Honestly, phones stopped being fun years ago. These days, it’s pocket-sized computers that mostly exist to get things done, and most of the apps on them follow suit. Even games that are supposed to be fun started to feel serious.
There is nothing wrong. But somewhere along the way we forgot how magical these things are. Fitting this much computing power into a device that slips into a pocket is a real tech miracle that we’ve taken for granted. Instead, we argue about marginal spec bumps instead.
The iPhone Duo brings back some of that magic, and developers have noticed. The apps below are useful to a point. Their real job is to show what the open and closed states can do, sometimes in silly new ways.
If that sounds familiar, it should. We see the same spirit as the first iPhone, when apps like iBeer served no real purpose except to prove what the accelerometer could do. So, if you’re looking for fun apps that actually take advantage of the iPhone Duo’s foldable design, these apps might be worth checking out.
deck man
Price: $4.99
Deck-Man turns the iPhone Duo into a portable cassette player. You open the phone to browse your albums as cassette tapes, slide one into the player, then close the phone to start playing the music. Developer Vidit Bhargava built it during a four-hour hackathon, and the app was originally called Duo-Man.
The little details sell it. Play, pause, fast-forward and rewind buttons work like the real thing, and the clicks and tape sounds come from recordings from an actual cassette player. It plays music from Apple Music and from files stored on your phone. It’s a one-time purchase with no ads or subscriptions.
MD Vinyl
Price: Free (in-app purchases of $1.99, $2.99 and $14.99)
MD Vinyl brings the look of a record player to music streaming. You get a virtual turntable with a spinning record, and album art and record design shape how everything looks while you listen. It’s been around for years and has about 29,000 reviews, averaging 4.6 out of 5.
The latest update adds extra-large widgets and a “Now Spinning” widget that pairs album art with a spinning vinyl. It also adds Siri Playback and Spotlight Search. The app is free to download, with three paid upgrades listed: $1.99, $2.99 and a $14.99 per tier.
Phridge
Price: free
Phridge is a small refrigerator that lives in your phone. The duo closes and the fridge door closes. Open it and you can look inside. The outside of the door works like a real one, so you can hold up a handwritten note or a photo, or write out words with letter magnets.
Inside, you line the shelves with groceries, from milk cartons to a whole salmon. Then you can knock them to the ground with purpose. Popping cans, bursting fizzy bottles, splashing cartons and smashing glass. It serves no real purpose, and that’s the charm.
toast
Price: $2.99
Toastie is a grilled cheese game where the phone is the toaster. You spread the bread with your finger, pull on the cheese and the fillings, then press on the grill and close the lid. The sandwich cooks in real time. Open it too early and the cheese won’t melt. Wait too long and it will burn.
On the iPhone Duo, you actually close the phone to close the lid, then open it to check your sandwich. A clock keeps you moving, with 15 seconds to build each order, and each sandwich gets a score card. Ten recipes are on the menu, from a classic grilled cheese to a kimchi version. It also works on regular iPhones, with no ads and no in-app purchases.
Small computers
Price: $3.99
Tiny Computers is a museum of old computers, and the duo’s hinge is the star. Flip the phone into tabletop mode and it becomes a miniature desktop machine, with the screen at the top and a working keyboard at the bottom. Ten computers are included, inspired by machines such as the Commodore 64 and Windows 95.
Everyone has their own personality. You can type, click on keyboard, use old command lines, draw programs and play desktop games, and every computer hides secret files and commands to find. Sometimes even Windows crashes. The app also works on regular iPhones with a simulated angle, but the tabletop mode is the real draw.
Delta
Price: Free (optional in-app supporter purchases from $5 to $30)
Delta is the odd one out here because it’s been around for years. It’s an emulator, which means it mimics old game consoles like the Super Nintendo and the Nintendo DS. You add your own game files to play.
What earns it a spot on this list is the 2.0 update, which adds iPhone Duo support. Delta now has controller layouts for every way you can hold the Duo, and it can run alongside another app on the big screen. Closing the phone also puts a DS game to sleep, just like closing the lid on a real DS.
TypeDraw
Price: $4.99
TypeDraw is a notebook that opens when you flip the phone. You choose what it shows first: a new note, your last one or a note related to the one you are on. Twelve handwritten fonts come built in, and you can also turn your own handwriting into a font. Paper can be lined, gridded or dotted, with your choice of paper and ink colors.
You can tap anywhere on the page, curl the pages and draw with your fingers. The developer says Apple Pencil support for the Duo is coming later this year. The App Store files TypeDraw under productivity, and it’s the closest thing to a practical app on this list. Notes stay on your phone, and no account is required.
Fold & Squish
Price: Free (optional $4.99 Sparkle Pack)
Fold & Squish recreates the folded paper painting many of us did in school. You paint on one half of the page, fold it, rub it, then peel it back so that the color is printed in a mirror image. On the iPhone Duo, you draw on the open screen, close the real phone and rub the outer screen. Open it again to see your print.
The paint is made to feel thick and wet. It spreads when you press it, colors mix where they touch, and the paper leaves fine veins as it peels apart. The free version has every tool, nine paint colors, a butterfly guide and space for six images. The unique Sparkle Pack adds glitter, rainbow color, more guides and unlimited images. There are no ads or accounts, and it’s built to be safe for kids.
AltoPaint
Price: $4.99
AltoPaint is a paint tray for your pocket. Open the lid and a small canvas sits inside, with twelve pigments and a mixing bowl underneath. The paint looks like the real thing. Colors mix like real pigments, the brush runs dry and wet strokes pull into each other. You can start in oil on a tinted canvas, or in gouache, a matte and quick-drying paint, on white paper.
There is no undoing, just like real painting. You paint over a mistake or scrape it back with the palette knife. The app is Apple Pencil ready, with pressure and tilt shaping every stroke, and Apple has said Pencil support for the Duo is coming later this year. The pocket-tin idea fits a phone that opens like a lid. It’s a one-time purchase with no ads or subscription.
None of these apps will change your life. They may smile at you the next time you close your phone, and that’s enough.