Galaxy Z Fold 3 Split UI hints at rollable phone plans
Samsung arguably has the foldable phone market cornered but it still has a lot of work to do to polish up both hardware and software. On the one hand, it still has to make those devices more reliable and resilient to wear and tear, especially the fragile flexible screen. On the other hand, it still has to fully take advantage of the form factor that these devices open up. A new leak suggests that Samsung is working on an adaptive user interface that will be dubbed "Split UI" and it might not just be for foldables but also for rollables.
Foldable phones that turn into tablets aren't just phones or tablets. They introduce a new form factor that can have its own interaction language, one that revolves around split-screen interfaces. While Android does have native support for running two apps side-by-side, it isn't yet designed to take advantage of that though it is indeed heading in that direction.
In the meantime, however, Samsung might also be preparing its own solution, one that famed tipster @Ice universe has revealed to be called "Split UI". Rather than being specifically designed for foldables, however, this adaptive UI seems to cater to any and all form factors that Samsung's devices sport, from normal "candy bar" to tablet to foldable.
Curiously, this is also giving rise to speculation about Samsung's teased rollable phone plans. Without taking the video clips literally, it does show how a Split UI will adapt when a phone's or tablet's screen is extended, just like on a rollable device.
— ICE UNIVERSE (@UniverseIce) May 23, 2021
The clips also show how the UI can even be customized by sliding the separator between different panes of the same app. Samsung has admittedly been quite good at making UI experiments like this, even before Android officially adopted them, and it will be interesting to actually see it in action, perhaps in the Galaxy Z Fold 3 coming in August.