Whether you’ve just joined the foldable revolution or you’ve been a long-time foldable phone user, you’re probably already aware of how amazing it is to have a mini tablet that folds and fits easily in your pocket. That feels more true than ever since the Galaxy Z Fold 8 came along.
But did you know that your Galaxy Z Fold 8 isn’t just a massive canvas for one big app? Samsung makes it easy to run more than one app on your screen at once, and a handful of nifty new multitasking features on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 line further enhance what was already one of the best multitasking experiences in the business.
Whether you want to juggle two apps more efficiently, use a 3-way split screen, or run even more apps at once, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a great way to get things done without a laptop or another larger device.
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The taskbar is the key
When you open your Galaxy Z Fold 8, you’ve probably seen that little floating taskbar appear at the bottom of the screen. By default, this taskbar isn’t meant to stick around for long, but one setting changes that.
By pinning the taskbar, you can effortlessly open multiple apps at once, or quickly juggle between apps faster than you can by constantly going back to the home screen. Here’s how to supercharge the taskbar:
1. Unfold the phone to use the larger inner display.
2. Open the Settings app.
3. Scroll down and tap Display.
4. Scroll down and tap Taskbar.
5. Tap Taskbar style.
6. Select Stay on screen.
Now, the taskbar will always be visible on the inner display. You can tap any app icon to open that app, but the real magic happens when you press and hold an icon, then drag it around the screen. This lets you easily launch multiple apps at a time and split them any way you want.
Splitting the action
Samsung launched two new multitasking features with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, including 3-way split screen and a new way to juggle between layouts. To get started, choose three apps you want to run side by side. For this example, I’m using YouTube, Chrome, and Google Docs.
1. Unfold the phone to use the larger inner display.
2. Open any app of your choosing. I started with Chrome.
3. Press and hold another app’s icon, then drag it to any side of the screen. You’ll see indicators to snap the app to a specific area on the screen.
4. Choose another app from the taskbar. If you don’t see the app you want, tap the app drawer button on the left side and choose it from there.
5. Drag this new app to a third section of the screen. Your Galaxy Z Fold 8 will show indicators for where you can drop the app.
Now that you have three apps running at once, you can play around with the layout. Most commonly, this means three apps run side by side, but Samsung offers many layout options. Personally, I think three apps side-by-side makes them a bit too small to be useful, and that’s where we’ll start.
To enlarge an app, grab any separation bar by the “handle” — the part with the dots — and drag it outward. When running three apps at once, this will enlarge one app while leaving the others at the default size.
Here’s the coolest part about this setup: when you’ve got multiple larger apps running at once, the others will hang “off to the side.” That lets you run nearly full-screen apps and quickly switch between them by just tapping the app that’s off to the side.
But if you want all the apps on one screen and don’t want them all vertical, tap any of the “handles” — remember, that’s the part of the separator line with the dots — then tap the grid icon that appears. Your apps will now be separated into one half-sized app alongside two quarter-sized apps.
Tapping the handle also brings up additional options. You can easily swap apps between frames by tapping the handle between those two apps, then tapping the “swap” arrow icon. Additionally, you can tap the other grid icon to swap the location of the grid. That lets you move quarter-sized apps from the left to the side half of the screen, and vice versa.
You can even hover an app by dragging the app icon to the center of the screen, letting you run four or more apps at once, similar to a desktop OS. Which layout is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!