Microsoft opens early access for dual-screen developers

Developers who want to create apps for dual-screen phones can sign up with Microsoft starting Tuesday. The company has set up an early access process for those who want to develop software for dual screens.

Microsoft is calling on developers in a blog post to sign up for early access access. For the time being, this is only possible by sending an e-mail to the company. The company does not give a lot of details about developing for phones with double screens; that will follow next year. Microsoft does want interested developers to think about the options for developing such phones. In the blog post, the company describes how smartphones and tablets with double screens will work.

Developers can still continue to develop apps for the web as well as for Android, UWP and Win32. Those apps also work on the dual-screen devices. Existing apps will also continue to work on it. In the future, Microsoft wants to build a standard model that will sit on top of Windows and Android. With that standard model for dual-screen phones, developers can develop an app that works for that in one go. For this, an API will be available with components specifically intended for the use of dual-screen capabilities and functions such as the 360-degree hinge. Microsoft will announce later what that standard model and the api will look like.

Microsoft unveiled a new Surface device at its own event in October. The Surface Neo runs on a modified version of Windows 10 called 10X and uses two screens. Windows 10X is specially designed for using devices with such dual screens.