This Galaxy Z Fold 8 owner has already recreated the iPhone Duo's smooth animations

Following an endless cycle of leaks, Apple finally unveiled its first-ever foldable yesterday, dubbed the iPhone Duo. Initial impressions suggest the Cupertino-based company may have the edge over the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in some areas. The Samsung foldable also lacks the smooth folding/unfolding transition animation we saw on Apple’s latest offering. One Galaxy Z Fold 8 owner appears to have taken this as a challenge.

Reddit user moomanjohnny shared a video showing what appears to be iPhone Duo-like animations while switching back and forth between the cover screen and the inner display of Samsung’s recent foldable. While this is reportedly a proof of concept for the time being, the fact that it can be achieved without external tinkering suggests the underlying hardware is present.

The user offers some technical details on how this was achieved while responding to another person, though it’s not as straightforward as we’d like. It reportedly involved building an app, extracting hinge sensor values, and tapping into the Presentation API.

While these animations appear similar to the iPhone Duo, the creator says reproducing this at scale may not be possible right now. “Samsung doesn’t provide the necessary access for us to build this as a third-party app,” they point out, adding that only the company may be able to enable something like this across the system.

In any case, knowing that the underlying tech is in place should be encouraging news if you own a Galaxy Z Fold 8 or are considering getting one in the coming days.

For now, though, think of this strictly as an experiment showcased to the world by a Z Fold 8 user. Perhaps Samsung will consider implementing this transition animation system-wide based on the response to this particular DIY solution. Naturally, we’d expect the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra to also benefit from similar animations if the company takes that route.