Modern Android phones are all filled to the brim with great features, but few are as feature-rich as a Samsung phone. As a power user-centric device, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 has more features and options than any other Samsung device but it can sometimes be hard to know which ones are best — or where to find them all.
For this — and a host of other reasons — the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (opens in new tab) is my favorite phone of all time. It’s absolutely amazing what you can do with this phone and all of the best features are only a few clicks away. These are my favorite things to do with the phone, and I think you’ll like them too!
Flex reading
While most of this article pertains to settings you can change or things you can buy to improve your experience, I wanted to start out with the simplest, most satisfying way that I use my Fold 4 on a daily bases. Fold it partially and use it to read a book.
Whether you’re using Google Play Books, the library app Libby, or another digital book service that you prefer, there’s nothing quite as comfortable as holding the phone like a hardcover book (like I’m holding it in the photo above).
You might laugh at the simplicity of this one but, seriously, it’s really great and it makes it a joy to read at absolutely any time of the day. Bonus points if you use an S Pen case or a rugged case (opens in new tab) with a big hinge, as it adds a perfect place for your fingertips to grab and hold. Again, see the photo above for an example.
Proper multitasking
With such a huge display, it’s practically a crime that Samsung didn’t alter Android’s garbage Overview “multitasking” screen by default. Thankfully, the company allows users to give it a proper overhaul with Good Lock, a free app that you can download on the Galaxy Store.
The default Overview screen has an incredibly useless single app on the screen at a time, but you can add up to six app thumbnails on screen at once, making multitasking significantly more pleasant on both displays. Here’s how to do that.
- On the home screen, swipe up to open the app drawer.
- Tap Galaxy Store.
- Tap the search button in the top-right and type in Good Lock, then tap the search key on your keyboard.
- Select and install Good Lock.
- Open the Good Lock app from your app drawer.
- Scroll down to the Home Up module and select it.
- Install Home Up from the Galaxy Store on the next screen.
- Navigate back to the Good Lock app.
- Tap Home Up to open the Home Up module.
- Tap Task Changer from the list.
- Select the layout type that you want. I prefer Grid.
- Press the Overview button or use the swipe-up navigation gesture to open Overview to see the changes.
Shrink those notifications
I don’t know about you, but it drives me crazy when those giant pop-down notifications appear right when I’m about to tap something at the top of the screen. Thankfully, Samsung gives its users a way to shrink those notifications so they’re not quite so obnoxious. Plus, you can customize the heck out of these “brief” style notifications, too!
- Open system settings by tapping settings in your app drawer or pulling down the status bar and tapping the settings icon on the top right. It looks like a gear.
- Select notifications from the list.
- Tap brief from the styles at the top.
- To further customize the appearance of notifications, tap brief pop-up settings.
- Go through the settings on the following screens to customize the look of notifications.
Might I recommend adding an edge lighting style to your notifications? That’s particularly nice when you’re in a full-screen app and still want to have an idea of when a notification comes in, as the edges of the display will glow without that annoying pop-down notification appearing.
Also, if you’re really a power user and want to know which app sent you a notification without looking you could even go through and customize individual app notification colors and styles. It’s quite powerful!
Taskbar to the rescue
While a taskbar seems more like it belongs on a desktop computer or laptop rather than a phone, Samsung’s taskbar design on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will have you reassessing that opinion. By default, the taskbar automatically appears on the bottom of the display any time you unfold the phone and use the larger display.
If you don’t see the taskbar, try one of two things:
- Open system settings by tapping settings in your app drawer or pulling down the status bar and tapping the settings icon on the top right. It looks like a gear.
- Tap Display.
- Make sure taskbar is enabled.
If it is enabled and you still don’t see it on the large screen, try tapping and holding anywhere near the very bottom of the screen for about two seconds. This gesture will quickly show or hide the taskbar no matter what you’re doing on the large display, which can come in handy later if you want it to temporarily disappear.
Once you’ve got that set, it’s time to customize the taskbar itself. On the left side of the taskbar, you’ll see an icon that looks like a grid of nine dots. Tapping this will open the app drawer anywhere and allow you to launch any app right from the taskbar.
You can also press and hold any app icon and drag it to any corner or edge of the display to split the display and run more than one app at a time.
In the center, you’ll find all the apps that you’ve pinned on your home screen’s bottom bar. To customize this, head to your home screen on the large display and customize the bottom bar to your heart’s content. Anything pinned there will automatically show up on the taskbar.
Lastly, the right side shows the two most recently opened apps for quick app swapping. Tapping these will quickly swap between whatever apps are shown.
Work in app pairs
Sometimes, it’s nice to have a set pair of apps that open at the same time. Whether it’s to have your note app open alongside a YouTube video or some other combination that you regularly use, it’s nice to be able to open all of these apps with a single click instead of launching them all individually.
That’s why making app pairs is the best way to multitask between regular apps on the Fold 4’s big screen. Here’s how to get started:
- On the large display, open one app that you want to run.
- On the taskbar, tap and hold an icon, then drag it to an edge or corner of the screen to split the screen and run multiple apps at once.
- When you’ve got the desired apps open, tap the three dots in the middle of the app separator line.
