The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is launching hot on the heels of the Motorola Razr Plus, which has been one of the best folding phones this year. A major perk of the Motorola Razr Plus is the fact that the large 3.6-inch cover screen acts like a regular display, complete with a home screen, quick settings, panels, and the ability to run any Android app. Once you enable this setting in Labs, you’ll then get access to the “Apps widget” on the cover screen.
Here are the steps you must follow to run any app or game on the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover display:
Tap the download icon next to the name, which will redirect you to the dedicated page on the Galaxy Store. Go back to Good Lock and open MultiStar from the top of the Life Up tab. To use it, unlock the Galaxy Z Flip 5 when it is folded and swipe left on the screen to scroll to the Good Lock widget, where you will find all the select apps listed. Compared to the recently released Motorola Razr Plus, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a little disappointing when it comes to the cover screen functionality.
Samsung, on the other hand, requires you to enable Labs, which are technically beta, experimental features. But it’s frustrating that Samsung puts this functionality behind an “experimental” feature that’s also super limited unless you download a custom launcher. Motorola makes it easy to just get your apps running on the cover screen of the Razr Plus without any extra steps involved. But if you don’t mind doing some tweaking, it doesn’t take that long to run any app on the Galaxy Z Flip 5 — and the experience is pretty good once it’s configured and ready to go.
How to run any app on Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover screen
We used several apps, including Calculator, Gallery, Instagram, Samsung Internet, and Twitter, on the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover screen. In our opinion, Samsung’s decision to hide full-fledged apps from the cover screen is wise. Unless apps are properly optimized to run on the small landscape-oriented screen, most people will find it hard to use them regularly.
How to run any app on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover display
Samsung has, of course, capitalized on the additional screen real estate available on its 2023 Flip by creating a number of tailor-made widgets for the expanded 3.4-inch outer display. Out of the box, alongside a selection of clock faces, you’ll find more than a dozen widgets, including weather, calendar, stocks, timer, alarm, SmartThings routines, and more, all of which you can toggle on and off from the Flip 5’s cover screen settings sub-menu. There are a couple of ways to allow apps to run on the cover screen; a native option enabled within the Samsung Labs menu, and by way of an add-on to Samsung’s downloadable Good Lock customization suite. Quick Steps: How to run apps on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover display
from the list (downloads via Galaxy Store) In Good Lock, tap on MultiStar While this method doesn’t cover letting you run practically any app (more on that in the next section) and instead only a few pre-selected offerings, Samsung does offer a degree of Flex Window app usage natively, through the phone’s more experimental built-in features found within Samsung Labs.
Tap on ‘Labs’ (Image: © Future | Alex Walker-Todd) Within the ‘Advanced features’ sub-menu, you should see the option for ‘Labs’ near the top. (Image: © Future | Alex Walker-Todd) Once you’re happy with your chosen apps, fold your Flip 5 closed and swipe along on the phone’s cover screen to find your new apps widget, which you can rearrange, add, or remove, just like any other Flex Window widget.
While being able to access Google Maps or YouTube on the cover screen is a nice party trick, if you’re still wondering “what about Spotify, or WhatsApp, or [insert app of choice here]?” then the next part of this walkthrough is for you, as we cover how to run any app installed on your Z Flip 5 on the Flex Window.
Search for and download Good Lock (Image: © Future | Alex Walker-Todd) Good Lock is a Samsung-made app that’s popular among Samsung Galaxy users looking to customize their phones beyond the out-of-box experience. Search for Good Lock on the Galaxy Store by tapping the magnifying glass in the top-right of the screen (left image) and typing in ‘Good Lock’ in the search bar, followed by the magnifying glass in the bottom-right corner of your on-screen keyboard (center image).
The first result should be an app whose icon is a magenta squircle with four interlocking puzzle pieces on it. Tap the down-facing arrow to the right of the Good Lock icon to download the app (right image). Open Good Lock (Image: © Future | Alex Walker-Todd) Once Good Lock is installed, find the app in your apps drawer and tap on it to open it (left image).
Download MultiStar (Image: © Future | Alex Walker-Todd) Scroll through the list of available add-ons in the ‘Life up’ tab until you find one called ‘MultiStar’.
Open MultiStar (Image: © Future | Alex Walker-Todd) Once the MultiStar add-on is installed, go back to the Life up tab within the Good Lock app and you’ll now find MulitStar at the top of the list. (Image: © Future | Alex Walker-Todd) Once you’re happy with your chosen apps, fold your Flip 5 closed and swipe along on the phone’s cover screen to find your new Good Lock launcher widget; which you can rearrange, add or remove, just like any other Flex Window widget.
So long as you’ve got a Samsung account to access the Galaxy Store, neither Good Lock or MultiStar cost anything to download and use. Even if some apps format a little uniquely, you can hopefully see the advantage of being able to access WhatsApp, Spotify, and beyond from your cover screen and that the benefits this expanded functionality brings outweigh any ‘jank’ select apps may suffer from along the way.
CoverScreen OS lets you use any app on the Galaxy Z Flip 5 cover screen
In addition to the redesigned hinge that allows the phone to fold flat, the Flip 5 is also getting a larger 3.4-inch cover screen. Despite the Galaxy Z Flip 5 not being released until later this month, that didn’t stop the developer from getting a head start. As noted by Nick Sutrich during his hands-on with the Flip 5, the cover display “relies mainly on widgets to get the job done.” And just as a reminder, while the update is already live on the Play Store, the developer points out that CoverScreen OS currently only offers “experimental support.”
Apps on Google Play
* Powerful Media screen – multiple sessions, scrub through the track and additional controls that are not available in OEM’s Stock OS for cover screen * Launch apps in locked orientation – portrait or landscape. * Perform almost all actions on the widgets like clicking on a button to launching its App. * Layout Options: Choose from different clockface layout options, displaying time, date, battery level, and even a signal meter. * Access all media playbacks from all Apps, as available on your main screen. * Scrub through the tracks and additional media controls that are not available in OEM’s Stock OS for cover screen.
* Use cover screen with access to all CSOS features while the phone is unfolded on Z Flip 3/4. The service doesn’t save any notification, neither locally nor remotely.
Accessibility Service: The service is exclusively used for interacting with the cover screen of the device which includes and not limited to facilitate system navigations like going ‘back’, ‘home’. The service doesn’t collect, store any personal data whatsoever.
How To Use Any App On The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Cover Screen
This makes it possible to accomplish a lot more using only the cover screen of the phone, saving battery life. But, while Samsung allows you to run almost any app on the cover screen, there is a large barrier to entry to get that capability.
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