Mobile applications are booming because people today, rely more on smart phones. 2019 is the landmark for the foldable smart phones where they reached at a high point. Foldable phones boomed after Samsung presented a prototype of their new smart phones for 2019.
Samsung’s foldable Galaxy X offers two screens. one is the typical phone size and other is the tablet when the phone is unfolded.
Foldable phones resemble old flip phones that will not differ much from the one we use right now. This concept is like providing experience of the mobile phones and tablet in a single framework but it creates a new Era for mobile application development services.
Impact of Foldable Phones on the App Development Process
- Foldable phone increased the impact on application development process. To start with, foldable phones will allow developers to create a better and more immersive experience for the users because of the freedom of having a multi-window.
- till the date developers developed an app for cross platform and split screens, but now they have the various screen ratios. It is important to remember that the mobile app should work in a multi-frame mode with vigorous resizing. This will ensure maximum compatibility no matter what environment your app has to function in; Foldable devices, normal mobile devices.
- Developers have to change screen ratios to maintain application performance. To ensure compatibility with most of devices, developer should test app on as many screen ratios as possible. Android 10 (API level 29) and higher actually support a larger and wider range of aspect ratios. However, with foldable phones, form factors can differ from super long to thin screens, to 1:1.
- Developers have to maintain app continuity if the device fold that does not mean app will stop performing. An app needs to be able to changeover from one screen to the next automatically and rather swiftly. To ensure immense user experience it is necessary to ensure that the task isn’t interrupted and continues rather seamlessly after the transition. The app should be able to resume in the same position and location no matter what way the phone is folded.
- Multi window is the concept we use previously and when user will have larger screen they would prefer 2 apps running together or maybe they would prefer three apps running together at the same time when the phone is in its larger size.
- Developers should focused on the multi resume feature which was not available in previous version. But android 10 is giving the facility for this feature and developer must make sure that all application would stay in the resume mode.
- Since Android allows keyboards, wallpapers, and launchers, they can support multi-display. Android 10 and above allows secondary screen to have wallpapers. As developer one should take care of the surface of engines which are independently drawn. They can apply filter category to ensure dedicated activities for the second screen.
- Foldable testing is important; once you develop an application test it on the foldable phone.
So we can say foldable application will definitely change the development experience and user experience as well.
Read More: Website Design & Development: 7 Factors that Actual influence your web page Conversion rate.
FAQs about App for Foldable Smart phones
Foldable phones will have a massive impact on the app development process like a great number of test cases, increased development cost and need more time for design, testing, and development.
You can use the foldable emulator provided by Samsung to test your app in a foldable environment or you can use Android Studio as well.
The cost to develop an app for foldable phones will be much higher than the single screen as it needs a lot of design, development, and testing efforts. Send your requirement to know the app development cost.
Impact of Foldable Phone on the app Market
As we know people become more habitual to the smart phone. They also start to rely on the smart phones for work, entertainment, and many other things. It makes developer more conscious for responsive design but it is something bigger than performance.
Smart phone screens keep getting bigger than before and user appreciate it. Apple’s original I-phone had a 3.5- inch 320X480 screen, whereas this year’s XS max boasts a 6.5-inch 2688X1242 display.
Certainly, foldable phones will remove the pocket friendliness bar and should spur a leap in average screen size. But what’s the point? Cynics might suggest that bigger screens are just marketing material. But it’s clear that apps continue to grow in attractiveness and markets.
Dual-screen Android devices aren’t new
Kyocera’s Echo was the world first that lunch first dual- screen smart phone with dual 3.5 inch WVGA screens which are running on android 2.2 froyo in 2011 The device could imitate a single 4.7-inch screen in ‘tablet’ mode, or run separate apps on each screen.
However, it was not new but still, developers have to use proprietary build system and documentation to make full use of the both screens.
Developers can take advantage of the axon M’s screen modes by simply creating new layouts that applications and games automatically accommodate. But some of the applications do not have appropriate layouts yet and therefore it is behaving inappropriately or unpredictably. But again it is not a new problem because many mobile apps scale badly on tablets because they have not for extended mode resolutions.
Read More: A Secret that Speeds up Mobile App Development
Wrapping up
Well foldable device was available before but now users accept it widely so application development on the foldable phone will bring a huge change in the app development market. It require immaculate skills and techniques but one has to be ready for these because we can say 2019-20 will be a year dedicated to the foldable devices
