Be among the first to use FoldLens.

FoldLens is a free, non-profit iPad & Mac app for browsing the AlphaFold Database — 241 million predicted protein structures, with honest pLDDT confidence rendering and on-device Apple Intelligence explanations. The public beta opens through Apple's TestFlight on iPadOS, iOS, and macOS.

Get notified when the beta opens Watch on GitHub

What is the beta?

The FoldLens public beta is the last validation step before App Store launch. You'll get the same build we'll ship at v1.0 — but a few weeks earlier, with the explicit ask that you tell us what doesn't work. Bug reports + UX feedback go through Apple's TestFlight feedback channel or to feedback@foldcommons.org.

What we're asking you to test

• Scientific accuracy. If you've published AlphaFold-using work, we want your eye on the rendering. We particularly care about chirality (we ship parity-tested against four reference structures: p53, EGFR, 2cv5 nucleosome, an AFDB heterodimer) and pLDDT band display matching the AFDB website convention.
• Performance. Open large structures (TRPV1, ribosome subunits, the antibody complex of your choice). Tell us where rendering stutters, where memory pressure surfaces, where the app gets uncomfortable.
• The Apple Intelligence residue explanations. Tap residues, get on-device LLM responses, tell us where the model says something inaccurate. This is the v1.0 feature with the highest "trust budget" — your scrutiny is the validation.
• Edge cases. Drag-and-drop from Files, share-sheet handoff to other apps, Reduce Motion accessibility, Dynamic Type at Extra Large, iCloud sync across an iPad + Mac.

What you get back

• The full v1.0 feature set, free, ahead of public launch.
• A direct line to maintainers via feedback@foldcommons.org.
• Acknowledgement in the v1.0 Acknowledgements view (opt-out if you'd prefer to stay anonymous).
• A weekly digest of what changed in each beta build, what we're working on next.

Device requirements

• iPad: any iPad running iPadOS 26+. The renderer prefers iPad Pro M-series silicon but runs fine on iPad Air M-series.
• iPhone: any iPhone running iOS 26+. The iPhone UI is companion-tier; the primary experience is iPad.
• Mac: any Mac running macOS 26+ on Apple Silicon. Intel Macs are not supported.
• Apple Intelligence: required for on-device residue explanations. Without it, the app gracefully falls back to a curated lookup dictionary.
• iCloud (optional): for cross-device library sync.

What's NOT in the beta

• Apple Vision Pro support. Coming as FoldVision, a separate app later in 2027.
• Localization beyond English. Volunteer translators welcome after v1.0 ships.
• Cartoon ribbon mode beyond α-helix. v1.0 ships sphere + α-helix; full SS-aware cartoon is in v1.1.
• Server-side anything. The app is on-device + reads AFDB directly. No Fold Commons backend exists.

Privacy

The beta is governed by the same privacy policy as v1.0: we collect nothing. Crash reports and aggregated diagnostics arrive only if you have Apple's "Share with App Developers" enabled — and they're scrubbed by Apple before we see them. The Apple Intelligence residue explanations run entirely on-device. iCloud sync is opt-in.

Code of Conduct

The beta community follows the Contributor Covenant. Be kind, be specific, be honest about what's broken. Reports go to conduct@foldcommons.org.