Here's something interesting: The official Twitter accounts for Android and Samsung Mobile are suggesting that Google and Samsung will have something special to announce together at the latter's February 11 Unpacked event, where the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip will be unveiled.
A few hours ago, the Android Twitter account tagged Samsung Mobile in a message that says “Something exciting is just around the corner. See you at Unpacked” along with a video that shows the Android logo with its ‘n' replaced with a white rectangular block similar to the one we see in Samsung's official Unpacked promo. Samsung Mobile responded to the tweet with “Saved you a seat!”, so it's all pretty mysterious and gives us no useful information.
Did Google and Samsung work together on the latter's foldable device again?
All we can do is speculate, and the biggest suspect is that Samsung has worked with Google to optimize Android for the Galaxy Z Flip's user interface. Google and Samsung worked together to make sure the Galaxy Fold's folding display works well with Android Pie, with Google even working some of Samsung's foldable UI elements into stock Android. For example, App Continuity, a feature that lets an app change seamlessly from the outer to inner display on the Galaxy Fold, was built into Android as native functionality for all foldable devices.
@Android Saved you a seat! 🙌
— Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) February 6, 2020
The two companies are also said to be working on integrating Google Duo into Samsung's messaging app, but since that is reportedly going to be limited to South Korea, it's probably not what is being teased here. Some are also speculating that Google could bring back its Play Edition series of smartphones, which saw manufacturers like Samsung release a variant of their flagship phones running vanilla Android, though that is just wishful thinking and isn't likely to happen in this day and age.
Of course, it could be that the Android team is simply helping Samsung build up excitement for its event, as the Korean giant is the largest and most popular maker of Android phones around the world. Whatever it may be, it looks like Samsung Unpacked could still have a few surprises in store, and we can't wait to find out what that is.
