Gurman: Apple Stores will put your name on iPhone Duo's Hello screen, on a phone with no Action Button or mute switchGurman: Apple Stores will put your name on iPhone Duo's Hello screen, on a phone with no Action Button or mute switch

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple Stores in the US will be able to set an iPhone Duo to greet its buyer by name the first time it is switched on.

Gurman posted the detail on X on 9 October. In his description, staff will use a system in the store so the Hello screen reads, for example, Hello, Mark. He says it is limited to the US, to the iPhone Duo, and to English and Spanish. MacRumors and 9to5Mac relayed the post. This is Reported grade: Gurman has a long record on Apple, but it is one source, and Apple has not commented. The Duo opens for pre-order on 16 October and goes on sale on 23 October from 1,999 dollars.

How would the name get onto the phone?

Gurman does not say. 9to5Mac notes it is not clear whether Apple uses the system Gurman reported in 2023 that updates iPhones while still sealed in the box. A second account, the code researcher pdfu, says it does, according to Cult of Mac, and adds that a new font in iOS 27 was made for the greeting and that with a name set, Hello no longer cycles through languages. That is Unverified grade: one person's reading of code, not confirmed by anyone else.

No source says whether buyers can decline it, whether online orders collected in a store qualify, or whether every US store takes part. MacRumors only guesses that pickup orders might.

How do you turn on silent mode on iPhone Duo?

Apple's specification page lists the Duo's buttons as volume up and down, Camera Control and the side button, which holds Touch ID. There is no Action Button and no Ring/Silent switch. MacRumors called it the first iPhone with no physical mute toggle of any kind, since every iPhone since the iPhone 15 Pro has had the Action Button. Silent mode still exists; it has moved to software. iClarified tested the first two routes below on iOS 27, and the third uses the customisable Lock Screen controls Apple added in iOS 18:

• Control Center: swipe down from the top-right corner and tap the bell
• Settings: open Sounds & Haptics and switch on Silent Mode
• Lock Screen: replace one of the two Lock Screen controls with Silent Mode, for a single press

Silent Mode still lets alarms, timers, music and video sound play, the setting says. Whether the phone vibrates in silent mode is set separately, under Haptics in the same Sounds & Haptics screen.

Our take

The Hello screen is a small piece of theatre, and Apple is good at theatre for a launch it wants remembered. It costs almost nothing, it gives people a reason to buy in a store rather than online, and it makes the first minute with a 2,000 dollar phone feel like an occasion. Limiting it to the US and two languages suggests a trial rather than a habit.

The missing switch is the part buyers will live with. Anyone who mutes their phone by touch in a meeting or a cinema will notice it on day one. Code found by pdfu already suggests the Duo's Lock Screen is being reworked, with a Focus button that appears on the Lock Screen when a Focus is on, and putting Silent Mode in a Lock Screen control is the nearest thing to a switch. It still needs the screen on.

APPDOOK's advice to anyone ordering when Get Ready opens on 12 October is to move silent mode to the Lock Screen on their current iPhone now, and use it for a week. If that feels fine, the Duo's missing switch will not matter. If it does not, that is worth knowing before spending two thousand dollars.