Microsoft Releases Updated Surface Duo Emulator

With Windows 10X and Surface Neo in flux, there have been some questions about the fate of Surface Duo, the dual-screen Android device. But last night’s news about a new version of the Surface Duo emulator for developers should put some fears at ease: Microsoft is clearly moving forward with this project, and we’ve not heard anything about delays.

“Today we’re excited to release a refresh to our Microsoft Surface Duo emulator image,” Microsoft’s Guy Merin writes. “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.”

These improvements include:

• Support for using a keyboard in all posture and flip modes
• App Drawer and App searches support
• Improved Notifications support
• Improved Settings and quick settings experience to support dual screens
• Enhanced Camera experience (you can access that via the Emulator too)
• Several platform improvements to better support application compatibility around rotation, resizing, full-screen, and spanning scenarios

Merin also promises more improvements in the near future, and he notes that the upcoming virtual Build event, which is being held online May 19-21 will feature a dedicated dual-screen session for C# developers where the firm will discuss the Surface Duo SDK as part of the React Native and web platform talks.