If there’s one thing that annoys me about the Galaxy Z Flip series, it’s that the cover screen has been left just a notch or two above useless for years now, and for no good reason. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 is finally embracing apps on the cover screen, but still not to the degree that it should.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 introduced a full-size cover display and, with that, support for using full apps on that display. But the list was incredibly limited, only supporting a tiny handful of apps, and the list hasn’t really expanded. While there’s always been an official workaround, apps were clearly not the focus of Samsung’s flip phone cover display.
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 takes a step towards changing that, but a hesitant one.
“FlexWindow” on the Galaxy Z Flip 8 – likely as a part of One UI 9 – gets a redesigned homescreen that supports customizable panels with widgets, but also a central panel that includes a single widget similar to Google Pixel’s “At a Glance,” with calendar appointments and “Now Nudge” actions that appear based on context.
That same panel includes a proper app drawer, which now opens up to a host of supported Samsung apps.
There’s also a “Labs” section below that with apps like YouTube, Google Messages, and more. There are now 50 apps officially supported through this, though not everything works perfectly. For example, we noticed that Gemini effectively doesn’t work, as the main page just continually opens the keyboard and won’t let you enter a prompt. But, still, it’s a very overdue expansion on Samsung’s part, and bugs are inevitable on a screen like this.
Here are all of the apps now supported in “Labs:”
Samsung has also added a “Recents” page, something that makes it much easier to use apps efficiently on the cover display.
It could, and should be better, but it’s nice to see that Samsung is finally acknowledging that people really do want to use full apps on the Flip’s cover display.
Galaxy Z Flip 8 is available for pre-order now for $1,199.
More on Samsung:
- Here’s everything new on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 series, Flip, and new Galaxy Watch — is it enough?
- The Galaxy Z Flip 8 gives off ‘last hurrah’ vibes for $1,199
- Galaxy Watch 9, Watch Ultra 2 are official as Samsung makes the jump to Snapdragon
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