The iPhone Duo launched Friday -- you know, the cool new foldable one -- just in time for the start of the World Series.
Coincidence? Maybe. But this isn't: MLB has already designed a new version of the MLB App just for the first foldable iPhone.
The MLB App for the iPhone Duo tailors watching live baseball to all the different screen setups you can use with the newest iPhone. Apple and MLB showcased the app's updated features in a demo at MLB headquarters in New York this week, ahead of Game 1 of the Fall Classic between the Brewers and Rays.
"The timing is amazing," Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Greg "Joz" Joswiak said at the event -- which was his own first time getting to use the MLB App for the iPhone Duo. "I do think this is just an entirely transformational device, that's so different from anything that we've shipped before -- really, anything anybody's shipped before. And I think it's a perfect match for MLB."
"A foldable iPhone -- having a larger screen, right in your pocket -- makes viewing a baseball game just so much better, with the opportunities to do that on the go," MLB executive vice president of media, business development and product Kenny Gersh said.
Baseball fans who snagged the iPhone Duo at launch can watch the World Series on it, as long as they have MLB.TV and FOX subscriptions, or are watching from outside the U.S. MLB also plans to use the Fall Classic as an opportunity to learn from fans' initial reactions to the app and improve it for next season.
A suite of new features is slated to be rolled out on the MLB App for the Duo for Opening Day 2027.
At the preview in New York, MLB's tech team walked through what those will look like, using Game 7 of the 2025 World Series between the Dodgers and Blue Jays for the demo.
"I'm excited that it's got both first and second screen attributes," Joswiak said. "It isn't just that you watch the game, and now you flip over to the stats, and go back and forth. I can have my stats down there [on one of the Duo's screens] as I'm watching the game on top. That's going to be a cool experience."
If you open up the iPhone Duo like a book, for example, or set it up in a "seated" pose where it looks like a laptop, the MLB.TV game player and box score will spread organically across the screen surfaces. So you can follow the stats without ever taking your eyes off the game.
"I really like our Gameday experience merged with video," MLB chief technology officer Sean Curtis said.
If you open the Duo flat like a tablet -- which transforms the 5.4-inch display when the Duo is folded into a 7.6-inch display that's the biggest screen ever for an iPhone -- the MLB App's live presentation rearranges itself to take advantage of all that space.
Hold the Duo vertically and the MLB.TV feed will take up the top half of the screen with the box score and live stats underneath. Hold it horizontally and the game will play on the left side of the screen with player stats on the right.
"That first reaction where you have the video playing on the outer screen and then you're able to open it up, the way it just kind of magically turns into that bigger screen, it is amazing," Gersh said. "I love it. And also, for years, pundits have been talking about the second screen experience for live sports -- having that second screen while you're watching on the TV. To me, it's amazing how this is the second screen … on one device, in your pocket."
Curtis added: "For Opening Day next year, I've already [started thinking] -- just playing with it in the short time I've had, I'm just excited about the things I think we're going to do with this."
The partnership between MLB and Apple goes way back. The MLB App was one of the first 500 apps to launch in the App Store in 2008 (it was called "MLB.com At Bat" back then). It became the first app to stream live video on the iPhone a year later … then the iPad … then Apple TV.
There have been iPads in the dugouts of Major League games for 10 years now. There's even an iPhone 17 Pro in the Baseball Hall of Fame -- it was the first iPhone to be used as a primary camera for a professional sports broadcast, during a Friday Night Baseball game between the Red Sox and Tigers last September.
"Being known as a league that sort of is on the cutting edge of innovation, I think has helped the whole perception of baseball over time," Gersh said. "Not just America's pastime, but America's future … If there's a device in [people's] pockets that can allow them to connect to baseball, you've got to be there."
The MLB App keeps evolving with whatever new gadget Apple conjures up, whether it's the Apple Watch or Apple Vision Pro -- MLB had the app ready for that, too, and even created a futuristic immersive broadcast of a Yankees-Red Sox game this August -- or now the iPhone Duo.
"We knew the iPhone would be huge, and we had to be there from Day 1," Gersh said. "Since then, we've been fortunate to be part of a lot of launches alongside Apple … So, of course, as soon as we heard about this device, we knew we'd be building for it right away."
For the iPhone Duo, MLB's developers had to build the new version of the MLB App without ever having the physical Duo in their hands. They had to do it fast, since the Duo was just unveiled on Sept. 9. And they had to do it for a completely different type of device. But by launch day, the MLB App was ready.
"The idea of a foldable screen, it's a pretty easy one to get your head around -- if you can do it right," said Joswiak, who's been with Apple since 1986 and helped launch the original iPhone. "When we were working on [the Duo], we knew that developers were gonna have a field day … And just what we've seen, right? We started with a handful of folks like these guys, but what we were almost immediately seeing was blowing our minds."
You can expect more additions to the MLB App as feedback comes in from users now that the phone has launched. MLB is also planning out how to adapt its Ballpark App to the Duo, to further enhance fans' gameday experience at the stadium.
"We're going to spend a lot of time in the offseason thinking about that," Gersh said. "Like, how can we make the ticket experience on this better? How can we let fans use this in a unique way when they're actually at the ballpark, as opposed to watching at home?"
MLB hopes to take advantage of the capabilities unique to the Duo to drive engagement with the MLB App. With its multiple screens, fans won't have to leave the app and come back to post on social media or text their friends about something happening in the game they're following.
"Apple's going to deliver a magical experience," Gersh said. "I want that magical experience to be associated with baseball. There's that symbiotic relationship, I think, for us, where we're pushing off their magic a little bit."