hora, unfolded: what we built for iPhone Duo

When Apple showed iPhone Duo in September, Anna and I had the same thought at almost the same moment: a calendar is exactly the kind of app that wants more screen. Then came the harder question. What should "more" actually mean?

The easy answer was to take our iPad or Mac layout and let it fill the inner display. We pictured it and it never felt right. A foldable isn't a small iPad. You hold it differently, you open it for a moment and close it again, and you switch between the two screens all day. So we decided hora on Duo should be its own thing. Here's what that looks like. The update is aim to be on the App Store on 23rd October, when iPhone Duo goes on sale.

Folded: just hora

When iPhone Duo is closed, the 5.4-inch outer display is an iPhone, and hora behaves like one. Same views, same gestures, same quick event creation. Nothing is cut down or "lite". If you already use hora on your iPhone, you'll feel at home before you even open the fold.

Unfolded: a layout made for the inner display

Open the phone and hora switches to a layout we designed only for Duo's 7.6-inch inner display. The headline is simple: the whole week, all seven days, at once. Next to it you get the mini calendar and the full list of your calendars, all on one screen.

It sounds small. In practice it changes how you plan. You see Monday's chaos and Friday's breathing room side by side, you jump to another week from the mini calendar, and your calendars stay right there instead of hiding in another screen.

It isn't a copy of our Mac or iPad interface, and that was on purpose. We wanted something that feels natural when you unfold the phone for a minute to check your week, and just as natural when you keep it open for a longer planning session.

What moved out of the tabs

On a regular iPhone, hora keeps some of its tools behind tabs in the tab bar. That's a sensible place for them on a small screen, but it also makes them easy to forget.

On the inner display we finally had room to bring them forward:

• Focus Time Scheduler is right on the surface, so blocking out deep work happens next to the week you're planning.
• Pomodoro Timer is there too. No digging required.
• Settings, and adding a new calendar within an account, are much easier to reach.

Honestly, this is my favourite part of the Duo work. These features aren't new, but people actually use them when they can see them.

Live Activities, widgets, Siri and Apple Intelligence

Everything you rely on in hora for iPhone comes along to Duo:

• Live Activities for upcoming online meetings, so joining a call takes one tap instead of a hunt through the invitation.
• Widgets, so you can see what's next without opening the app.
• Siri and Apple Intelligence, through App Intents.

The Siri part is the one I'm quietly proud of. When you create an event with Siri, it goes through hora's natural-language parser, and the title comes out clean and natural instead of a transcript of what you said. Apple Intelligence also summarizes long invitation descriptions and tidies up message text. When you plan focus time, hora picks focus block titles based on what's already on your calendar, so you don't end up with five blocks called "Focus".

What's next

iPhone Duo goes on sale on 23 October, and the first days with real devices in real hands will teach us more than any simulator. We're a small, independent, self-funded team, so your feedback really does shape what we build next. If you get a Duo, try hora unfolded and tell us what works and what doesn't through our support page.

hora Calendar is a native calendar app for people who live in Google Calendar. Pricing is the same as on Mac: the Direct download includes a 14-day free trial with no card, and on the App Store the 14-day trial comes with the annual plan only. Plans are $2.99 a month, $29.99 a year, or $59.99 once for Lifetime on every platform. Get it on the App Store.

Thanks for being here. See you on the inner display.

— Maciej