iOS 27 may add wide-screen app support to prepare for the foldable iPhone

According to a recent insider report, Apple is developing a feature that would automatically stretch standard iPhone apps to fit landscape orientation and larger displays at the system level, without requiring any work from individual developers.

The addition would address a long-standing weakness in iOS, one that becomes especially significant ahead of the company's first foldable iPhone. As MacRumors reports, citing the well-known insider known as Fixed Focus Digital, Apple is working on a mechanism that the source has referred to as Parallel View. The feature is described as a system-level solution that adapts the interface of regular apps for a wider display, without the need to rebuild them manually.

The term Parallel View itself is borrowed from HarmonyOS, Huawei's operating system, which already offers a similar capability. The reference is not meant to suggest Apple is copying the implementation, but rather to describe the underlying approach. Apple already has its own version of this logic in iPadOS, where the system has long been able to adapt apps to landscape orientation. iOS, however, has never had a comparable mechanism.

The new feature appears to be aimed primarily at Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone, which is expected to feature an internal 7.8-inch display. The form factor exposes a fundamental limitation of iOS, since nearly all iPhone apps are designed for a tall, narrow screen. Without a system-level adaptation tool, those apps would display with black bars along the edges on the larger panel. According to the insider, iOS itself is well optimized, but the system has historically lagged behind when it comes to scaling for larger displays.