iPhone Duo ships with iOS 27.1, not the iOS 27.0 that reaches other iPhones on Monday, September 14, and Apple’s press release lists four features built for the foldable: Split View for running two apps side by side, an upgraded StandBy, a redesigned Dynamic Island and a new Call Context widget. Apple’s product page adds that layouts adapt as the phone is opened, closed or posed in one of five positions.
The version number matters. The Duo does not ship until Friday, October 23, and it arrives on a point release that Apple has not dated for other iPhones. Apple has not said whether any of the Duo features reach non-folding models in iOS 27.1 or later.
Split View: two apps on the 7.6-inch inner display
Split View lets two apps run side by side on the inner display, which Apple says is 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max screen. Opened, the Duo takes a wide, passport-like format, and that is the shape Split View is built around.
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Apple describes Split View only as two apps side by side. It has not published which apps support it, whether the two panes can be resized, or whether content can be dragged from one app to the other.
StandBy and the five posable positions
Apple’s tagline for the feature is “Anything’s posable”, and the product page says iOS responds to how the phone is posed. Apple names five positions:
- StandBy
- Landscape
- Portrait
- Seated position
- Standing position
StandBy has been upgraded for the Duo, in Apple’s words, although neither the press release nor the product page describes what changed. Apple has also not published what the seated and standing positions do differently from one another, or whether third-party apps need updates to recognize them.
Dynamic Island, Call Context and what carries over
The press release says the Duo gets a redesigned Dynamic Island and a Call Context widget, both named without further detail. Apple has not published what the redesign looks like on a phone with two displays, or what the widget shows.
The rest of the software story matches the iPhone 18 Pro. Siri AI launches in beta in English first, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish following in October, and Apple says Apple Intelligence is available in 15 languages. Both displays share the same aspect ratio, which should make the handoff between the closed 5.4-inch screen and the open 7.6-inch one less jarring, though Apple has not published how an app transitions when the phone is opened mid-task.
What Apple has not published
There is no developer-level detail on Split View, no list of apps that support the posable positions, and no confirmation of whether iOS 27.1 will bring any of this to other iPhones. Our pre-keynote iPhone Duo preview tracked the software rumors; the press release and product page are the first official word.
Pre-orders open Friday, October 16, at 5 a.m. PT, with availability on October 23 in more than 70 countries and regions. Everything else Apple confirmed today is in our Surprise and shine event recap.
