When the Oppo Find N2 Flip was launched in late February, it was lauded for its large 3.26-inch cover screen that was nevertheless still limited in terms of functionality. Out of the box, the foldable allowed users to take images and videos, issue quick replies to messages, check the weather and their calendar, set timers, start a voice recorder and control certain Oppo and OnePlus earbuds, but nothing more.
The Chinese smartphone maker is working to fix this, however. Last month, the company announced that it would be adding a Pocket Player widget to the Find N2 Flip, developed in collaboration with Spotify and allowing users to play, pause, skip and like songs through the cover screen.
The update, which has since gone live, also includes a speech-to-text feature that augments the aforementioned quick replies feature and supports the same messaging apps—Google’s default Messages app, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Line.
Buried in the update is a dedicated WhatsApp widget, an experimental “Labs” feature that ports the entire app interface onto the cover screen. Users are able to see their chats in full, take photos using the main camera and even send documents (although the UI for this is a bit broken at the moment). Unfortunately, you’ll have to open the phone to send text messages, as the widget itself does supports neither quick replies or speech-to-text.
During our trip to its headquarters in Shenzhen last week, Oppo showed us some of the other widgets it is working on for the Find N2 Flip. Aside from the Google Wallet—which seems like a no-brainer—the company also demonstrated widgets for phone, Instagram, TikTok (which was not functioning when we tried it) and even YouTube, which are again ports of the full apps.
Yes, that means you can watch full-length videos on the tiny screen, something we would not recommend given the lack of an auto-rotate feature. The company did not disclose a timeline for the widgets’ introduction.
Still, it does look like the functionality of the Find N2 Flip’s cover screen will soon streak far ahead that of its biggest rival, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4. Despite this, however, there are still some notable feature omissions, such as smart home controls and the Google Assistant, the latter requiring you to open the phone to activate. The device also still lacks a keyboard for composing messages, although the company told us it is considering adding this feature in the future.
