Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip now has its own version of the YouTube app. This is good news not only for Z Flip owners, but also for future foldable phones like the Galaxy Fold 2.

In an announcement on Samsung's press website, Google and Samsung revealed the latest fruit of their longstanding partnership in the form of Flex Mode for YouTube, which Z Flip owners can download right now, and which will be available for download in the future. [YouTube in Flex Mode is similar to the standard YouTube app. However, when the Z Flip is bent 90 degrees, the player window appears at the top of the display, with descriptions, recommended videos, and comments at the bottom. This mode adjusts according to the aspect ratio of the video, displaying square videos in full screen or letterboxing wider formats.

Google and Samsung have been working on folding-friendly apps for the original Galaxy Fold for some time, including Google Maps and Play Store. There are not many folding phones available today, and while they are prohibitively expensive for most consumers, the Z Flip is probably the best one available today.

Google also provides support for other apps to use these features through the Android Support Library. Hopefully this will encourage other handset manufacturers to continue to develop their own fodable handsets knowing that Google will support them on the software side.

With the Galaxy Fold 2 likely to arrive this fall, we hope that the code designed for the Z Flip's portrait-facing flexible screen will help more apps work well on the Fold 2's larger bookfold internal display. 11]

Other enhancements mentioned in the announcement include Google Duo's Flex Mode on the Galaxy Z Flip and Google's Live Caption feature on the Galaxy S20. This feature allows users to add subtitles to any video or audio content using on-device processing, even if the content has not yet been subtitled.