By Kavita Mistry 
It appears that in its seventh iteration, Samsung has finally nailed the foldable game. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the OG foldable in a market now flooded with foldable phones (even triple-screen foldables are a thing now!). The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is not only thinner than all the previous Galaxy Z-series foldables, but also packs a punch. The phone is also the lightest Galaxy Z Fold phone ever; in fact, it is even lighter than the slab-like Galaxy S25 Ultra. It comes with a 200MP primary camera, Galaxy AI for all the advanced features, Gemini as a powerful personal assistant, an improved hinge, and a display with reduced visible creases. If you have recently purchased one, then we have a list of the best cases that you can buy for your Galaxy Z Fold 7.
That’s not all, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, along with the Galaxy Z Flip 7, were the first Samsung phones to come with Android 16-based One UI 8 out of the box. In the software department, the phone has a bunch of hidden features that you need to know to actually use the phone to its full potential. In this guide, we have compiled a list of tips and tricks that you can try and use on your Galaxy Z Fold 7 right now.
Tips and Tricks for Galaxy Z Fold 7
Spatial Clock
Samsung’s lockscreen was once quite advanced, but with iOS 18, Apple leaped when it introduced the new “Depth Effect.” It essentially puts the clock on the back of a wallpaper, giving it a layered effect. While not the same, Samsung has added a new spatial clock that adjusts according to your image. To access it, long-press on your lock screen, tap the clock, and select the new animated clock font. So, how it works is that, depending on the subject of your wallpaper and its shape, the clock cleverly adjusts its size to match its shape. Plus, it has a cool lock and unlock animation that brings freshness to Samsung’s lock screen.
Charging Edge Lighting
You can do a whole lot of stuff by using the Modes and Routines feature on your Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. However, just to make things easier and fun, you can add an edge lighting effect, which will turn on as soon as you plug your phone into a charger. All you need to do is head over to Settings > Modes and Routines > Discover > under the Battery tab, select Charging. You will see an option “Edge Lighting Effect.” Tap on it, and you will see a bunch of edge lighting effects to choose from. Pick the one that suits your style, or the homescreen setup you have applied to your phone. You can customize the lighting effect by adjusting its transparency, width, and duration. Once the editing is finished, tap Done. Now, your phone’s edges will glow when you charge your phone for a set duration. It works on both the cover and the main screen. Not new, but something worth using on a device that has more screens.
Use 90:10 Split Screen
Among the several new features, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 comes with an interesting multitasking feature called 90:10 view. In this view, you can have one app occupying 90% of the screen space, while the other app gets the rest of the 10%. In order to activate it, open any two apps in split screen and drag a line from the middle to either end. You will see one app getting squeezed on one side. However, tapping on either app will quickly switch between them. This is a nice new way to take notes while watching a YouTube video or an online lecture. It can be done either horizontally or vertically.
Cover Screen Mirroring
With two displays, you have a good amount of screen space to play with customization. You can have one setup for the cover display and have a different one for the interior display. However, by default, you will notice that whatever you do on the cover display is mimicked on the inner display. This can be pretty annoying, considering the fact that the inner display has a whole lot of space for you to customize it accordingly. In order to disable it, you need to head over to long-press the home screen, select Settings, and disable Cover Screen Mirroring. What this does is separate the two displays, meaning what you have for your cover display won’t be replicated in the inner display. Again, not a new feature, but a pain when unknown.
Use that 200MP
The new Galaxy Z Fold 7 leaped in terms of primary camera resolution. It went from 50MP on the Galaxy Z Fold6 to 200MP on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It is the same camera as the one on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The result you get better picture quality and clarity with the 200MP camera. However, by default, the camera setting is set to take pictures in 12MP to save space. You can go berserk and click every image, even a selfie in 200MP. The images are sharp, giving you more details to play with during post-processing. The downside, a 200MP image will take a lot of space compared to the 12MP binned image. While you tap on the 12MP icon on the viewfinder in the camera app and change it to 200MP, it will change back to 12MP when the camera app is closed. To keep things at 200MP, you need to open the Camera app’s settings, then scroll down and tap on Settings to keep and toggle on the High picture resolution option.
Galaxy AI in a Separate Window
When you use Galaxy AI in a normal phone, let’s take a Galaxy S24 Ultra, you are presented with the Galaxy AI features at the bottom of the screen. That section is immovable and it is fixed at the bottom. However, taking advantage of ample screen space, Samsung has introduced a new feature that separates the Galaxy AI features in a separate window that can be moved around. For example, if you are typing something on a social media platform and want to correct its grammar, you can select the text, tap on the Galaxy AI button, and all the AI features such as Spelling and grammar, Writing style, Summarize, Bullet points, Table, and Compose, will be shown in a separate window. This takes advantage of the big screen and takes multitasking to the next level.
Turn on Legacy Seekbar in the Gallery
Though the big screen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 brings a host of advantages, there are a few downsides as well. The phone cannot be used with one hand. This can also be a big problem while playing videos on the Samsung Gallery app. By default, when playing the video, you need to tap on the video and horizontally scroll through the filmstrip to seek forward or backward. While for shorter videos, it is good, for longer videos, it can be annoying. The best part, you can enable the legacy seekbar in the Samsung Gallery app, but that feature is hidden. In order to turn it on, you need to open the Gallery app, tap on Settings, scroll down and select About, tap on the version a few times to activate Gallery Labs. Head to Gallery Labs, and under the One UI 3.x section, tap on Video player mode on filmstrip and select Legacy video seekbar. Now, when you play a video in the Gallery, you will see a seekbar, making it easier to move forward or backward.
Add Date and Month to the Status Bar
Since we are talking about a foldable with an 8-inch inner display. With that much real estate, while app notifications look good and are less cluttered, when they are cleared, there is a good amount of blank space. To fill that, you can add date and month information to the status bar. While this isn’t a Galaxy Z Fold 7 exclusive feature, it is apt for a foldable phone with that big a screen. You need to install the Good Lock app from the Galaxy Store, then open the app, install the QuickStar module. Open the QuickStar module, select Clock settings, and toggle on the Show date option. You will see that aside from the time, the notification panel will also show day, date, and month. There are a few customization options available when you tap on the Show date toggle.