It's a big day for both Apple and Major League Baseball (MLB). Today, October 23, 2026, Apple launched its biggest iPhone change ever: the iPhone Duo. But in just a few hours, baseball's most important series will kick off, with the Tampa Bay Rays facing the Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series. Game 1 starts at 8 p.m. ET.
And there's a commonality here: MLB has launched a redesigned app experience built to take advantage of the iPhone Duo's foldable form factor. So, if you were lucky enough to pick one up, you can tune into the World Series on your Duo's 5.4-inch cover screen. Or, let's be real, you'll open it up and watch on that enormous 7.6-inch inner display, complete with its Nano-texture finish.
But this experience is more than just giving baseball a bigger screen. MLB has been working on the new experience since Apple announced the iPhone Duo on September 9, getting it ready for launch in just 44 days.
You can fold the iPhone Duo like a mini laptop — ahem, MacBook — or prop it up in a seated position, with the livestream on top and real-time, updating box scores on the bottom. Watch in full screen on either display, or split the screen with another app. Whether it's X (formerly Twitter), Threads, a group chat to discuss the game, or even Apple's Sports app, you can keep up with the conversation while keeping an eye on the action.
The idea is to meet fans where they are and make the most of the hardware they have in their hands. The iPhone Duo gives MLB a new canvas, but the real opportunity is to deliver something useful with it—an experience that makes following baseball feel more natural, not just bigger.
Sean Curtis, MLB's chief technology officer, told TechRadar that he's particularly excited about combining the league's Game Day experience with live video.
"I'm really excited about, you know, the full-screen nature of just like how good our video looks on Apple devices and just really take that in as like, 'hey, this just came from my phone, but it really feels like just such a quality experience,'" Curtis said.
"I really like our Game Day experience merged with video, so watch video [and] live stats."
The combination lets fans follow the action and keep tabs on the numbers in one place, rather than bouncing between the two. MLB is also using AI to generate additional information about individual plays, players, and game situations, adding context to the action as it unfolds.
"When you get into Game Day, and you're actually applying context to the events, we're using AI to actually generate more information about each play, each player, each situation," Curtis said.
For a sport with so much happening between pitches, that combination could be particularly compelling. The video gives you the action, while the data helps explain it. Rather than forcing fans to choose between watching and digging into the numbers, MLB wants to bring those two parts of the experience closer together.
Kenny Gersh, MLB's executive vice president of Media, Business Development, and Product, highlighted the simple appeal of opening the device and immediately having a much bigger screen ready for video.
"You're on a phone that's in your pocket, you're sitting down somewhere, and just to be able to go like that — whoops, I messed it up with my finger — but to have it just open right up into that is amazing," Gersh told TechRadar.
It's a straightforward idea, but one that makes sense for live sports. The phone can stay compact in your pocket until you're ready to settle in and watch, at which point the larger inner display gives the MLB app more room to shine.
MLB's relationship with Apple goes back to the early days of the App Store. The league was among the first 500 apps available on the original iPhone, and its iPad app was ready for launch day, earning a spotlight during the original iPad keynote.
As Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, told TechRadar, "Sports are important to us; it's important to our users.” Over the years, the partnership has evolved alongside Apple's products and platforms. Gersh recalled working with Apple on HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), helping advance the technology needed to deliver live video reliably, including advertising insertion.
More recently, Apple and MLB have explored new ways to bring fans closer to the action, including spatial sports broadcasts on Apple Vision Pro and the use of iPhone cameras to capture footage for baseball broadcasts on Apple TV.
The iPhone Duo is the latest chapter in that relationship, and it feels particularly interesting. MLB isn't just showing fans that baseball works on a foldable phone; it's exploring how a different kind of device could change the way they follow the game.
And this is only the beginning. As the new experience arrives and the World Series gets underway, MLB has some of baseball's biggest games ahead to see how fans respond. Those early learnings could shape what comes next, with the off-season offering a chance to refine the experience and build something even more compelling for next year's Opening Day.
Curtis hinted at further developments he can't discuss yet, particularly around keeping fans engaged with the app without pulling them away from a live game.
For now, a 7.6-inch inner display, live video, real-time stats, and AI-generated context give baseball fans a new way to follow the action on their phones. The World Series offers an ideal first test, and the off-season gives MLB time to build on what it learns. If the league gets that balance right, the next version of its app could be even more compelling when baseball returns for Opening Day.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
