iPhone Duo: Watch Video Above an App in Portrait Mode

The iPhone Duo’s two-app multitasking feature works side by side in landscape, but rotating the inner display to portrait usually drops you back to a single app. There is a workaround to keep a video playing above an open app in portrait, and it involves Picture in Picture. Both the inner and outer displays on the iPhone Duo share the same 1:1.4 aspect ratio, and each half of the inner display works out to roughly the same size and shape as the outer screen.

That even split gives each app a canvas it already has to support, with the divider sitting neatly on the fold. The only apparent exception to this is when watching a TV show or movie above another app in portrait mode – but there’s a trick to getting it working. With your iPhone Duo unfolded in portrait orientation, follow these steps: Start playing a video in an app that supports Picture in Picture, such as Apple TV or Apple Podcasts.

Tap the Picture in Picture icon to shrink the video into a floating window. Swipe up to return to the Home Screen, then open the app you want to use (note: it can’t be another video app). Tap the icon that appears in the PiP window to stack the video above the open app.

Earlier today, we wrote about iFixit’s teardown of the iPhone Duo, which addressed some of the concerns about the phone’s inner folding screen and its hinge design – we’ve already seen plenty of reports about the inner screen getting damaged, even though the iPhone Duo only became available (in limited quantities, no less) a few days ago. [#InlinePriceWidget,13804,1#] Now we can shift our attention towards another important question: will the iPhone Duo bend.

A new video demo shows that you can use the Shortcuts app to trigger automations on opening or closing the iPhone Duo. One potential use for this is to configure the iPhone Duo to automatically lock when you fold it … more….

And for that we can only look towards Zack from the YouTube channel JerryRigEverything, who’s been trying to bend phones left and… IPhone Duo bend test doesn’t end well.

Watch the iPhone Duo run a Shortcuts automation when it is opened or closed [Video]. Apple unveils all-new iPad mini: OLED, thinner design, more Chance Miller Oct 26 2026.

Apple iPhone Duo These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.

256GB 12GB RAM £ 1,999.00 € 2,299.00 512GB 12GB RAM £ 2,199.00 € 2,549.00 Show all prices Now we can shift our attention towards another important question: will the iPhone Duo bend. So here’s his traditional ‘durability’ test, performed on the iPhone Duo this time.

Spoiler alert: bending the iPhone Duo doesn’t snap it in half, but it doesn’t end well either. After one bend, the inner screen develops a permanent line on it, after a second bend more lines appear, and then after a third bend, the inner display becomes unresponsive and unusable even though it doesn’t turn off altogether.

It’s a bit of a fiddle, but it works for most apps that support PiP. Whether Apple makes it a little easier to do in a future update remains to be seen.

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