Exclusive Software Features

While the iPhone Duo will run the same iOS 27 as the rest of the iPhone lineup, Apple has more than a few special features that will be exclusive to the foldable.

Some of these are obvious from the form factor. Previewing a photo or using FaceTime Duo mode to have two people on a call at once will only work because the iPhone Duo has a second screen.

The same holds true for Kid Cue, which is a feature that will play a Peanuts animation when taking a photo to encourage young kids to smile at the camera. It’s a very clever use of the cover screen (and Apple’s rights to the Peanuts franchise), making it a nice bonus surprise, but obviously there’s no realistic way to bring that to a standard iPhone.

However, Apple is restricting a few other features for reasons that make sense, but are less obvious. For example, Smart Take, which can automatically capture group photos when everyone is posted and looking at the camera, would be handy on the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Pro, but understandably fits in more naturally with an iPhone that can be easily propped up on its own without a tripod.

The same goes for the more advanced StandBy mode. While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max have the same StandBy features that have been the norm since the iPhone 14 models added the Always-On Display, the iPhone Duo will be able to engage StandBy mode without being connected to a charger, since the foldable nature lets it be easily propped up without a stand.

Still, much like split-screen multitasking, which is also naturally coming to the iPhone Duo, these are all features that would be very useful on Apple’s other iPhone models. Sure, we’d need to add our own tripods or stands, and navigate smaller screens, but there seems to be no hardware reason they can’t be there. It’s purely Apple deciding to limit them from a user experience perspective.