With iOS 27.2, iPhone Duo becomes the first iPhone to work with Apple Pencil. There’s more to it than taking notes, so here’s how to get set up and some of the best things you can do with Apple Pencil on your Duo.

What you need

• iPhone Duo running iOS 27.2 or later. Check under Settings > General > Software Update.
• Apple Pencil (USB-C). This is the only model that works with the Duo. Apple Pencil (1st generation), Apple Pencil (2nd generation) and Apple Pencil Pro are not supported. It’s $79 from Apple and often less elsewhere.
• A USB-C cable for pairing and charging.

Pairing your Apple Pencil

As the name suggests, Apple Pencil (USB-C) pairs with a regular USB-C cable.

1. Slide open the cap on the end of the Pencil.
2. Connect the Pencil to your iPhone Duo with a USB-C cable.
3. After a couple of seconds, a pairing animation appears from the Dynamic Island.

That’s it. Your Apple Pencil is connected and ready to use!

Viewing battery info

There are two ways to check your Pencil’s battery level:

• Settings: a new Apple Pencil menu appears in Settings once the Pencil is paired, and it shows the battery level.
• Batteries widget: add it to your Home Screen for the most convenient way to see your Pencil’s charge. If you have a lot of devices connected, the Pencil may not fit in the widget.

Instant Notes

Instant Notes takes you straight into the Notes app from the Lock Screen, without unlocking your iPhone. Wake the screen, tap it with Apple Pencil, and you’re in a new note, ready to write.

Like the Camera shortcut on the Lock Screen, you can’t get to anything else on your iPhone from here. It’s meant for those spur-of-the-moment notes you need to jot down quickly.

Scribble

Scribble lets you handwrite in almost any text field in iOS, and your writing is automatically converted to typed text.

Scribble also has some handy editing gestures:

• Select a word: circle it, or draw a line through it.
• Select a line: draw a line through the whole line of text.
• Delete a word: scribble over it.
• Add or remove a space: draw a vertical line between two words to remove the space. Draw another line to add it back.

Markup

Markup lets you use Apple Pencil, or even your finger, to mark up documents and screenshots.

For example:

1. Take a screenshot.
2. Tap the pencil icon in the upper-right corner to open the tool palette.
3. Tap the palette to expand it, then pick a tool, like the highlighter.
4. Tap the selected tool again to change its stroke width and opacity.
5. Tap the undo button on the palette to remove your last stroke.

The next set of features are really more Notes app features, but they’re much better with Apple Pencil.

Smart Script

Smart Script learns your handwriting style over time and tidies up your writing as you go. It still looks like your handwriting, just a little neater.

To turn it on, tap the More button (…) in the tool palette, then turn on Auto-refine Handwriting. Since it needs time to learn your style, the effect may be subtle at first. It’s worth turning on if you do a lot of handwritten notes or journaling.

Math Notes

Math Notes recognizes handwritten equations and solves them for you.

For example:

• Basic math: write “3 + 3 =” and Notes offers the answer, 6.
• Variables: write “a = 17”, then “90 + a =”, and you get 107.
• Sliders: tap a variable’s value to get a slider. Drag it and watch your results update live, in something close to your own handwriting.
• Graphs: write an equation like “y = 3x + b” and tap Insert Graph. You can adjust settings like the axes.

Shape recognition

Draw a shape and hold the Pencil still at the end. Notes recognizes the shape and cleans it up. It works with stars, circles, arrows and other simple shapes. That pause at the end is what tells Notes to tidy it up.

Data detectors

Just like a phone number someone texts you gets underlined, handwritten details in Notes are recognized too. Write a phone number, and it gets underlined so you can tap and hold to call it.

If a number isn’t recognized right away, try closing the Notes app and reopening it. That fixed it for me during testing.