Samsung, Google, and devs work together on foldable experience
So far, so good. We haven’t heard any problem about the new and improved Samsung Galaxy Fold expect for the canceled pre-orders in the United States. The cancelation was only done to “restart” everything. In South Korea, the first batch quickly sold out and many have already received their units over the weekend. Today, we’re learning Samsung continues to work on the foldable phone by teaming up with Google, Android developers, and app partners to improve on the foldable experience.
This move means apps and programs will include the foldables. It’s a new category now that must be given attention because of its different requirements and form. The Galaxy Fold’s screen can be “folded” and “flexed” so it may require a different transition from the regular phone screen to a bigger display like a tablet.
With a few tweaks here and there in the code, hundreds of games and apps found on the Galaxy Store and Google Play Store have been updated. We’re being ushed to a new era of mobile technology and so it is important that most apps and platforms catch up with the trend.
The goal has always been a more complete foldable, flexible user experience. The efforts of Samsung and Google have actually started as early as April 2018. We even remember saying Google started working on Android support for foldables.
Samsung offers a new UX but it still runs on Android. The company has decided to work with other bigger brands so the experience will be seamless and complete. This way too, more foldable phone users are provided access to apps and services.
Samsung’s EVP and Head of Software and AI, Mobile Communications Business ES Chung shared, “This is software innovation that incorporates both an immersive UX and a new UI perspective to provide a seamless experience.”
It’s been a long process but the result has been favorable for Samsung. Well, at least, before reports of displays breaking surfaced. The new Android 10 already supports foldable devices with an updated Android Emulator, multi-resume functionality, and better resizable activity.
With its partnership with Samsung, Google and Android know what to expect and what can still be done. The foldable experience is quite different in many ways and it’s important that it’s considered by most devs and other OEMs. At the moment, there are already hundreds of apps optimized for the Samsung foldable phone. Some of them are as follows: Facebook, App in the Air, Amazon Prime Video, Microsoft, VSCO, Twitter, Spotify and iHeartMedia among others.
