Your smartphone does not simply lie dormant in your pocket but can change, evolve and even expand to become something else. It should be noted that foldable phones are not a fantasy for the future any longer: they’re here. There, people are ready to change the devices they use with foldable screens like Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Huawei Mate XT. But on the human interest part, the main fun comes with the possibility of seeing what new applications developers are going to create on top of this cool technology.

With foldable devices coming to the market, it is not just a case of shrinking an app to fit onto a new screen size. It’s about decoding the user experience from end to end and creating applications that give more exciting, engaging, and fluid experiences than before. Mobile apps on foldable devices are not just a completely new screen size but a radical break from existing standards in devices, a new frame for innovation and new opportunities.

In this guide, we want to take you on a closer look at ten aspects that are crucial when designing apps for foldables. No matter whether you are an experienced developer or have just begun your journey, use these points and make sure the applications you develop aren’t simply usable on foldables but are optimized to provide the best user experience on them.

1. Rethink Your App’s Design for the Foldable Future

Making foldable devices work requires a complete reconceptualization of design methods that have been considered valid for some time. What if these devices packed not just one screen but multiple surfaces that can be opened and closed – or even flexible? This means that app design should be more flexible than just adaptability and more scalable than just reducing features.

For example, you can consider the outer screen of a folding device suitable for sporadic engagement—that is, displaying the overview of notifications, for example. Then, the device unfolds, users are provided with a more detailed and expanded interface. Everyone can picture an application where an activity lasts a few moments and displays brief figures when the device is shut and vice versa; a full opening of the application offers graphs and workout plans.

But it’s not only a question of content; there too, transitions have to occur. Users do not wish to feel as though they are switching from one app to another once they transition from one screen to another. Flexibility in both form and form’s purpose is paramount here: the user should be able to do so almost seamlessly between the folded and unfolded states.

2. Adopt Adaptive Layouts for All Screen Sizes

We all have heard of responsive design, but foldable devices actually take this to a new dimension. Foldables come with a feature that can change screen size within a split second, and so does your app’s UI.

For example, your app might need to work in a small panel resembling a regular smartphone interface when the device is folded and then turn into something larger and with more advanced options when unfolded. But more than that, your app also needs to handle multi-window mode or modern ephemeral modes of use. Also, foldable users prefer to work with two or more applications at once simultaneously. Your app should be able to be easily placed side by side with one, and it still looks good as well as works like one.

An interesting angle to think about is Flex Mode, where the gadget is not fully unfolded, but halfway like a tiny laptop. This presents an exciting challenge for developers: how do you develop an app with layout that can perfectly use screen space above and below the fold? For instance, a video app can display content on top and controls or information related to the video at the bottom.

3. Prioritize Performance: Handle the Extra Load of Foldable Devices

This is true despite the fact that foldable phones will come with very powerful hardware, if not the very best the market has to offer; apps will certainly have to do a lot more compared to traditional phones. They increase their resource utilization because these are generally dual-screen devices; performance optimization thus becomes crucial.

While foldable devices have great performance, it is important to minimize the hiccups when rendering graphics and animations. A user should never observe any delay, specifically when going from the folded state to the unfolded state. To developers, it means being more mindful of memory and CPU usage on their apps that they are developing.

The next factor of much concern is battery life. Mainly, when you run two screens at the same time, your phone’s battery discharges very fast. To counteract this, developers must consider resource consumption, how to handle background operations, and how to improve an algorithm to only perform tasks necessary. Optimization helps to save battery power, in this case, and ensure that your app will not slow down no matter how many tabs the user has opened.

4. Design for Productivity and Multitasking

This concept is the major driving force of foldable devices since they have the ability to task like never before. They not only can have multiple applications on a single device and switch between them, but they can also move objects and content between these applications as well as interact with their device in ways which are impossible in traditional phones.

As a developer, you have to think how your app is going to behave in these scenarios. Does your app have an active feature in which a user can drag and drop content from one app to another app? For example, if you’re developing a photo editor, can users open the app and import a picture for editing from the library, and then move the edited image into a social media app and post it?

If your app only takes up half the screen, is your app even usable still? Regardless of whether you develop your app with the specifications of having a large screen or not, make sure that your layouts are not complicating the usability of your app regardless of the screen size that you and your target audience possess.

5. Embrace Foldable-Specific Interactions

Certainly, one of the key benefits of developing foldable devices is an ability to utilize unique interactions. It’s unarguable that foldable devices are not about the bigger screens, but they are about different possibilities for interacting with screens.

For instance, during the folding or unfolding part of a device, users can cause specific actions in your application. A fully closed device may show secondary graphical elements – control or status – on one side of the ambient display while hiding the primary content on the other side. It might be useful, especially for media apps in which the user would like to see controls or some extra information within the stream without any interruption.

