Most people can agree, most of the time, on what is and isn't a good One UI feature. When Samsung brought the taskbar from tablets to the Galaxy Z Fold series many years ago, there was virtually no pushback. Most Fold users celebrated their newfound multitasking capabilities.
However, this is one of those times when I feel like I'm going against the grain. In my opinion, as a navigation gesture user, Samsung's implementation of the One UI 9.0 taskbar on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is abysmal.
What's wrong with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 taskbar?
Nothing's wrong with it as long as you keep the taskbar visible or use One UI navigation buttons. But the moment I tried using the taskbar my way, everything fell apart.
The taskbar's behavior is often unpredictable. And it's actually kind of difficult to explain everything that's wrong with Samsung's implementation because the taskbar doesn't always behave the same way. But I will try to highlight the bigger issue.
As a new Galaxy Z Fold 8 user, my goal was to keep the taskbar hidden and summon it whenever I needed it. Sounds good in theory, but there's one problem:
- To reveal the taskbar, you have to swipe up from the bottom of the screen. This function shares the swipe-up gesture with the “Home” navigation gesture.
In most — but not all — cases, those two gestures overlap. Both can trigger at the same time, and you can minimize an app to Recents while summoning the taskbar for the purpose of launching a second app in multi-window. It doesn't work!
The only way you can try controlling these gestures to prevent them from overlapping is to swipe up more slowly when you want to reveal the taskbar or more quickly when you want to minimize an app and go to the home screen.
Needless to say, it's unreliable. It takes too much practice for something that should be intuitive. And until you form the required muscle memory, you'll feel needlessly frustrated.
Sometimes it actually works as Samsung intended?
What's even more perplexing is that the taskbar doesn't always behave the same.
For example, when you run a true full-screen app that hides the status bar and gesture handle, the taskbar and navigation swipe-up gestures no longer overlap — or at least not as often.
But that's only because for full-screen apps, Android is designed to reveal the status bar with one swipe and then a second swipe up gesture minimizes the app to Recents.
The simple fact that the taskbar is far more reliable in some scenarios and quite a mess in others is the problem.
All in all, I don't find much use for the taskbar, and I see no point in trying to adapt to something that arguably feels broken or underdeveloped.
Opinions on the matter clearly vary, and I suspect most people who use navigation buttons in One UI 9.0 have reasons to like the taskbar. But I think most people will agree that having two functions sharing the same navigation gesture isn't a great idea, particularly when one can interfere with the other.
My opinion about the taskbar could change, too, especially if Samsung addresses some of the existing issues. But for now, I'll accept the possibility that my view on the taskbar could be unpopular. I'll blissfully keep navigation gestures enabled and the One UI 9.0 taskbar disabled on my Galaxy Z Fold 8.
NOTE: If you want to modify taskbar settings, the option — like several others — is available only when the phone is unfolded. Go to Settings > Display > Taskbar.
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