iPhone 12 Do any iPhones rotate all of the interface when you told them horizontally?

[Wolfpup]

The 4 inch and 4.7 inch iPhones do NOT rotate the home screen, nor do a lot of programs rotate, including Facebook. There’s stuck always in vertical mode, which is obnoxious.

I’m just wondering if any of the larger screen sized iPhone support rotating everything the way an iPad does. I really wish they would support running multiple programs side-by-side the way the iPad does also…

It’s forcing me to pick a prefix so I randomly picked iPhone 12, but I’m asking about if any iPhones currently support this, not just the iPhone 12

 

[GGJstudios]

No, iPhones don't rotate the home screen icons. Some apps support rotation, while many do not. Even on iPads, which support rotation of home screen icons, some apps don't support rotation.

 

[uczcret]

Not 100% certain but I believe that's exclusive to the Max/Pro Max models. I can't remember if it applies to the XS Max (been almost year since I sold it) but some of the first-party apps (Photos, Safari, Mail, Messages, Calendar, Maps) do rotate on my 12 Pro Max, BUT the home screen (and Facebook, Instagram etc.) does not rotate horizontally.

Edit: Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp rotate as well, but YouTube or Netflix don't.

 

[Wolfpup]

No, iPhones don't rotate the home screen icons. Some apps support rotation, while many do not. Even on iPads, which support rotation of home screen icons, some apps don't support rotation.

Ugh, that sucks.

I thought the 5.5” screened iPhones did that, though those screens were functionally bigger than the like 6.1 inch ones are now or whatever.

How can it not occur to them that people may want to use it landscape? Especially on the larger screen the phones

 

[CMoore515]

8+ did, IIRC.

 

[now i see it]

6 Plus does.
Blame the lack of this feature on newer phones because of the notch.

 

[retta283]

All of the phones with Plus 5.5" screens did, 6, 6s, 7, 8. Almost all of the Apple apps rotate, other than maybe the Store apps and phone. Only in Standard view mode.

 

[Shirasaki]

Ugh, that sucks.

I thought the 5.5” screened iPhones did that, though those screens were functionally bigger than the like 6.1 inch ones are now or whatever.

How can it not occur to them that people may want to use it landscape? Especially on the larger screen the phones

iPhone screen will never be big enough to make much justification of using it in landscape like iPad. Same reason why PiP Takes so long to arrive on iPhone. Outside of watching videos, I can’t really think of a scenario where they tiny 6.7” screen would benefit from landscape mode.

 

[eyoungren]

There was a jailbreak tweak to force this at one time. No idea if it's still maintained or updated.

 

[subjonas]

iPhone screen will never be big enough to make much justification of using it in landscape like iPad. Same reason why PiP Takes so long to arrive on iPhone. Outside of watching videos, I can’t really think of a scenario where they tiny 6.7” screen would benefit from landscape mode.

I’m sure a lot of it has to do with small size but since the smaller 5.5” 16:9 iPhones had landscape Home Screen, I’m thinking the reason the Max iPhones don’t have it is more due to the longer aspect ratio, which makes landscape look more awkward. Or as someone mentioned, maybe Apple doesn’t know what to do with the notch in a landscape Home Screen.

In any case, I agree video is the main use case for landscape mode. That and games and camera. But the thing is a lot of people watch videos on their phone often, and when they watch longer videos, the phone is often on a stand or in a mount. So it’s extremely annoying to have to pick it up every time one wants to exit out for even a moment to do anything else, even if it’s to use another app that supports landscape, because the Home Screen is portrait only. So for that main reason I think landscape in the Home Screen is needed.

What’s even more irritating, however, are apps like Netflix that have a portrait-only UI and landscape-only video, so even within one app you’re forced to pick up the phone and turn it depending on whether your watching a video or searching for one. That’s very poor UX design in my opinion. So more urgent than landscape Home Screen, these apps need to support landscape UI. And portrait video support would be welcome as well.

 

[Wolfpup]

Not 100% certain but I believe that's exclusive to the Max/Pro Max models. I can't remember if it applies to the XS Max (been almost year since I sold it) but some of the first-party apps (Photos, Safari, Mail, Messages, Calendar, Maps) do rotate on my 12 Pro Max, BUT the home screen (and Facebook, Instagram etc.) does not rotate horizontally.

Edit: Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp rotate as well, but YouTube or Netflix don't.

Darn, that sounds identical to the 4 inch iPhones then. Some programs rotate, including I think most if not all first party programs, but the home screen doesn’t, and a lot of programs I could really use it like Facebook don’t 😕

 

[Wolfpup]

6 Plus does.
Blame the lack of this feature on newer phones because of the notch.
View attachment 1827463

OK, thanks! I thought I remembered that! I suppose it’s up to program developers to actually make sure their program rotates. And obnoxiously Facebook doesn’t, along with a lot of other programs I’ve used.

 

[Wolfpup]

I’m sure a lot of it has to do with small size but since the smaller 5.5” 16:9 iPhones had landscape Home Screen, I’m thinking the reason the Max iPhones don’t have it is more due to the longer aspect ratio, which makes landscape look more awkward. Or as someone mentioned, maybe Apple doesn’t know what to do with the notch in a landscape Home Screen.

In any case, I agree video is the main use case for landscape mode. That and games and camera. But the thing is a lot of people watch videos on their phone often, and when they watch longer videos, the phone is often on a stand or in a mount. So it’s extremely annoying to have to pick it up every time one wants to exit out for even a moment to do anything else, even if it’s to use another app that supports landscape, because the Home Screen is portrait only. So for that main reason I think landscape in the Home Screen is needed.

What’s even more irritating, however, are apps like Netflix that have a portrait-only UI and landscape-only video, so even within one app you’re forced to pick up the phone and turn it depending on whether your watching a video or searching for one. That’s very poor UX design in my opinion. So more urgent than landscape Home Screen, these apps need to support landscape UI. And portrait video support would be welcome as well.

Yeah, I run into this all the time where I’m having a moment early flip it back-and-forth.

It would be extremely useful for me to be able to have some multitasking also. Even on a 4 inch screen I think it’s big enough to be useful to stick in notes next to a video or a video next to your web browser or whatever. And YouTube is kind of a disaster on iOS without the ability to multitask, since google artificially blocks you from doing a picture in picture video.

 

[Shirasaki]

What’s even more irritating, however, are apps like Netflix that have a portrait-only UI and landscape-only video, so even within one app you’re forced to pick up the phone and turn it depending on whether your watching a video or searching for one. That’s very poor UX design in my opinion. So more urgent than landscape Home Screen, these apps need to support landscape UI. And portrait video support would be welcome as well.

Same happens on iPad as well, thought a bit less often. Old version of 3DMark Wildlife works just like that: portrait mode main interface and landscape mode for test scene.

It is poor UX design, but for phone, Apple apparently couldn’t figure out how to utilise landscape mode well either on their iPhone after 5 years. iPhone and iPad is great assuming you ignore all of those issues.

 

[rsarkees]

13 Pro Max does not rotate. 6.7” wasted. Jailbreak only option.

 

[Wolfpup]

13 Pro Max does not rotate. 6.7” wasted. Jailbreak only option.

Personally I would like even their 4 inch screens to rotate!

I went with a regular iPhone 13, do you wish I had the larger screen, but I could definitely use the home screen and other things rotating, and could definitely use side-by-side apps like on the iPad.

Even more so on a 6.7 inch screen.