Yuchen Jin: Foldable Phones May Give Rise to Agent-Native Apps
Yuchen Jin believes that neither terminals nor IDEs are suitable interfaces for coding agents, and that foldable phones like the iPhone Duo actually make sense, because people no longer write code by hand. What he really wants is not a mobile IDE, but a control plane for managing agent clusters: assigning tasks, tracking progress, reviewing work, occasionally intervening, and even watching agents operate remote computers. He believes foldable phones can unlock an entire class of agent-native apps.
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I previously argued that terminals and IDEs are the wrong interfaces for coding agents.
Phones used to be even worse for coding. Typing is slow, screens are tiny, and navigating a codebase is impossible.
But we’re no longer writing code by hand. So the iPhone Duo makes sense.
What I actually want isn’t a mobile IDE, but a control plane for a fleet of agents: delegating tasks, tracking progress, reviewing their work, occasionally intervening, and even watching them operate my remote computers.
I believe foldable phones can unlock an entirely new category of agent-native apps.