Cover Screen OS makes the Galaxy Z Flip’s front display better and worse

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

There is a too-tiny front display on theGalaxy Z flip 4 It is difficult to do much on a small screen. It is still just a small window from which you can view notifications, but not much more. The cover screen OS is a free app on the Play Store. It is supported by a recent update for the flip 4. It works, but it is also awful for other reasons.

The app does a good job of walking you through the setup process, and it integrates nicely with the cover screen. It coexists peacefully by using a new set of gesture controls on the right-most part of the screen. Do not disturb and media play back controls can be accessed from the home screen. All of the stock features of the company are still available at your disposal.

You can launch full apps on the cover screen of the OS. Should you look through a small window to see what's happening on social media? It's absolutely not. You can do it, though.

There are many more useful features behind the paywall, such as the ability to open a full notification on the cover screen and type a response with a full keyboard. The free version of the app doesn't allow you to dictate a response to a text that's supported by the stock OS. You can pay a monthly fee or yearly fee to get all the features you want. You can choose your plan and process your payment on the cover screen of the play store. How is that for on- brand?

People want to do more with the Z Flip's cover screen than the current design allows, and that's why this app exists. It is difficult to use most apps on its tiny display, there is a reason why it is not allowed. If you want to do more than just read notifications,Cover Screen OS is a good piece of software. The cover screen is left off, and it picks up where the previous one left off. The Z Flip 5 will hopefully give us a bigger canvas to work with.