Samsung Touts Foldable Phone Apps (Even if Device Itself is MIA)

Seeking to steal a bit of Apple’s thunder as the company unveils its latest products this week, Samsung has announced new app experiences for its foldable smartphone.

The device was officially unveiled earlier this year. Dubbed the Galaxy Fold, it’s pretty much what it sounds like – a large smartphone that can be folded in half, with a subtle hinge right in the middle of its display.

Such a design would obviously open up new opportunities in how apps can be displayed and used, and to that end Samsung has now announced that it has been working with Google and major app partners to come up with new experiences for the Galaxy Fold. Google has tweaked its Android 10 operating system, and partners like Amazon Prime Video, Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter have also been working to optimize their apps for the Galaxy Fold’s “multi-active window” display setup.

“This is software innovation that incorporates both an immersive UX and a new UI perspective to provide a seamless experience,” explained Samsung VP ES Chung in a statement.

Samsung’s announcement went on to proclaim that these various apps and services “are now available in the Android ecosystem for the Galaxy Fold in the Google Play Store and Galaxy Store.” But it’s worth pausing to note that the Galaxy Fold hasn’t yet been launched anywhere but Korea, after having been delayed from a spring release due to technical issues with the smartphone. And it’s priced at about $1,980, which is going to rule it out from the mainstream market. Finally, on the biometrics front, the device features only a standard fingerprint sensor – not the kind of in-display fingerprint scanning that has been helping so many other rival devices to stand out in the market.

In any case, the Galaxy Fold is still the most exciting thing Samsung has going on right now, and could help the company to remind consumers that it’s still pushing the state of the art when it comes to premium smartphones even as its arch rival Apple gets most of the spotlight this week.

Sources: Samsung, TechRadar