Samsung is set to launch the seventh generation of its Galaxy Z Fold book-style folding phone this Summer, but its biggest rival is yet to show its folding phone hand. Apple has long been expected to unveil an iPhone Fold, and the latest rumors suggest that it will launch next year.
I’ve used almost every folding phone released globally, with some exceptions for extremely obscure ones. While I’ve always been curious what an iPhone Fold would look like, I was fairly certain that Apple shouldn’t build it, as I wasn’t sure they could deliver on one necessary feature.
This past week, Apple unveiled the next update to its platforms during its WWDC 2025 keynote. Alongside a new naming convention that unites all platform names, including iOS 26, watchOS26, and macOS 26 Tahoe, there’s a new iPadOS 26 that transforms the iPad.
It’s the biggest update to the iPad in years, and it brings a long-awaited feature that not only transforms the iPad but has me excited for Apple’s rumored iPhone Fold.
What makes a good folding phone?
I’ve used the majority of the best folding phones released worldwide, including many that were only available in China.
The best book-style folding phones — i.e., the ones that aim to compete with the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7 — all provide one necessary feature in some form: multitasking. Samsung has been perfecting multitasking on its phones for over a decade, and Android has natively supported multiwindow since Android 7 in 2016.
Multitasking is key to the folding phone experience as it ensures you can take full advantage of the additional screen real estate offered by the larger internal display. Unlike the best flip phones, which make a regular-sized smartphone smaller, these folding phones allow you to go from a regular smartphone to a tablet-sized display, so you need to be able to run multiple apps at once.
Google added optimizations and support to take advantage of the big displays on folding phones in Android 12L two years ago. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 can run three apps side by side and launch more in pop-up chat windows. The Oppo Find N5 and OnePlus Open feature the innovative Open Canvas multitasking system that visualizes your apps in windows larger than the physical screen.
Each of these phones has a way to ensure that the big display is something you can truly take advantage of, and until iPadOS 26, it was a feature that Apple was sorely lacking.
How iPadOS 26 solves the multitasking problem
No, iOS 26 does not add multitasking, but iPadOS 26 finally showcases a clear vision for big screens, and in doing so, Apple has also shown it’s ready to build a folding phone that can compete with the best.
For many years, the iPad has offered basic split-screen multitasking features, but iPadOS 26 adds a new windowing engine designed to replicate a desktop computer experience. Instead of simple features, we have resizable windows that can be set to different presets or resized freely using the handles in the bottom corner. The experience will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s used a desktop computer, and it’s far more intuitive than any other tablet, aside from the best Windows tablets.
Of course, the iPhone Fold is not an iPad, but this has already transformed how productive I am on the iPad Pro 11. It has the potential to do the same for the iPhone Fold and how useful — and therefore, how desirable and profitable — it is to end customers.
What could this mean for an iPhone Fold?
There’s a fairly obvious solution for the eventual iPhone Fold: Apple brings the same feature from iPadOS to iOS 27 next year, just in time for the iPhone Fold. However, I think there’s a way for Apple to transform the folding phone experience at the same time.
One of the biggest challenges with most folding phones is that, while they offer excellent multitasking features, many Android apps are not optimized, and it’s still like using a large phone, versus a small tablet.
Apple could solve this by running iOS on the front screen and a modified version of iPadOS on the internal screen. Not only would it be unique in the world of folding phones, it would solve the biggest issues and instantly make the iPhone Fold a new benchmark for others to match.
Whether the company does this or not, the multitasking features in iPadOS 26 have me excited to see what Apple can do on the iPhone Fold. The company’s first entrant into folding phones will almost certainly change the market, and its approach to iPadOS 26 has me convinced that it can build an experience that’s second to none.
