New details about Apple’s forthcoming foldable iPhone have emerged from none other than well-known Apple watcher Mark Gurman.
In a new Bloomberg report, Gurman shared tidbits about how Apple’s foldable iPhone will reportedly work. Expected to launch in the fall alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, Apple’s first foldable phone reportedly features multitasking capabilities similar to Android book-style foldables like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
Gurman said the device will run iOS and not the iPad’s more robust iPadOS, which received an overhaul to its multitasking features in iPadOS 26. The software update added resizable app windows and a menu bar for quick access to app settings—features designed to make an iPad work more like a Mac running macOS.
Unfortunately, those well-received iPad multitasking features won’t make it to the foldable iPhone. Instead, the device will have a “simpler multitasking system” that “will be able to show two apps side by side,” similar to the split-screen modes on Android foldables, according to the report. I’ve had good experiences with split-screen app modes on Android foldables, so the bar is pretty low for Apple to clear.
Restricting the foldable iPhone’s multitasking to two apps at once is probably a way to prevent cannibalizing iPad sales. Still, it’s going to sting if an iPad mini can run at least three apps with resizable windows and the foldable iPhone can’t.
Gurman also said that developers will be able to “add sidebars along the left edge of the screen” to their iPhone apps to take advantage of the larger folding display. Apple has been pushing sidebars as a feature in its redesigned iPad apps for years now. It’s a good way to put more app settings at your fingertips, but it just sounds so uncreative.
The report also includes other nuggets that we’ve heard about before. The foldable iPhone will be shorter than most iPhones when it’s closed and the inner screen will have a widescreen aspect ratio that’s better suited for video. The outside screen will have a hole-punch camera that supports a Dynamic Island; the inner screen will also have a hole-punch camera and not the previously rumored in-display camera. There’s no Face ID, but there will be Touch ID in the side button. The foldable display will have a less visible crease down the middle, but it won’t be completely eliminated.
Another prolific leaker, Sonny Dickson, shared images of what appeared to be 3D CAD files for the foldable iPhone.
pic.twitter.com/p0x5T1G1DH
— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) March 9, 2026
The images give you a sense of the shorter and squatter dimensions when the device is closed, and its wider footprint when open.
All of this is to say, the foldable iPhone is getting more real with every leak.
Source: Gizmodo