The Android Developer team has just announced at Android Developer Summit that Android will have native support for “Foldable” smartphones and it will be arriving next year.
This announcement comes around the same time that Samsung will reportedly be showing off their own foldable smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy F.
Android’s new feature will allow for apps to react natively to changing screen sizes. This is not something new as we have seen it before with split screen apps on both Android and iOS, and with program windows on both Mac and PC.
It has yet to be shown that a foldable smartphone will make a huge difference for the industry but people have been loving the idea which has been demoed before with different shoddy prototypes for years. The idea of a phone that can be unfolded into a tablet for extra screen real-estate is definitely appealing, but we still need to see how battery life and device thinness will be handled.
This is likely not the only OS we can expect foldable devices to run with a rumored Surface Andromeda device that folds to fit into pockets being a hugely anticipated device.
What do you guys think of foldable smartphones? Are you going to rush out to try one? Is it just a gimmick? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!