The iPhone Duo presented itself as an outstanding device, with stunning design and a beautiful integration of software, but its biggest issue from day one was app compatibility. That was always going to be the case.

The good news is that apps are continuously being updated, and as someone who’s using the Duo still, I can tell you that every day there are 5, 10, or more apps just out of my library that are getting an update.

Just how well is it doing? According to Apple, there are 100,000 apps built for iPhone Duo already live in the App Store, and they say thousands more are being added every day. I guess the best news is that when an app gets properly updated by a developer, it really does work on the device in a way that the traditional iPhone might not have offered.

There are some big names updating their apps for iPhone Duo. Microsoft have updated Word and Outlook. Zoom’s now been updated for smarter and better-looking video conferencing on the device. Sports fans have got the MLB, the NHL, and the NBA, and there are many, many more. Don’t just take my word for it. Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, is certainly bullish about the Duo’s app compatibility, telling EFTM “It’s been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we’re grateful for their creativity and innovation. Today there are well over 100,000 apps built for iPhone Duo already live on the App Store, and thousands of optimised apps are being added to the store each day,”

“In the last month alone, thousands of developers have joined us for workshops in 19 cities around the world to experience iPhone Duo firsthand and bring updated apps to their users. The enthusiasm has been incredible, and we’re excited to see the pace of updates continue to accelerate as more and more apps optimise for iPhone Duo.”

As we said in our original review of the iPhone Duo, there are three types of apps:

There are apps for which nothing has been done to make them compatible with the iPhone Duo.

Those are not a great experience.

Let’s be clear: those still exist and will continue to exist because some apps just don’t have active development.

There are apps that fit into the category which Apple describes as “iPhone built for iPhone Duo.” Those have been built to support iOS 27 and they resize to take advantage of the larger inner display.

However what you’ll notice from these apps, as I’ll show you some below, is that while they do stretch to the full screen, they don’t actually use the Duo’s display.

You’ll see the status bar taking up a large part of the top or side of the screen. This is absolutely the case for almost all Google apps, apps like Reddit.

It’s great that they use the bigger screen but it really makes a difference when developers shift the menus and everything to that sidebar or status bar to make it more usable for an iPhone Duo user.

That is the next and third class of app made for iPhone Duo at their core, and frankly there’s a lot of these.

I’m actually quite impressed by the number of these that there are, and they’re random too in some cases.

MyGov has been updated to include the menus being repositioned (Plain boring below, but hey, I’m not taking you deep inside my personal MyGov account ok:))

Things like Macquarie Bank – from what I can tell, one of the only major financial institutions to update for Duo in Australia

My Arlo home security looks sensational on iPhone Duo and is easy to navigate.

There’s a great app called Time Page, which is a very different take on the way a calendar could look.

Of course there’s social media like TikTok and Instagram.

When these apps are developed for the iPhone Duo specifically, not just stretched to the iPhone Gio, the experience is outstanding.

Overall, the experience of using the Duo is improving, and that’s one of the advantages of these updates. They are enhancing the experience for existing users. Of course, given the delays on delivery, many people aren’t going to discover these apps until next year, when they get their iPhone Duos. By then, many more apps will have been updated.

Of course, there’s much more to come for iPhone Duo, including Apple Pencil support for the USB-C version of the pencil that comes with iOS 27.2. As more and more developers learn how to make these apps and attend workshops with Apple, which thousands have done, I think it’s going to dramatically improve.

It’s fascinating because this is the first time that Apple’s faced this challenge: this challenge of having to have the cart follow the horse. The apps need to come after the device. They couldn’t bring thousands of developers into the tent before the Duo was released, so they simply couldn’t meet the day-one demand for apps. It’s kind of fascinating. While plenty of people hate on this device for this very reason, in reality, it’s not a reason to stop using the device. It’s a reason to check the App Store for updates far more regularly than you might normally.