Hi there! My name is Janko Roettgers, and this is Lowpass. In this issue: I chatted with Netflix’s mobile app designers about their work on the company’s new iPhone Duo app.

Please note: This free edition of Lowpass arrives a day early. Thursday’s newsletter will once again be for paying members only. Upgrade your subscription now to not miss it.

When Apple introduced iOS and iPadOS 27 last year, developers and designers everywhere sensed there was something afoot. The release brought desktop-style multitasking with resizable windows to the iPad, which was widely seen as a sign that the company was getting ready to introduce its own foldable phone. 

That was true for Netflix’s mobile app designers and developers as well. “We started adopting that flexibility factor for iPad right off the get-go,” recalls Netflix’s senior iOS software engineer Adam Bell. This helped Bell and his co-workers to get ready for the release of Apple’s new iPhone Duo – or so they thought, until Apple actually let them try out the Netflix app on the device itself. 

“Once we had the thing in our hands, it was like: Oh, now I understand,” says Netflix staff product designer Ben Johnson. “It really [changed] the way we think about interacting with the device, which is quite a bit different than a typical phone or tablet.” 

“There's a million different configurations this device can be in,” Bell agrees.

The iPhone Duo can be used to watch video in a variety of different configurations, ranging from a tablet-like full-screen view to the semi-folded book mode to a propped-up tabletop mode. But that’s not all: With multitasking capabilities, consumers can also open up other apps alongside the Netflix app, and for instance chat with friends while they watch a live sports game.  

“People will find super creative ways to use these devices,” Bell says.

This shift coincides with changes to Netflix’s own catalog. Not too long ago, Netflix basically offered two things: TV shows and movies. Subscribers may have had different tastes and preferences, but at the end of the day, they still accessed their personal favorites in very similar ways.

Fast forward to 2026, and Netflix is offering much more. Sure, movies and TV are still the service’s bread and butter. But there are also sports and other live events, mobile and TV-based games, comedy specials, podcasts, and even short-form content.

With all these new forms of content also came new usage behaviors. One example: Netflix initially viewed short clips as just one more way for subscribers to discover long-form content. But ever since the company began integrating vertical video into its apps, it discovered that there was more to it. “Members have shifted into looking at that Netflix feed and the vertical video experience not only as a discovery mechanism, but as a way to be entertained,” says Netflix lead product designer Kim Ho.