Google might soon set some ground rules for foldable phones

We can comfortably say that the foldable phone market is somewhat sufficiently saturated with worthy contenders for that best foldable phone title. While Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip series dominated for a few years, now we have competitors such as the Oppo Find N2/N2 Flip, the Xiaomi MIX Fold 3, Google Pixel Fold, Motorola Razr Plus, as well as the OnePlus Open at some point in the near future.

With so many players in the mix, Google is apparently thinking of implementing some ground rules when it comes to the foldable phone form factor, as Android guru Mishaal Rahman reveals (via Android Authority). Can Google do that? Oh yes, it can, in fact, it already has done that with regular Android phones. As the company making the Android operating system, it can place specific requirements on manufacturers.

Regular Android phones, for example, are all required to at the very least have two years of major OS updates and security patches. So, what are the requirements Google is thinking of placing for foldable Android phones?

This is what Google might require from foldable Androids in the future

Folding and unfolding for days

Google wants to set a requirement with a minimum of 200,000 folds and unfolds guaranteed for all foldable Android phones. That is the exact number Samsung, for example, assures its users will have with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. Coincidentally, it is also the number that the Pixel Fold has been rated to last, in fact, the company claims it could handle even more.

There are some important details about this rule, however, like the fact that phones with a “torque hinge” need to retain at least 80% of that torque after those 200,000 folds/unfolds. This essentially means that folding phones which can sit at certain unfolded angles continue to be able to after prolonged use.

An additional year of security patches

While the minimum timeframe is two years of security patches for regular phones, Google wants to increase the requirement by one year, making it a minimum of 3 years of security patches for foldable phones.

All of this is nice and very thoughtful of Google, but the truth is that it is not enough. Given how expensive these phones are, they should definitely have a minimal requirement of 3 major software updates. It also wouldn't hurt to have some durability-based requirements, although those might take a bit more time to determine as foldables continue to evolve.