- Is Your App for Foldable Smartphones? A Beginner Guide
After dominant years of hardship by incremental upgrades instead of eye-catching innovations, the smartphone market has something new to present at Mobile World Congress.
“Foldable Phones”.
Yes! The phones with an actual folding screen as opposed to the early entrants of flip-flops at the beginning of 2000 is the next big thing in revolutionizing the smartphone industry.
21st century welcomes the inception of foldable smartphones unveiled by Samsung, Motorola and Huawei in later this September. The passion for this much-awaited technology has become the buzzing word for the millennials with inspiration for the technology aficionados who worked on this unidealistic idea.
But, all the myths bloomed into an alluring reality when Google joined hands with the smartphone makers Samsung to launch the most trending innovation in the smartphone landscape.
The Idea Behind Foldable Smartphones?
As many among you might be knowing, Japanese mobile market never shunned flip-phones, even when the world drifted to smartphones with one screen and no number keys. The only reason is that most consider it as a “Feature Phone” by now.
To recapitulate, this simply means there are two types of foldable:
- The one that makes your phone bigger
- The other, that folds your phone in half and makes it more compact and pocketable.
So, the core idea behind developing a foldable screen smartphone is to enable a 3-in-1 device, where the device can fold into a relatively bigger screen (~10' inches) tab, utilized as a Personal desktop with a keyboard attachment and a comfortable fit for your pocket.
Nevertheless, this caters to the lion’s share of ultra-mobile users who desire a single device for all their computing needs.
What Makes A Foldable Smartphone “Onerous”?
However, all these outlooks have significantly influenced the conventional approaches of “one-size-fits-all “ of the mobile app development company. And, the one to opt the change, yearns to stay at the top.
But, what makes it difficult to develop a folding screen smartphone is — “The Screen”.
It creates a very challenging set of material science issues.
These consist of making organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) in an appropriate way that allows the pixel to bend without demeaning and developing a pivot that would not make the screen pop-off.
The other technology demur is related to the battery as to whether it should be bend with the screen or not.
But, overcoming the technology boulders, the foldable smartphones pave their way to the ever-evolving mobile market. The worldwide devices shipment for ultramobile is projected at 80.036 millions of units by 2020 along with a predicted 5 per cent by 2023.
Both the foldable smartphone newcomers unbosomed by Samsung and Huawei, are especially valued at $1,980 and $ 2,600, relatively costing to a high-end laptop. So, it gives birth to a critical question as to whether they are meant to be more than just an idea?
Are The Foldable Smartphones 21st Furor?
A recent survey, suggest that the foldable screen smartphones might be a fad, blown out of proportion by an industry curious to find the next big thing.
Therefore, it clearly reflects that the foldable smartphone is here to stay for a longer hail once they start interacting with the user. And, with this exponential rise in the demands from the specific category, it is not just responsible for driving a wave of technological disruptions but also leverages the dynamic adoption of innovation in mobile apps also.
The New Constant In Mobile App Development World
The sudden drift in foldable smartphones has reinvented the complete mobile app development process for renowned platforms — Android and iOS. Probably, you are familiar with the fact the process of developing an app for a device with one screen is far different from the steps taken for creating an app for both big and small screen.
Now, you can understand the impacts of the foldable smartphone on app development company and their strategies.
Don’t forget all your efforts will go wane if you turn a blind eye to the user expectations. It always works the best to prioritize user experience for building apps specifically for foldable smartphones.
As people tend to use foldable devices to view content in a bigger format, the developers need to fold their sleeves to be ready for the challenge of creating apps, especially meeting the expectations of the foldable app.
Below I have listed the impacts that are making the foldable smartphones a new constant for iPhone and Android app development company.
Now, as you know the impacts of foldable smartphones on the technology-driven environment, let us uncover the designing and developing of apps for foldable technology.
The Development Prerequisite For Foldable Mobile Phone Apps
The zeal for developing apps for foldable smartphones act as an upthrust to transform your style of building a mobile app. Your resonance with the potential of foldable devices also motivates
You to know more about the impact of this technology innovation on mobile app development.
I am keeping finger crossed for all the experienced player in the mobile app development industry who are adhering to these steps to streamline the building of foldable mobile phone apps.
1. App Screen Continuity
Continuity of the application for foldable smartphones is all about making automatic and flawless transitions from one to the other screen without any interruptions or lagging issue. To keep better continuity of your app, it’s essential to hire Android app developer or an iOS professional that pay focus on dynamic resizing to make the app easily resizable that results in improved compatibility irrespective of the platforms and functionalities of the devices used.
2. App Must Be resizable
Although we are here talking about foldable smartphones, an essential feature to adhere is the screen size as foldable have a bigger screen in comparison to mobile phones with one touch screen of standard size.
Nevertheless, easily handed foldable devices feature multi-window split feature that makes them more intuitive and user-friendly. Here comes the indispensable requirement to make your app resizable to meet the multi-window mode of a foldable device, and this can be easily accomplished by working on “resizableActivity=true” code.
3. Screen Ratio Carries A Behemoth Value
One of the decisive factor affecting the mobile app development process is screen type. Some manufacturers are working on high, comprehensive, and thin screens, whereas, some smartphone makers are relying upon massive yet small screens for their foldable versions.
To test the perfect ratio of the screen the experienced developer try maxAspect ratio and minAspect ratio to testify the minimum and maximum ratios handled by the app as the mobile app must be compatible with multiple devices of various screen ratios.
So, the time you funnel down the list of a dedicated team for your app, make sure you hire a mobile developer that is known with all the imperatives of making a foldable smartphone app.
4. Multi-Display For Foldable Screen
The added feature to the array of foldable mobile is “Multi-Window” support. Embellishing your app with the multi-display feature will be the first and foremost step to accomplish the success with your goals for constructive foldable mobile app development. This will enable users to easily access apps while performing other functions and activities at the same moment.
5. Multi-Resume Feature For Foldable Smartphones
The next step to strategic mobile app development for foldable smartphones is integrating your app with a multi-resume feature. It isn’t delightful when one’s app gets paused in amid of the task you are doing on the other one.
So, to combat such an issue, you must make sure your app comes with multi-resume support feature.
6. Multi-Window Support
Android 10’s version goes well with the multi-display ad-on feature that brings more than one screen for foldable screens. These features allow users to have a swift shift from one app to the other as same as multi-resume functionality, as discussed in the last point.
For multi-display compatibility, your app must automatically run a specific display the instance when it’s launched on the screen. So, if you are creating an app for Android smartphones then you should make sure to step the ladder with a trusted yet savvy-experienced Android app development company that is ready to make updates and layouts and resources for displays. Besides, focus on display cutouts, activity compared to the app context and the right use of secondary screens.
As a surprise element, one of the new addition found in DP2 for Android 11 includes the support for apps to communicate with the hinge sensor in foldable phones, letting them find the angle at which the phone is folded and behave accordingly.
7. Don’t Skip — The testing Session
By now, you must be ready to launch your very first mobile app for foldable smartphone users.
But, before you step ahead. Wait and think!
Go for the testing process before launching your app to the store. And, this will let you identify the issues related to configurations and fix the loops in multi-window and multi-resume feature, screen ratios, and other features discussed above.
Concluding… Many may find it difficult with so many alterations but the fact is that developing apps for foldable devices is not rocket science.
All you need is a reliable, experienced and leading mobile app development company like Appsted that is ready with their squad of dedicated professionals and skilled programmers for creating your future-ready app.
Lastly, don’t forget, partnering with the right team for foldable mobile turns more productive and lesser daunting.
Originally published at https://www.appsted.com on May 28, 2020.
