If you're an app developer that wants to make sure your app will work on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, you no longer need to shell out roughly $1,800 just to make sure it works. Samsung’s Remote Test Lab (RTL) service gives app developers a way to test their apps on real Samsung Galaxy devices, and the latest to get added is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. The service makes use of actual Samsung smartphones connected to the cloud that developers can control remotely, which gives them an easy way to test the performance of their apps and fine-tune them before release.

To ensure that developers get to test their apps on the latest Samsung hardware, the company routinely adds its new devices to the RTL service. The company added its flagship Galaxy S20 series and the Galaxy Z Flip to the service last year and then added the Galaxy Note 20 series to the list of available devices later on. This year, it added the Samsung Galaxy S21 series. Now with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 being added, developers can remotely install APK files, and users can choose the language they want to test their app in on the latest foldable smartphone from Samsung. They can also share their screen so that they can test with another member of their team.

With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, it's especially important to test your apps using the RTL service if you don't have a foldable. For example, flex mode is triggered when the foldable is partially folded, letting apps take advantage of the expanded usability afforded by the split UI. App Continuity, on the other hand, refers to the ability of an app to seamlessly restore its state when the configuration is changed between folded and unfolded, or vice versa. Apps should save their UI state and support configuration changes gracefully so the current task continues seamlessly after a transition.

When using the service, it’s worth keeping in mind that it limits how long you can spend testing your app. Developers receive 20 credits each, which is good for five hours of testing per day. Signing up for a developer account with Samsung is free. To access the Remote Test Lab, you simply need a reliable internet connection and Java Runtime Environment 7 or later with Java Web Start installed. There are some limitations though; the RTL service doesn’t support audio, additional peripherals, multi-touch, and camera.