TheGoogle Pixel Foldwas released in late June as the company’s first attempt to take on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and the clampdown on foldable smartphones that Samsung has held since releasing the original Fold in 2019. While it is not the best version of a foldable phone we’ve ever seen,we think it’s a decent rough draftand a sign of things to come on future Google smartphones that fold and flip. Samsung phones run a modified version of Android called One UI, the latest version of which isOne UI 6. Samsung has a sneaky useful feature in its OS on the Z Fold 5 that keeps the display on when folding the phone, which the Pixel Fold has not had up to this point. That’s all changing with a new setting in theAndroid 14 QPR1 betathat borrows the feature from Samsung.
Android 14’s release has been pushed back to Octoberafter we originally believed it would come out in August, but we can check out Google’s first QPR (Quarterly Platform Release) beta of it before it goes stable later in 2023. In it, we now have an option to keep the Pixel Fold unlocked after it’s folded, making seamless media consumption easier. As of right now, when using almost any app, if you close the phone from its 7.6-inch inner display to its 5.8-inch outer display, its screen shuts off, forcing you to re-open apps and wake up the phone again. This can be annoying.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 has a setting in One UI that users can switch on to counter this problem, which can be done by enabling theContinue apps on cover screenoption. This allows users to choose which apps keep the display turned on when folding the phone, a useful setting that allows for more flexibility and user control.
Google is working on an option that’s the same in spirit, but a bit different in execution, to the One UI setting,Android Authority discovered. In the first beta for Android 14 QPR1, a setting titledContinue using apps on foldcan be found under the display options. It is set to “Only games, videos, and more” by default, which covers a wide variety of apps you could be using and content you could be consuming. You can turn the setting to “Always” or “Never” as well, which basically is the difference between having your outer display always on when folding, or the outer display always going to sleep when folding.
Android 14 QPR1’s new display setting on the Pixel Fold (Source:Android Authority)
Tech companies are always borrowing ideas from each other and trying to marginally improve on them in their own ways. They do say that mimicking is the best form of flattery, and Samsung’s solution set the standard that Google had to follow up with. It’s a useful feature that we’re happy will be used by the Pixel Fold, but if we’re really being honest, it should’ve been there when it was released in June.
