When you talk about Google’s Pixel Fold, it’s tough not to focus mostly on the phone’s form.
I mean, this is a device whose screen folds in half, for cryin’ out loud! It may not be the first Android phone to feature that feat, but still: It’s without a doubt the device’s defining characteristic. And it’s quite a sight to see, even in passing, and even more so to experience in your own pockets and person-paws.
While it’s easy to obsess over the Fold’s fold, though, we’ve been there and done that at this point. And now that I’ve personally been totin’ the Pixel Fold around in my pantaloons for a solid month (somehow!), I want to move beyond the surface and focus a little more closely on what might actually be the Fold’s most significant innovation from an Android-wide, platform perspective.
Here’s the thing: The folding screen sure is something — to say the very least! — but it isn’t exactly gonna be a standard productivity tool anytime soon. It’ll be a good long while before most average Homo sapiens have folding phones, if such a time ever arrives, and so the immediate impact of the form is pretty darn limited.
But the true brilliance of Google’s Pixel Fold philosophy is something that’s actually unrelated to the form itself. And it’s something that could — and arguably should — affect anyone using any Android device, regardless of its form or foldability.
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Let me explain.
The Google Pixel Fold philosophy
Once you get past the oohing and ahhing around the Pixel Fold’s spacious inner screen, what really sticks out in using the device is the series of software enhancements Google made to make the most of that expanded environment.
Specifically, Google dramatically rethought its approach to multitasking on Android. And as part of that, it both introduced new interface elements and dug up long-existing software features to make ’em more prominent and important parts of the phone-using experience.
Three pieces of the puzzle in particular stand out — and, interestingly enough, they’re all present on the Pixel Tablet, too. More than anything, as I’ve spent time with both of those devices, I’ve found myself (a) noticing how aligned the two products are in their interfaces and the experiences around ’em and (b) wondering why those experiences aren’t yet standard on all Android devices.
First things first, both the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet introduce a new on-demand dock that completely changes the way you think about getting around Android. It’s like a smarter version of Android’s long-standing recent apps interface: You simply swipe up slowly from the bottom of the screen, no matter what you’re doing, to reveal a snazzy new bar that shows the same docked favorites from your home screen along with an extra spot for a dynamically changing suggestion…
2023-07-26 23:24:02
Post from www.computerworld.com