Apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later are what Apple calls optimized, using the full display with toolbars and tab bars running vertically below the status bar.
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MacRumors reports that Apple confirmed the 100,000 figure counts apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later. So the milestone is a technical bar, not a design review. Building with the new SDK gets an app onto the full display, but Apple’s own guide warns developers to check that their content adapts when the bars turn vertical before they ship. Some of those 100,000 apps will feel tailor-made. Others will simply stretch.
Two other numbers in Apple’s update aren’t new. TechCrunch reports more than 2,000 developers have attended more than 50 in-person workshops in 19 cities, which is the same set of figures Apple gave in its October 22 launch release.
Microsoft Word, Zoom and Netflix are optimized, while Spotify sits in limbo
Apple pointed to a fresh batch of big apps alongside the milestone. According to TechCrunch, the newly ready list includes Microsoft Word and Outlook, Zoom, the NBA and NHL apps, Etsy, LTK, Goodnotes, Extra and Halide Mark III. Netflix, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp were ready at launch. Zoom’s App Store listing shows the change plainly, with release notes that read “iPhone Duo support”.
Apple’s wider list also names Spotify, ChatGPT, Canva, Google Chat, Google Translate, Facebook Messenger, Strava and The Washington Post among apps updated and optimized. Not every one has landed yet. TechCrunch says its review unit still showed Spotify with a black side bar and no update offered, even though Apple listed it.
We covered the Zoom and Microsoft updates when they arrived. The bigger story now is the gaps.
Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, DoorDash and Venmo are still missing from iPhone Duo
MacRumors checked App Store listings for the “Made for iPhone Duo” badge and published examples of popular apps that weren’t optimized as of November 6. They include:
- Work: Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Authenticator
- Money: Venmo, PayPal and Wells Fargo
- Food and shopping: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Starbucks, Whole Foods and Best Buy
- Travel and shipping: Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, UPS, FedEx and USPS
- Everything else: Duolingo, YouTube Music, Bluesky, Steam, Google Home, Ring and Apple’s own Apple Store app
The pattern is odd. Google has optimized Chat and Translate according to Apple, but not Docs, Sheets or Slides. Microsoft shipped Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, but not Teams, the app many office workers open first. And DoorDash is a promised app that hasn’t arrived. Apple’s October 22 release said DoorDash would make it easy to track a delivery on a larger map “later this year”, so it still has a few weeks to deliver.
What 100,000 optimized apps means if you’re about to spend $1,999 on iPhone Duo
iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, according to TechCrunch. At that price, the number to care about is your own home screen, not Apple’s total. Before you buy, open the App Store pages for the five or six apps you use most and look for the Made for iPhone Duo badge. Apple’s developer news post says that badge appears once a developer submits iPhone Duo screenshots.
Apps without the badge still run. They just sit in a centered window on the inner display, which wastes the extra screen you paid for. If your day runs on Google Docs and Teams, the Duo’s inner display will feel like a big iPhone with black bars for now. If you live in Word, Outlook, Zoom and Netflix, it already works the way Apple pitched it.
The pace should keep rising. Apple says thousands of optimized apps are being added each day, and Prescott said Apple expects updates to “continue to accelerate”. The question for buyers is simply whether your must-have apps are in the next wave or the one after.
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