Multitasking for iOS: Allegedly split-screen function on the way

Among the features that have existed on Android for years but not on iOS is the so-called split-screen or multi-window mode. While iPadOS now has almost complete window management, you can only display one app at a time on the iPhone. With iOS 27, this could now change, at least according to a well-known leaker from Asia. However, alleged restrictions are also planned for this. Whether the prediction is correct will probably become clear on Monday: Apple will then present iOS 27 at the WWDC developer conference for the first time.

Two apps side by side, but only in landscape mode

According to the Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital, who has been correct multiple times in the past, writes that Apple is planning a kind of “Parallel View” for iOS. This would allow two applications to be displayed simultaneously when the smartphone is used in landscape mode. “Parallel View” is already found in Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system; how Apple will name the function remains unclear. Apple apparently plans to orient itself on the first simple multitasking functions in iPadOS, which have existed for several years. A true window system for the iPhone is not planned initially.

Interestingly, the technology would be there: Last year, a tinkerer succeeded in equipping a jailbroken iPhone with a derivative of iPadOS and thereby enabling “windowing.” So it is purely a feature decision by Apple. The hardware would be fast enough for this approach. However, if the split-screen function were to come to regular iPhones, there would be the problem that most apps are designed for portrait mode. How these would then be displayed in square format, which would be the case with a horizontal split-screen variant, remains open.

Perhaps only for the iPhone Ultra

It is more likely that Fixed Focus Digital is describing a feature of the upcoming iPhone Ultra with the new function. Apple's first foldable, expected in September, is said to allow two apps to be used in “side-by-side” mode when unfolded, according to earlier reports, as was once introduced on the iPad (before the better window management).

Here it would be easy to display two iPhone apps simultaneously, as there is sufficient space – despite the “Pass” format that Apple apparently aims for.

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