A developer has created a Walkman-inspired music app for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, giving the foldable phone the look of a classic cassette player. Called "Foldman," the app can play music from local storage as well as from other music apps, including YouTube Music.
On the Galaxy Z Fold 8's cover display, the app presents itself as a cassette player. When the phone is unfolded, the interface widens to show a stereo-style layout across the larger screen.
The design includes several small touches, among them a volume slider and a running tape counter. The virtual tape also moves from one reel to the other as a track plays, rather than relying on a looping animation with no real sense of progress.
According to 9to5Google, the concept suits the device well because the Fold 8's front display is wide and short, much like Sony's original cassette player. That shape is becoming more common among foldables, the outlet noted, and it is opening the door to novelty apps of this kind.
At this stage, Foldman works with YouTube Music and Apple Music, along with files stored on the device. Its developer plans to add Spotify within the next couple of days and has warned that this early version still has some rough edges.
The app is free and open source, and it carries no advertising or tracking. Beyond Spotify, the developer says they are looking at support for self-hosted streaming services, which would let people play digital music libraries kept on their own home networks.
Foldman is distributed as an APK rather than through a verified app store. 9to5Google advised that it never recommends downloading APKs from outside verified stores, so anyone who installs the app does so at their own risk.
For now, Foldman is a simple Walkman-style player, though one that shows how the growing popularity of wide, short foldable screens is encouraging developers to experiment with retro-inspired designs.
