They will look mighty fine! If you are eager for more details on the upcoming Surface Duo, then this new report is sure to delight. It sheds light on how the stock Microsoft Android apps will look on the device.
A collection of screenshots accompany this report.
And they give us our best look yet at how applications like Outlook, Edge, OneNote, and Office can adapt to the unique screen layout of this phone. And these go beyond what we have seen in the current versions of the Surface Duo emulator.
Let’s take a look at all the screenshots first:
The most interesting of the bunch is how the lock screen and the system overall behaves.
Apparently, the Surface Duo lock screen is formatted with the time and date showing on the left, with notifications sitting snuggly on the right. Phone calls and other such information also appear on the right, which the device treats as the main display for showing things like texts.
Still on the topic of apps, there is talk that most Microsoft applications will support the dual screen and spanning capabilities of the Duo. Some already do, while others like Skype and Xbox Game Streaming are soon to get these abilities.
Edge also works similarly, with web pages spanning both screens. Outlook, meanwhile, uses this capability for contact management, with list of messages on the left and emails on the right.
Interestingly, the SwiftKey keyboard will be heavily modified to adapt to the Duo. It can be dragged across both displays, while a special split-thumb mode is coming too. There is even a special compose mode that has the keyboard fill the full screen on the lower display when the Duo is used as a laptop.
Preinstalled apps? There are many, including Office, OneNote, the new Microsoft Edge web browser, Outlook, To Do, and OneDrive.
The entire UI is powered by Microsoft Launcher. And this means that elsewhere, the Duo will use the same gesture for navigation and closing apps that are available on Android 10. All applications will also open up in single screen mode based on the display last used.
Overall, expected stuff, but still very exciting!
With the release of the Surface Duo coming earlier than expected, all these little additions confirm that Microsoft wants to get this new frontier right from the start.
What are your thoughts on this? Tremendous levels of productivity? Enough for you to give the Surface Duo a look when it launches?
