Building for iPhone Duo, in App Developers’ Own Words

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I spent yesterday in New York City interviewing developers about their iPhone Duo apps and the experience of building for such a new and different device. The depth and breadth of developers Apple assembled was excellent. I spoke to indie developers like Vidit Bhargava about Deck-Man and the team behind Notewise. I also interviewed developers from big companies about their impressive Duo updates, including The New York Times for its NYT Cooking app, Netflix, and Meta’s Edits video editing app. Plus, I met Mark Otero from Azra Games, whose team poured their hearts into UnGodly, one of the best-looking games I’ve seen on iOS in a while.

A few things struck me about my conversations with developers. First, every one of them was excited about the design challenges posed by the iPhone Duo and the many orientations and ways it can be used. Second, every one of them came away impressed by how smooth Apple has made the development process. That’s not to say the design challenges weren’t real, but getting from a design idea to an app that worked on the Duo went better than anyone expected. Third, after months of building and testing, everyone was looking forward to seeing which design choices land with users.

But that’s enough of my impressions. I’ll let the developers speak for themselves in this special bonus AppStories video. I came away from New York with some great interviews, which I’ve shared on the MacStories YouTube channel. Apologies for the sometimes rough audio. There’s only so much I can do with recordings made in a room packed with press and developers, but if you’re into apps, design, and how things are built, these interviews are for you.

Also, I left New York with a Night Sky 512GB iPhone Duo that I’ve only just set up and begun testing. I’ll be writing about the Duo soon, and we’ll start covering the best of the more than 300 Duo-optimized apps that developers have sent Federico and me. Stay tuned, because the busy fall season at MacStories is just going to keep rolling.