The iPhone X has a taller, narrower 5.8-inch, 19.5:9 screen with a “notch” at the top, and many third-party apps just can’t deal.
App developers need to get an iPhone X to see if their apps work, and make the appropriate changes, if necessary. It’s already starting to happen; Google Photos, for instance, was updated for the new screen size today.
So far, we’ve seen three different kinds of app failures: severe letterboxing, messy UIs, and app stability. But it’s not all a disaster. These 10 developers are on the ball, and they’re bringing you apps that look great on the iPhone X from the start.
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1Alto’s Adventure
Most games haven’t adapted to the iPhone X’s wide-screen format yet. Alto’s Adventure, a popular one-tap snowboarding game, uses the whole screen and uses it well.
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2Pitu
As of today, Snapchat has not been updated for the iPhone X. If you want to see what the augmented-reality Snapchat mask filters will look like, download Pitu, a Chinese selfie app.
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3Halide
Halide is a pro camera app that’s very aware of the “horns” on the iPhone X screen, using them to show or lock settings like exposure compensation and shutter speed.
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4Carrot Weather
Carrot uses the well-known Dark Sky weather database for up-to-the-minute forecasts, but it does it with attitude. The important part here is that it’s beautifully designed for the iPhone X screen, respecting all of the interface elements and putting them in the right places.
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5Holo
If you’re getting an X, you should have some fun with AR. Holo places silly AR objects, basically like real-life stickers, into the room around you.
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6Netflix
Netflix is aware of the big, long screen and lets you watch your videos letterboxed or zoomed to full screen mode. I prefer letterboxed, because the notch in the side of the display occludes some of the video. The same thing happens with YouTube.
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7Twitter
The official Twitter app on iPhone doesn’t get a lot of love, but it’s been updated to respect all of the iPhone X display elements and not have them collide with each other.
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8Housecraft
Another AR app, Housecraft lets you put virtual furniture in your room. It looks great on the iPhone X.
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9Readdle Documents
Documents by Readdle is a better designed alternative to Apple’s Files app that also acts as a file viewer for a whole bunch of different file types. It understands where the notch and swipe-up bar are on the iPhone X, and uses all of the screen area properly.
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10Instagram
The ‘gram is fully formatted for the iPhone X already, and it works flawlessly. The same goes for Facebook.