CoverScreen OS is a piece of software that tries to turn the Oppo Find N2 Flip’s small 3.26-inch screen into a “fully functional mini phone.Crucially, this means being able to access the app drawer and launch “almost any app” on the clamshell screen, vastly increasing the amount you can do on the foldable phone without having to open it. The software can be downloaded from the google play store.
CoverScreen OS has been available for a while on the Samsung Z Flip 3 and 4. In fact, my colleague Allison tested it on the Z Flip 4 last August. But while the app’s utility was limited on Samsung’s tiny 1.9-inch Cover screen, the Find N2 Flip’s 3.26-inch, 720 x 382 portrait-oriented Cover display seems to have a lot more potential.
When I reviewed the Find N2 Flip last month, I was frustrated by the clamshell screen’s limited functionality despite being larger than the clamshell screen on Samsung’s flip phones. In practice, I felt that Oppo didn’t take full advantage of this larger screen real estate. Find N2 Flip will only show the subject lines and not the body text of emails when you receive a notification, for example, or it will only offer a few hours of weather forecast instead of all day.
CoverScreen OS support for the Find N2 Flip is described as “experimental” and “initial” for now, but it has big ambitions. In addition to the ability to launch full applications, it is also intended to allow adds widgets designed for the standard home screen. There is support for a full Qwerty keyboard, voice typing, or an old T9 keyboard. In a video demo, the developer shows how to open YouTube and then a web browser from the app drawer, then type in a text box using an on-screen keyboard.
Also, according to the app developer, CoverScreen OS still allows you to use the default cover display functionality of Oppo Find N2 Flip, such as widgets and quick system toggles. Just keep in mind that while it is reported to be stable on Samsung foldable phones, the app is an early preview version and still “requires a lot of sustained development effort to deliver a full feature release.” according to its developers.
If you want to try CoverScreen OS, you can download it now on the google play store.
