Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 4 a few days ago, alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and other Galaxy products, at the Galaxy Unpacked 2022 event. While the Galaxy Z Fold 4 arguably isn't a big upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 3, it does come with rather nifty software functionality. This year, Samsung has included the new persistent taskbar, which is placed at the bottom of the user interface.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 ships with Android 12L, which is specifically meant for foldables, tablets, and Chrome OS devices. It was released by Google last year, and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is the first device to ship with it. Samsung refers to this persistent taskbar as the ‘Taskbar.' It appears alongside the usual navigation buttons or the gestures bar. The Taskbar shows up to eight app shortcuts along with some recent apps, which you can pull directly and enjoy multitasking.
Samsung could bring Android 12L's Taskbar feature to older Galaxy Z Fold devices
Now, industry rumors suggest that the Galaxy Z Fold 4's Taskbar will come to older Galaxy Z Fold devices with the One UI 4.1.1 update. The feature is speculated to arrive later this year. This is quite nice to hear, especially from an older Galaxy Z Fold device owner's point of view, as this would facilitate better multitasking. But that raises some interesting questions.
The most important question is whether Samsung aims to upgrade all or at least the most recent foldable flagships with Android 12L. However, you should keep in mind that these are just the early days of the Android 12L experience, and there isn't much clarity on how many One UI 4.1.1 features are related to Android 12L. It could be Samsung's custom skin effort as well.
Whatever the case may be, it sure allows the users of such big-screen devices to utilize the phone's screen in a more functional way. It is possible that the update will be released to the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3.
