Surface Duo Blog

How to bring your Xamarin apps to Surface Duo

Surface Duo at Microsoft Build

Craig DunnMay 20, 2020May 20, 202005/20/20

Hello Microsoft Surface Duo developers! Today at Microsoft Build we shared a session covering how to take advantage of the dual screen device, Surface Duo using Xamarin and C#. You can watch the recording below: Video: Microsoft Build 2020 on YouTube Existing Android™ apps run without modification on the Surface Duo, but there

Get Started with Flutter on Surface Duo

JohnMay 14, 2020May 14, 202005/14/20

Hello Flutter developers! Today we are going to get you started with our Surface Duo SDK for Android so that you can adapt your existing applications for dual-screens and the hinge. The sample code demonstrates how Android developers can add the Surface Duo SDK to a project and then access the screen and hinge APIs. Our ultimate goal is

Surface Duo Emulator image update and open-source access to libraries

Guy MerinMay 7, 2020May 7, 202005/7/20

Hello Surface Duo developers! Today we’re excited to release a refresh to our Microsoft Surface Duo Emulator Image. It has been a few weeks since our last Surface Duo Emulator image release and the team has been very busy addressing your feedback and has added several new features and optimizations that are detailed below. What’s ne

Build React Native apps for Microsoft Surface Duo

Craig DunnApril 30, 2020Apr 30, 202004/30/20

Hello, React Native for Android developers! In previous blog posts we've shown how app developers can build dual-screen apps using Java and Kotlin, Xamarin and C#, and games with Unity. Today's post is about how JavaScript and TypeScript developers can also target the Surface Duo using React Native. Earlier this year, Kiki Saintonge and

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Pen Events on the Surface Duo

Meir Ben ItayApril 23, 2020Apr 23, 202004/23/20

The Surface family of devices is known for great touch support, including pen input, and the Microsoft Surface Duo will be no different. By default, pen events are treated the same as a finger touch or mouse move, but you can detect and handle pen input differently, with a wider range of data such as pressure and orientation. Some pens also ha

Dual-screen games with Unity for Android

Craig DunnApril 16, 2020Apr 16, 202004/16/20

Hello Android game developers! Today we've published a Unity sample that incorporates our dual-screen SDK for Android so that you can adapt games for dual-screens and the hinge. The sample code demonstrates how to access the screen and hinge APIs that we provide Android developers, but from C# in Unity. The screenshot below shows a Unity An

Introducing SurfaceDuoLayout Designer Preview for Android Studio Developers

Guy MerinApril 9, 2020Apr 9, 202004/9/20

Hello Android dual-screen developers! In the March 26th blog post, we introduced the Dual Screen Layout. Figure 1: Single-screen and dual-screen layouts using SurfaceDuoLayout When using the SurfaceDuoLayout, you can implement dual-screen behavior by either using layouts or by listening for screen change events and manipulating fr

Orientation, Spanning and Insets

Meir Ben ItayApril 2, 2020Apr 2, 202004/2/20

Hello Microsoft Surface Duo Developers! Until recently, mobile devices all had one thing in common: a single screen. While applications had to support multiple screen sizes, recently manufacturers got creative and introduced new foldable, dual-screen devices, Google added support for multi-windowing on Android. Now applications need to dyn

Introducing dual-screen layouts for Android

Craig DunnMarch 26, 2020Mar 26, 202003/26/20

Today we are releasing a preview of our first Android dual-screen layout control for Java and Kotlin developers. The new control and associated helpers will enable you to build dynamic and responsive apps that take advantage of the Microsoft Surface Duo and its two screens. We look forward to see what you create with it!

Bring your Xamarin apps to Surface Duo

Craig DunnMarch 19, 2020Mar 19, 202003/19/20

Xamarin developers can build and test dual-screen apps for the Surface Duo, using the available emulator and SDKs available via NuGet. The hinge angle and display mask can be queried to adapt your screen layouts, and there is a TwoPaneView Xamarin.Forms control that helps build responsive app designs that work on all device types.