Discourse on Surface Duo

Got some screenshots of Discourse running in the Microsoft Surface Duo new Android device.

Discourse topic in Mobile view:

Discourse topic view in Desktop view:

Latest in Mobile View

Latest in Desktop View

Mobile Composer

Desktop Composer

Categories View with Featured

Categories with Latest (like a glove)

There are some browser feature proposals cooking in order to help web apps layout accordingly:

A map application that presents a map on one window segment and search results on another

Foldable with the left segment of the window containing a map and the right segment containing list of search results

CSS solution outline:

@media (spanning: single-fold-vertical) {	
	body {
		flex-direction: row;
	}

	.map {
		flex: 1 1 env(fold-left)
	}
	
	.locations-list {
		flex: 1;
	}
}
14 Likes

Oh my ew.

Welcome to the wonderful world of innovation! I feel bad for the early adopters out there who are going to have subpar experiences for a number of years (not necessarily with Discourse, but every other site that doesn’t update to account for the changes).

13 Likes

I for one am reluctantly anticipating a new CSS media query for foldable devices:

https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/4141

But I’m wondering what a foldable version of Discourse would look like…

6 Likes

Spanning the window over both screen is optional :sweat_smile:.

For apps who don’t know how to use multiple screens you can just use the screens in separate.

11 Likes

They have some nomenclature and standards documented already.

Discourse is a very good candidate for the “Master - Detail” pattern.

Mockup:

26 Likes

I’d love to see Discourse working on these particular devices! :grin:

It must’ve been a crazy coincidence that Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip on the exact same day this topic was created. :thinking:



https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-z-flip
6 Likes

There are some working demos of web apps adapted to foldables here: A set of demos to showcase support of foldable devices on the web. | demos

7 Likes

I guess we will be able to test Discourse on the actual hardware in nine days, and for only $1,399! :laughing:


Regardless, there’s another foldable device that needs testing.

In regards to Discourse, this API might be worth checking out.

Samsung published this Medium article back in April. As a note to Discourse developers, it is well worth the read. A lot of things have changed since this topic was created nearly a year and a half ago.

I do not see a particularly bright future for foldables. Most of the releases have been duds, selling poorly, with negative reviews.

Well, I don’t think they’re going anywhere. If anything, I think Samsung’s latest offerings have fixed many of the issues that previous foldable devices had.

Regardless, we will have to wait and see what happens. I hope that Discourse will someday be optimized for foldable devices.

We’ll see! But mostly the folding should be transparent to the app, e.g. it’s the same as resizing a window on your computer to be taller or wider, and generally the app is designed to respond in an intelligent way to use the additional space as it appears (or scale down as it disappears).

The website doesn’t need to be automatically optimized?

3 Likes

I’d add that the Nintendo 2DS/3DS is a bit of an anomaly as well. Does anyone feel that the split screen design of that device really made for better games? I honestly don’t think so…

Or heck the Wii U with its odd controller/screens?

This article has proven quite the opposite…

There was a period when we first released the Nintendo DS that people would say there’s no way people can look at two screens at once. I almost feel like, as people get more familiar with Wii U and these touchscreen interfaces, that there is going to come a point where they feel like ‘I can’t do everything I want to do if I don’t have a second screen’.

So if we’re treating it as “you just resized the window and made it bigger” then yes, absolutely! That makes sense. But if we’re treating it as “you have two screens that must be used for related, but different purposes” then… I gotta say all the history here demonstrates that this approach does not work.

Being able to turn your smartphone into a miniature tablet (and vice versa) for content consumption and reading sessions can be really convenient. Nintendo was looking for a problem that didn’t exist in the first place.

In before the 9 people with these “foldable” phones come here to complain.

They must do demand testing - who the hell is asking for these foldables?

You’d be surprised.

The amount of people buying foldable devices continues to grow every single year. Just this year, there were massive gains. Samsung’s latest offerings have only been out for a couple of days now, yet they’re selling like hotcakes and outperforming Samsung’s “normal” offerings.

I’m fine letting the market see what works! My only objection is the “two totally different screens for different purposes” approach, IMHO, totally does not work. But as a way to “resize” a browser window I think it’s perfectly fine.

What do you think about folding devices like the Samsung Z Flip then? You have me curious… :slight_smile: