Samsung says new Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 features coming to older foldables

What you need to know

• Samsung has announced that it's bringing many of its newest software features to its older foldable phones.
• The company says that beginning August 31, One UI 3.1.1 will begin rolling out to Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G, Galaxy Z Flip 5G, and the original Galaxy Z Flip devices.
• The original Galaxy Fold should start seeing the updates in a week or so.

The news out of Samsung Mobile today should surprise and delight those intrepid early adopters who shelled out their hard-earned money for one of the company's early foldable devices. Samsung says that it is now bringing some of the exciting new features from its One UI 3.1.1, which debuted on the new Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, to these older phones starting today.

These features include the ability to drag and split the screen, change the aspect ratio for any app, adjust the app split view, and mirror your cover screen to your interior screen. In addition, users will also be able to better manage multiple windows and window switching, rotate their apps, and pin apps to the taskbar. Of course, some of these features are limited to the larger Fold series based on the screen real estate available with those devices, but the major takeaway is that if the feature is available on the newer phones, then it will be coming to its respective predecessors soon.

How soon? Well, the One UI 3.1.1 update should begin rolling out to Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Z Flip 5G, and Galaxy Z Flip devices starting today, August 31st, with the original Galaxy Fold starting to get the update sometime in the next few weeks.

If you haven't yet bought into the idea of picking up one of the best foldable phones, you can still get some good deals on the previous generation of foldables. Of course, if you want the latest and greatest, like the Z Fold 3 or Z Flip 3, then be sure to check out our roundup of the best foldable phone deals.