Apple exploring fix for Safari’s cramped layout on the iPhone Duo’s outer display

Apple WebKit blog post reveals the tech giant is investigating ways to tackle the iPhone Duo's outer display layout issues with Safari. Jen Simmons, a representative from Apple, explained that Safari's right-aligned controls use up a significant portion of the outer display's screen space, leaving websites with a narrow area to display their content.

This issue became apparent in multiple iPhone Duo reviews, with reviewers pointing out the awkwardness of this form factor, particularly with Safari's right-aligned controls taking up valuable screen real estate. Despite this, scrolling in Safari on the inner screen presents a better user experience for new iPhone Duo users.

In a post highlighting new features in Safari 27.1, Simmons acknowledged that websites currently cannot extend beyond the controls on the iPhone Duo's outer display. She expressed that Apple is looking into providing web designers and developers with more creative ways to utilize this space. However, she cautioned that simply extending websites behind Safari's controls using the HTML viewport meta tag could lead to problems, as many websites do not properly account for these areas, potentially obscuring important content.

To address this limitation, Simmons invited developers to share their ideas for a more foolproof and user-friendly solution. Apple is actively investigating potential approaches to utilize the outer display space more effectively. Developers who have ideas on how Apple could tackle this issue can find more information in the WebKit post and share their feedback accordingly.