Google Is Adding Android Support For Foldable Screens (techcrunch.com)

At its Android Developer Summit today, Google detailed plans to bake support for folding phones into the mobile operating system. One of the first Android phones to hit the market with a foldable display looks to be from Samsung with a launch date of "early next year." TechCrunch reports: "You can think of the device as both a phone and a tablet," Android VP of Engineering Dave Burke explained. "Broadly, there are two variants -- two-screen devices and one-screen devices. When folded, it looks like a phone, fitting in your pocket or purse. The defining feature for this form factor is something we call screen continuity."

Among the additions here is the ability to flag the app to respond to the screen as it folds and unfolds -- the effect would likely be similar to the response of applications as handsets switch between portrait and landscape modes.

Comments

first fold

[Anonymous Coward]

snap

Privacy thieving slime

[Anonymous Coward]

Ill pass thanks

But just for three years.

[Anonymous Coward]

This kind of legacy technology can be supported for ever.

finally!

[sad_]

phone displays have become so large, they no longer easily fit in my pants pockets. now, i'll be able to fold the phone and they'll fit again!

Re:finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you could stop wearing hipster skinny jeans, and then phones fit just fine.

Unless you are female, in which case pockets on womens' wear are just useless, and only there for decoration.

Return of the flip-phone

[Anonymous Coward]

We'll give it a fancy name like "foldable" when really this is just slight update of 15+year old technology. Like the "cloud" is just the next step on the upgrade treadmill. Now everyone will need to go out and spend another million bucks on phones and tablets.

I'm not even opposed to it---I think flip phones were always a better form factor.

And they keep others horrible things

[Frederic54]

Like the damn AMP results in Chrome, and worst of it the google search bar at the bottom of the launcher in Pie, that you cannot disable!!! wtf!!! In all my android phones for years, first thing I did was to delete this bar, did this from 2.3 to 8.1, and now with 9 google decide for you that the bar will be there eternaly and you cannot remove it.

I hate AMP and this search bar so much that I switched to Microsoft Launcher and Edge, after using Android since almost the beginning, unfathomable...

Re:And they keep others horrible things

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought the Google search bar was mandatory in old Android. So I was probably wrong to believe that. Surely can be removed but not uninstalled, must here on default else Google Play isn't licensed to the manufacturer. I wonder about details. I just decided to never use Google Play. Now I remember I have another phone in a drawer that I forgot about (!) because I need a USB OTG cable to "hack" it and install an OS without Google Play.

no interest, thank you

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe bendable screens will allow for better glass optics in HMDs?

just combine multiple phones

[e**(i pi)-1]

the demo of the flexible phone looked more like two phones stuck together. The presentation could not hide that the thickness of the foldable object was essentially the thickness of two phones. It would make much more sense to have the operating system be able to connect and combine two phones which are stuck together with magnetic frames. If there is no bezel, then one could even put together a couple of phones to temporarily build a larger reading or writing platform. For desktop monitors, multiple monitor support is standard, building that for phones should not be impossible. Two ``friendly phones" stuck together would just become one.

Re:just combine multiple phones

[mobby_6kl]

Supposedly the phone was in a case to obscure the pre-production model design. Maybe that's BS and it's really as thick as a brick of course. We'll see soon enough.

I'm sure joining two phones together would have a few use cases but frankly I think that would be more pointless than this. On the other hand, plenty of people use flip covers with their phones and this would could essentially work the same way if the tech is good enough. Normally the screen would be protected by the back of the flexible display, and you'd open it the same way you open a flip case to access the screen. Everything would stay on one half of the display until you fully extend it. The only limitation really is that you can't flip the cover 360 degrees behind the phone or store credit cards inside.

Unleash the slashdot hate!

[LtUoNXizqxawTj4ofx7t]

It's new so must be bad.

Re:Unleash the slashdot hate!

[Anonymous Coward]

What's so good about seeing shitty Samsung UI on *two* screens? Sounds like double the crappiness to me.

Next iPhone

[wildchild07770]

iPhone DS THEN iPhone 3DS

Rather Have Physical Keyboard and Flat Screen

[BrendaEM]

I could type a lot faster with a texting-style keyboard on a feature phone.

I have already broken 3 screen protectors on a Galaxy Note 8. I hate rounded over screens because they are too vulnerable. The blue lines going up the screen  edges don't look too good either.

Re:Rather Have Physical Keyboard and Flat Screen

[Anonymous Coward]

I am an attention-seeking twat and have to change my comment to monospaced font for no reason.

are the screens dhcpv6?

[Anonymous Coward]

are the screens dhcpv6?

beep boop beep

[Anonymous Coward]

Message received, comrade! I'll see you at the location at half past frying pan! beep boop beep/

This is a good reason

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole bezel-less screen thing didn't make much sense, but for a folding screen it is essential.