{"id":626299,"date":"2026-10-10T10:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T10:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/626299\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T10:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T10:46:11","slug":"the-iphone-duos-unfolding-animation-is-giving-z-fold-8-owners-fomo-but-not-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/626299\/","title":{"rendered":"The iPhone Duo\u2019s Unfolding Animation Is Giving Z Fold 8 Owners FOMO, but Not Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first got my hands on the iPhone Duo<\/a>, I admittedly dismissed the unfolding animation<\/a> that would soon become a highlight of online discourse. I was less interested in the smooth transition as content shifted from one screen to another and more focused on details such as the matte inner display and seemingly invisible crease.<\/p>\n

But in the weeks since Apple unveiled its first foldable iPhone, which drops Oct. 23<\/a>, I\u2019ve seen countless examples on social media of people trying to recreate that buzzed-about animation on their Android foldables. While the Play Store offers plenty of launchers<\/a> for customizing Android phones \u2014 including ones that mimic the iPhone\u2019s home screen<\/a> \u2014 this appears to be one iOS design element that users are particularly eager to bring to their devices.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, you really can\u2019t predict what people will care about most \u2014 or the lengths they\u2019ll go to imitate a feature.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"iPhone<\/p>\n

The primary phone people have used to recreate the iPhone Duo\u2019s cascading transition effect is Samsung\u2019s Galaxy Z Fold 8<\/a>, which debuted in July with a passport-size foldable design ahead of Apple\u2019s release<\/a>. Unlike iOS, Samsung\u2019s One UI interface, which runs on top of Android on Galaxy devices, doesn\u2019t include a folding animation. Instead, content simply transitions from the Z Fold 8\u2019s cover screen to its inner display once the phone is opened about halfway. I never considered this a deficiency until I saw the flood of positive reactions to the iPhone Duo\u2019s fluid transition effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To bridge that gap, several creators have posted videos explaining how to use third-party apps and developer tools on GitHub to get a similar effect on the Z Fold 8, with caveats like \u201cthe smoothness and quality won\u2019t be the same<\/a>\u2018\u201d and \u201cinstall it [at] your own risk<\/a>.\u201d (That\u2019s encouraging!) The steps don\u2019t seem particularly complicated, and some options appear to have cropped up in the Play Store as well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve chosen to forgo installing these Duo-copycat apps on my precious Galaxy Z Fold 8 for two reasons. First, I\u2019m not much of a risk-taker. Second, I\u2019m not interested in imitating an aesthetic element of Apple\u2019s software with a derivative version, especially when the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a standout foldable device in its own right. While the value of the Duo\u2019s sleek animation has since grown on me, I\u2019m not quite desperate enough to retrofit it onto a foldable phone that\u2019s just as functional without that flourish.<\/p>\n

\"AThe Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might not have a nifty opening animation by default, but I don\u2019t see that as a deficiency.Andrew Lanxon\/CNET<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: I think Apple\u2019s combination of hardware and software expertise will elevate the iPhone Duo in a way that merits the attention the phone has received, despite being relatively \u201clate\u201d to the foldables game<\/a>. But I also think it\u2019s more tasteful for consumers to embrace what each phone-maker does best, rather than shoehorning in a competitor\u2019s feature for something as superficial as an animation effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is one of my favorite phones I\u2019ve tested this year, earning it a CNET Editors\u2019 Choice Award. Its versatile design is optimized for both vertical and horizontal content<\/a>: I can stream YouTube videos and movies on the 7.6-inch inner display, then rotate it to seamlessly scroll through social posts. The crease is barely noticeable, and the battery easily lasts all day. The 5.5-inch cover screen never feels cramped, while its sharp corners give the phone a highly polished look. And despite lacking a telephoto lens, the Z Fold 8\u2019s dual rear cameras pull their weight, capturing crisp, vibrant photos.<\/p>\n

The iPhone Duo shares many attributes<\/a> with the Z Fold 8, including a palm-size design, 7.6-inch inner display and dual rear cameras. Those similarities prompted Samsung to post a series of salty tweets<\/a> after Apple debuted its foldable last month, including one that reads<\/a>, \u201cLet us know when you\u2019re done reheating our leftovers.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, I am curious how app developers might optimize their platforms<\/a> for the iPhone Duo in ways we haven\u2019t seen with other foldable phones. While the Android operating system spans a wide range of devices and configurations, iOS developers only have to cater to a single foldable, potentially leading to a more tailored and streamlined experience. We got a glimpse of how Netflix is building its app<\/a> for the Duo, and it\u2019ll be interesting to see how both Apple and other third-party developers take full advantage of the phone\u2019s 1.4:1 aspect ratio in ways that could make its predecessors seem behind the curve in that regard.<\/p>\n

\u201cBorrowing\u201d features from each other is what phone-makers do best. Down the road, it\u2019s possible companies such as Samsung will implement foldable capabilities that Apple rolled out first, and vice versa. Heck, Apple\u2019s delayed entry into this space means it had time to analyze what worked well for its competitors before jumping in with its own rendition. It\u2019s just how the industry works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So maybe the Galaxy Z Fold 9 \u2014 or whatever Samsung decides to call the follow-up to the Z Fold 8 \u2014 will have its own nifty opening animation. But until Samsung itself embraces the idea, I\u2019ll stick with using the standout foldable as-is.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Abrar\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAbrar Al-Heeti\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSenior Technology Reporter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAbrar’s interests include phones, streaming, autonomous vehicles, internet trends, entertainment, pop culture and digital accessibility. In addition to her current role, she’s worked for CNET’s video, culture and news teams. She graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Though Illinois is home, she now loves San Francisco — steep inclines and all.
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I first got my hands on the iPhone Duo, I admittedly dismissed the unfolding animation that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-626299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}