• More hints around a folding iPhone have appeared
• iOS apps are being updated for a bigger screen size
• Apple is also telling developers to plan for larger displays

Rumors of an 'iPhone Fold' have been swirling for years, but it looks very much like 2026 will be the year when Apple finally launches a foldable phone — and a lot of the most recent hints in this direction are coming from Apple itself.

As spotted by MacRumors, more native iOS apps are being updated to include a landscape mode option, so they'll adjust when you rotate your iPhone (and fit nicely on the large screen of a foldable iPhone when it's opened out too).

The updated apps include Apple Music, Reminders, Weather, Home, Podcasts, Fitness, Health, Shortcuts, Find My, Voice Memos, and the Apple Watch app, so this is clearly a concerted and deliberate effort by Apple developers.

These landscape orientation modes aren't just the standard layout turned on its side, either. There are left-aligned sidebars in many of the apps to make it easier to get around these apps when they're in landscape mode or on a bigger screen.

Developer alert

Landscape modes aren't the only hint we've had about an upcoming iPhone Fold, either. As spotted by Vadim Yuryev, in one of the presentations posted online as part of WWDC 2026, Apple's Cindy Barrett encouraged developers to code for different screen sizes.

"You're designing for a dynamic range of sizes and aspect ratios," Barrett said while showing off some of the changes Apple has made under the hood with iOS 27 — another indication that iPhone apps need to be more flexible now.

So, even while Apple hasn't actually acknowledged that a foldable iPhone is on the way, it looks as though the rumors are true: the device is indeed launching around September time, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro.

And while we've been referring to it as the iPhone Fold here, those in the know are suggesting that it's going to be called the iPhone Ultra, a naming scheme that Apple has used with its products in the past.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.