Google announced on Tuesday, 7th May 2019, during its Google I/O event that it is prototyping foldable displays. However, they say they don’t see the technology coming anytime soon. The foldable screen, according to them, is not yet a necessary feature.

Many have hyped foldable phones as the future of smartphones because of the ability to transform from a phone into a tablet. But with the screen problems that the yet-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Fold phones are already having, the excitement is starting to wane. The $1,980 phone got a lot of attention when it was announced at the MWC 2019 as one of the major foldable phones.

Google Pixel phones development lead, Mario Queiroz, confirmed that Google is already experimenting with the foldable form. But the company is not in a rush to get it into the market. He said in an interview last week,

“We’re definitely prototyping the technology. We’ve been doing it for a long time, but I don’t think there’s a clear use case yet.”

Queiroz, while speaking on the expanding screen size the foldable phone offers, added,

“I think it needs to be more innovative than that. The use case is going to need to be something where you go, ‘Hey, I definitely need to have this.’ Right now, you don’t need to have a foldable. It’s kind of a ‘nice-to-have.'”

Meanwhile, the intricacies of the foldable prototype Google is developing were not revealed. Queiroz explained that they were focusing on the recently announced new member of the Pixel family. The Pixel 3A and 3A XL, which he tags “awesome and affordable” is hitting the market with an amazing camera picture quality.

The new Google Pixel 3A is relatively cheaper than its counterparts to deal with sluggish sales. Last week, Google said Pixel phone sales are lower this year than last year. This is the same with other phone brands, like Apple, who said they sold fewer iPhones this year. Samsung also struggled with low income from its phones. The issues with the Galaxy Fold did not help the company either.