Apple is ready to host every year International Engineering Conference next week, when the long-awaited announcement is expected Siri update. As happy as I am that the smart assistant is finally working as it should have done all these years, i iOS 27 a glance may confirm the next big launch of Apple: i The foldable iPhone Ultra.
I say this because iPhones have trailed their Android counterparts in true multitasking capabilities. Indeed, they have a Dynamic Island that reveals important information by pressing and holding without leaving the current application. But it’s not like running multiple apps side by side at the same time or one app on top of another. Such use cases are important for foldable phones with large screens – or large slab phones for that matter. This limitation of iOS is one of the reasons why I believe that the 6.9-inch screen area on the Pro Max models is not fully utilized. But this may change at WWDC next week.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple’s foldable iPhone will have an “iPad-like interface when opened.” It can support running two apps side by side and add sidebars to multiple apps. We’ve never had an iPhone that runs multiple apps on the screen at the same time, and if Apple demos such an event at WWDC 26, it will point to the introduction of an iPhone with a bigger screen — hopefully, one that folds.
However, iOS 27 needs more than just an iPad-like multitasking UI to take advantage of its large canvas. After using most of the foldable phones introduced in the last five years, I have a few notes for Apple to increase the power of the large screen.
Multitasking with intuitive window management
Oppo Find N6 can run three applications at the same time and many more as pop-up windows.
I Oppo Find N6 my favorite foldable phone. It has a non-reflective screen for better readability outdoors, a large battery that lasts all day and best of all, the software experience that makes it a powerful multitasking powerhouse. It’s so much more than just having a simple split screen at your disposal. That’s not to say I don’t use split screen multitasking but using two apps side by side is not ideal if you have to type in one app (like Google Docs). When the keyboard appears, you get less space to type.
Oppo (and OnePlus) solved this issue in 2023, where you can use two apps side by side and a third on the full screen below. It allows me to reference web page searches on the left side of the screen and have a PDF running on the other side, while using Google Docs on the floor to write my essay on the go.
The latest Oppo Find N6 takes it to the next level with its Free-Flow Window feature, which lets you run four apps simultaneously in resizable windows. Are four apps too many? Yes. But does it make sense? And yes. I thought it was overbooked until I got to the airport and had to send my invoices immediately. I opened Google Sheets (to create an invoice), Calculator (to calculate my monthly income for taxes), Keep (to take tax notes), and Chrome (to check my published work.
I can do all of this on a slab phone by looping between each app. However, having the ability to use all of these apps without exiting one and resizing them to your liking really helps save time and effort. I also used this feature to take notes while attending meetings and refer to shared PDFs simultaneously.
I would love to have this feature on an iPhone Fold with an iPad-like taskbar at the bottom. It makes the iPhone Ultra look like an iPad Mini when it’s open but fits inside my pocket.
Lots of iOS tweaks for more intuitive use
The sidebar might not be great on slab phones but it can help you be more productive on foldable phones.
I iOS 27 redesign it can affect Siri, Search, Camera, Safari, Weather, Photo Gallery and more. Because of the iPhone Fold’s large screen, I hope it also adds two things to the system’s user interface.
First, I would like to get ia Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7-as a sidebar. It may not sound very useful in theory but all foldable phones have this feature now, and for good reason. When AI Select was first released on Samsung phones, it was only possible to access it through the sidebar. This Galaxy AI feature allowed me to highlight part of my current screen and suggest contextual actions.
For example, I used it to add Calendar events to my emails. I can open an email invitation, swipe the sidebar to access AI Select and highlight the event information to have the date, time and address automatically in my Calendar app. Unless Gemini is enabled in your Gmail account, you’ll need to add these details manually to create a Calendar event.
I also use the sidebar to access the files app and other pop-up apps (like the calculator), which I don’t have on my taskbar. While Bloomberg’s report said the sidebar could be embedded in certain apps, I’d like to have system-wide accessibility so I can use it over my on-screen content, regardless of which app I’m currently using.
Honor’s expanded folders let me have one-tap access to up to five apps while keeping them grouped together.
Second, I want more smartphone manufacturers to borrow Honor’s extended folders. It helps keep apps within one-tap access, while also allowing me to group them. It’s the best of both worlds – having a folder and a single app icon on the screen.
This feature was adopted by other Android skins last year but most of them are limited to three applications. Honor lets me add up to five apps to an expanded vertical or horizontal folder, which includes my favorite apps without requiring me to tap the folder to access them. It’s a great feature that I’ve missed a lot since going back to mine iPhone 17 Pro Max. The best I can do on the iPhone right now is move apps next to each other, or use them Smart Stack grouping several widgets together.
These iOS 27 additions will make Apple’s upcoming foldable easier to use and help maximize the use of the big screen. Hopefully we can get our first look at some of them next week at WWDC 26, as well as some very exciting ones. Features of iOS 27. Either way, it’s going to be a full week of Apple software!