Not so long ago, Samsung showed us what its employees are capable of developing to some extent revolutionary products. Galaxy Fold was the world's first foldable phone with a flexible screen. Since then Huawei Mate X, Galaxy Z Flip, Motorola Razr have been released. The rest of the manufacturers are not in a hurry yet, and they can be understood, because it is stupid enough to release a device costing $ 1500-2000 in the hope that someone will buy it.
The modern web isn't ready for foldable smartphones
However, it is clear that foldable phones will become the norm in the near future. We can expect the appearance of devices with a similar form factor in the budget segment as early as 2021 or 2022. And now the main problem that the owners of such phones face is the poor adaptation of the sites of the entire Internet to this format.
Galaxy Fold problems
Firstly, today not all sites are able to dynamically adapt to the screen resolution; adaptation in their case occurs only at the loading stage. This was done in order to reduce the size of the transferred files and speed up the loading of the resource. Secondly, modern sites are developed, as a rule, for the interface width of 320 pixels, which corresponds to that in iPhone SE. However, now the situation may become more complicated.
The point is that the Galaxy Fold offers consumers a 2 or 3 split screen mode. And this is where the problems begin. These are the resolutions for windows in multi-window mode:
Galaxy Fold permissions. Example 1
Galaxy Fold permissions. Example 2
Galaxy Fold permissions. Example 3
You can see that they are all less than 320 pixels, in which case the content will be displayed incorrectly on all sites. For example, site Amazon:
Site Amazon on Galaxy Fold
Better yet, take a look at the Google Maps site, which, with this window width, has lost a functional button on the right side of the site:
Google Maps site on Fold
The additional screen has an interface resolution of 320 x 519. This is also quite controversial, because now not many people support even a resolution of 320 pixels. Some people stop at supporting screen width iPhone 6, citing the fact that fewer people use small phones. Foldable phones are going to be a real pain for website developers who need to adapt them for resolutions below 320 pixels. There are millions of websites on the web, but now imagine how much money and resources will be spent by companies from all over the world to get people to use foldable smartphones normally.
Browser in Wear OS
Another problem is the lack of smartwatch support. In my opinion, it would be nice if the developers offered users convenient interfaces for very small screens. This can be added by developing a separate interface. The only question is who will do it. Perhaps, with the growing popularity of foldable phones, developers will nevertheless begin to adapt sites in addition to them for smartwatches. It should be understood, however, that it will hardly be possible to use the same interface with a resolution of less than 320 pixels. You will most likely need to design separate interfaces so that users do not have to peer into the controls.
The age of web technology is coming
When Google and Apple provided developers with the tools to build apps, many saw it as a good way to make money. Since then, the development of new mobile applications and games has not stopped for a minute, but this may change in the future with the growing popularity of progressive web applications. A good example would be a website Twitter:
Can you distinguish it from a full-fledged application? Hardly. This is a relatively new technology that is becoming more and more popular, and developers like this option more – now there is simply no point in creating a separate application for Android and iOS.
That is why I think this problem is important and needs to be fixed. It would be cool if we were offered a separate site interface for smartwatches, for windows less than 320 pixels and for tablets. Today, unfortunately, not all sites are adapted for tablets, focusing only on mobile versions and offering mobile versions to tablet users. In this question, again, it shows itself quite well Twitter.
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Based on materials from medium