Your app could also provide something like content based on context, or content related to context. For instance, where a user toggles from the outer to the larger inner screen, the app should display additional or more elaborate information or functionality.

6. Ensure Accessibility for All Users

It is the case of dealing with foldable devices; creating apps for them is not only a creative pursuit but also an attempt to make an experience for everyone. Of course, such properties as accessibility are always important when working within the framework of an application, but they get particular value when using the application means interacting with dynamic layouts and transitions.

For screen reader users or other assistive technology, your app has to be as easily navigable even when transitioning from one screen to another. Flows should change smoothly, and the user should always know what is going on on their screen, regardless of the device’s position: folded or unfolded.

The next important part of accessibility principles is the ability of the user to influence some elements of the interface. In the case of the foldable devices the user might prefer larger buttons or larger text if the device is folded. Give them the utility to modify these aspects to be easier for the usage.

7. Leverage Haptic Feedback to Enhance User Experience

To continue building up\on this foundation for future development, one should learn how to leverage haptic feedback to amplify the user experience.

Haptic feedback also might be discreet, but it exudes powerful implications for making an application seem more engaging. Portable devices offer new possibilities for the implementation of haptic feedback, for example, when folding and unfolding the device.

For instance, though your application is a media player, your app could vibrate a little when the user opens the device, letting them know that the phone is now in use. Or in a gaming application, varying degrees of haptic feedback can be utilized to communicate a range of action within a game to physically enhance the experience.

8. Manage Dynamic Content Across Screens

A major problem that all foldable device designers face is the placement and transition of mass that requires change across the various displays.

It also means that the user is opening or closing their device, and the transition back into your app should be seamless. For instance, let a user view the video on the outer screen, then the screen unzips, and the video should immediately be able to adapt to the size of the big full-spread screen without the video stopping or restarting all over.

Another significant issue that we have is regarding State Persistence. Users have no desire that the content they are viewing should update on every scroll up and down on the device screen. Make sure that irrespective of the way the user is transitioning from one state to another of your app’s screens, the data record should always be the final one.

9. Stay Ahead of the Curve with Future-Proofing

Currently, foldable technology is not mature yet, and new foldable gadgets with enhanced features are being launched to the market. Another thing that matters in app development is ensuring that it is possible to react to changes in required features in the future.

It is recommended that developers implementing foldable screen apps should make their apps flexible in order to accommodate a variety of foldable devices. While some devices fold in half either in vertical or horizontal fashion, others have a completely different method your app should be equally ready for.

In addition, do not overlook the role of 5G communication in the matter. 5G boosts portable functionality on foldable devices to the next level; this brings in other high functionality such as real-time working, cloud computing, and AR. That way, you can ensure your application’s usability given the continued evolution of foldable technology afoot in our society.

10. Test, Test, Test: Ensuring a Flawless User Experience

Designing foldable devices is slightly challenging because it demands a lot of testing. It is possible to have numerous sizes and orientations of the screen where your app will be used, so it has to be predicted and prepared for.

Ensure you test on real devices in both portrait and landscape orientations, and when in multiple windows and in Flex Mode. It will assist you in capturing all the bugs or problems in dynamics, or when you switch between one task to another.

It is also important to prepare to comprehensively debug the app performance during these transitions. Switching from one mode to another is fairly vulnerable to bugs, so it is critical to spend lots of time on testing to arrive at a product that will not degrade the user experience.

Final Thoughts on Foldable App Development

Foldable devices cannot remain quantitatively considered as a taste of the market that could be temporary, but are the mobility next-step solutions. Smartphones such as the Huawei Mate XT, which boast of the tri-fold display, therefore provide developers with a perfect shot at emulating processes that are normally conducted by other commonplace smartphones. This is because foldables allow us to design more engaging, versatile, and usable interfaces that take advantage of multiple screens and smooth transitions.

But adapting to foldables isn’t strictly about extending the screen size for application support. As seen on the trifold devices like the Mate XT, the foldable experience essentially means a new kind of user journey, which needs better performance, better multitasking, and, in the best way possible, the best utilization of foldable type features. When developing new respective apps, developers can focus on user interactions as well as grow accessibility to prepare for upcoming advancements.

For instance, at Sigosoft, we acknowledge the complexities and probabilities of arriving destinations from the perspective of trifold devices. Our expert development team focuses on app development specifically for achieving the maximum utilization of foldable screens like the Huawei Mate XT so as to provide your application with proper sensibility in transitions, multiple window management, and flexibility in layouts. This is what you need for your application—Sigosoft is equipped to create multiple panel screens, improve UX, and get your app ready for further folds in foldable technology.

State of the art in this technological turn, we can assist you in fine use of trifold devices in the development of outcompeting mobile applications. In unison, it is now possible to model the next-generation applications for the smartphone platforms. Contact us today and let’s bring the foldable future together hand in hand with Sigosoft.