- Tap the star icon to create an app pair.
- Decide whether you want the app pair icon to go to the home screen or directly to your taskbar.
Once you create an app pair, a new icon will be added to your home screen or taskbar — which ever you chose in that last step — and a single click on that new icon will launch all the apps that you just paired together.
Keep it going on the small screen
One of the most cathartic things to do with a folding phone is to snap the phone closed. While that’s a fun and sometimes useful tool on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 — that’s the one that looks more like a classic clamshell phone — it’s far less useful on the tablet-like Galaxy Z Fold 4.
By default, apps you launch on the small screen automatically resize when you open up to the large display. But the same isn’t the case when you close the large display unless you toggle this one setting.
- Open system settings by tapping settings in your app drawer or pulling down the status bar and tapping the settings icon on the top right. It looks like a gear.
- Tap display.
- Scroll down to and tap continue apps on cover screen.
- Select the toggle next to all apps.
- Scroll down and uncheck the toggle next to any apps that you don’t want this behavior to apply to.
For me, the only apps that I don’t use this feature for are games. As a whole, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to play most games on the smaller cover display, especially not when you’ve first launched them on the larger inner display. I’ll leave that decision up to you, though.
Flex Mode
By far, one of the most useful parts of any Galaxy Z phone’s camera is the fact that the phone can be partially folded and used as a tripod. Whether it’s capturing vertical content (as in the photo above), taking a wide-angle shot in landscape mode, or hopping on that video call in any locale, Samsung’s Flex Mode feature is invaluable.
Thankfully, there’s nothing that you need to do to set up FlexCam. The term simply refers to when you use a camera-focused app while the phone isn’t fully opened or fully closed. Typically, you’d fold the phone somewhere around a 90-degree angle and place it somewhere to get things going. Any app that’s compatible will automatically adjust its aspect ratio to fit different things on the top and bottom halves of the display.
Some apps, like Disney+, will automatically shrink any video you’re watching to fit on the top half of the display so you can watch movies while in Flex Mode. Other apps, like the camera, will place the viewfinder on top and camera controls on the bottom so you’re not tapping the top half of the display and knocking the phone over.
Other apps that haven’t yet implemented a custom Flex Mode solution can be toggled to force this top-half-split layout.
- Open system settings by tapping settings in your app drawer or pulling down the status bar and tapping the settings icon on the top right. It looks like a gear.
- Scroll down to and tap advanced settings.
- Tap Labs.
- At the bottom, tap flex mode panel.
- Select the toggle next to any apps that don’t behave well when folding the phone in Flex Mode. Apps that have custom layouts cannot be modified.
Apps that you force Flex Mode for using this toggle will display a handy touchpad on the bottom-half of the display that works just like a mouse touchpad on a laptop. Additional settings can be found on this panel, as well, letting you quickly adjust brightness or get to the notification pane with a tap.
Split the keyboard
By default, the Samsung Keyboard offers a split mode when used on the large display. Problem is, Samsung Keyboard still isn’t all that great at autocorrect and doesn’t offer all of the best smart features of keyboards like Gboard, the Google Keyboard.
Personally, I recommend using Gboard on any Android phone but especially on the Fold 4 because of its newer split layout. Get Gboard installed from the Google Play Store (opens in new tab) and follow these steps to toggle split keyboard layout.
- Unfold your phone to use the large display.
- Open up Gboard by tapping anywhere you would normally type. The Google Search bar on the home screen is a quick way to do it.
- On the top row of the keyboard, tap the icon that looks like a keyboard without a line under it.
- If you want to go back to the full-row keyboard, tap the keyboard icon again.
I would also recommend enabling duplicate keys for split layouts. This adds the G and V keys to both sides of the keyboard to make typing faster and easier on a split layout.
- Unfold your phone to use the large display.
- Open up Gboard by tapping anywhere you would normally type. The Google Search bar on the home screen is a quick way to do it.
- Tap the settings icon on the top row of the keyboard. It looks like a gear.
- Tap preferences.
- Tap the toggle next to “Split layout to include duplicated keys.” This option will not appear when opening up Gboard settings on the small cover screen, so be sure to open it on the large inner display.
Get an S Pen (and a case for it)
There are no two ways about it: Samsung really should have included the S Pen with every Galaxy Z Fold 4. The tool is just so darn handy when you need it, especially when working on that larger display. Writing notes with it is a dream on the tablet-sized screen, and it makes precise tapping so easy.
But, since there’s nowhere for the S Pen to be holstered, I recommend picking up one of the best Galaxy Z Fold 4 S Pen cases (opens in new tab). The top three are my personal favorites — that’s the Samsung Standing Case, Spigen Thin Fit P, and Caseborne V — each of which offers a different style and protection level. Samsung’s Standing Case is pictured above with the S Pen module inserted on the back.
No matter which one you go with, though, you’ll find that the Galaxy Z Fold-specific S Pen — that’s the one that’s specially built to safely be used on the Fold’s large flexible glass display — is an incredibly handy tool that you’ll want to use any time you open the phone.
Having it at the ready — alongside all the other tips and tricks we outlined for you — means you’ll be getting the most of the best Android phone I’ve ever used and love using every single day.
