How Would Foldable Phones Impact Development Process
Few of the top Smarphone companies are heavily investing to offer consumers Foldable smartphone devices for better user experience. These phones are already in the market and soon will be available at almost every store. These are believed to be sure hit, if you believe the signals users are sending after using these phones. Before these foldable smartphones are in hand of every user, mobile app developers need to adapt quickly to provide applications that can support new changed screen and other functionalities. App migration is another area where developers would need to focus their minds on if they are not in a position to build a new application altogether. However, new development may not face as stiff challenges as migration may, but still there are few challenges that even developers developing entirely new app may need to overcome. These challenges can become stiffer for any mobile app development company because smartphone providers are offering devices with different folding options. Take for example Huawei and Samsung. These giants have come up with foldable phones which are already in the market but for an app developer these are two different conditions for screen to adjust because of different folding options. Advantages of foldable phones So far smartphone companies have not highlighted any feature that ensures some serious improvement in speed or processing, it is just wider screen with better UX what is being marketed aggressively. So every Android app development company has a specific but limited task cut out for them, at least for now. From users perspective there is no doubt foldables are
going to enhance user experience considerably. The option of switching from single screen to wider screen is not only better viewing but also convenient. Foldable phones are like having a tab in space of handset. So for people using phones mostly on the run foldable is excellent option to have a phone and tab in one device. Video presentations would be more effective and absorbing over foldable phone than on regular smartphone screen. Large screen presentation For android developers or custom mobile app development one of the challenges in foldable phones would be to make app switch from single screen to expanded screen seamlessly. The transition from single screen to fully expanded screen and vice versa need to be seamless without even a flick. This means app should be able to adapt according to screen size and should possess intelligence of sensing change in different screen modes. What makes it bit more complicated is different types of foldable options or screen supported by smarphone makers. Samsung is offering a device which has two screens, cover and main, whereas Huawei smartphones are coming with a single screen that can be unfolded to get a tablet-sized display. To overcome this problem all Android SDK provides is measurement of screen size and adjust display accordingly. Multi-window Developers need to put in some extra effort in order to manage multiple apps at the same time in foldable screen device. The feature of running multiple apps at the same time is already there in Android but it was not introduced for smartphones, this is for large screens like LEDs. Right now android can manage multiple apps at the same time but keeps only one app active and remaining on dormant mode. With foldable phones, users would like to run multiple apps at the same time. With Android 10 SDK managing multiple apps is not a problem and can be managed. The real problem arises and will need some development effort if these apps access any hardware resource like camera simultaneously. Managing apps that access hardware resources and running at the same time calls for some changes in development methodology for flawless user experience. Resolution factor To handle fold screen there is a need for different user interface. But even after having a different user interface different resolution of screen that smartphone manufacturers are offering may pose some difficulty. Samsung and Huawei have hit the market with phones that have different resolution for single and unfolded screens. The aspect ratio can vary from 21:8 to 1:1. Android 10 SDK offers support for range of screen ratio. QA of Apps for foldable phones
It is not just developers that are going to face some challenge because of foldable devices. Even quality analysts would need to gear up to test functionality of apps across different devices offering different screen sizes, resolution and folding options. Although there are emulators that can help a tester to check how app functions over different hardware specifications but to be sure of quality for real testing app should be run on as much variety of devices as possible. With arrival of foldables there is going to be no change in business logic of apps which actually saves lot of repeated work for every android development company. But any custom mobile app development company would need to do plenty of changes in user interface. The advent of foldable phones is going to increase time and cost for every mobile app development company and eventually for end users. How much change in cost and time can be absorbed by companies and providers will be seen in future and may even decide how well foldable smartphones venture in the market. It is not just cost of development but quality checking is also going to incur more cost while developing apps for foldables. With companies just beginning to launch their new devices in recent future rush of new models with different options are going to flood the market. Changing models and screen resolutions are going to pose more challenge for developers and eventually for testers. All these are going to make apps costlier. In the end the impact of foldable phones is going to increase competition amongst manufacturers and will test app development companies for managing development cost-effectively. However managing development is not going to pose any stiff challenge which may bring any substantial change in process of designing and coding the apps. Experts even view that how well mobile app development is going to respond to foldable phones may prove to be deciding factor for future of foldable phones.