At its annual Dev Summit in Mountain View this morning, Android VP Dave Burke announced that Google was partnering to optimize the Android platform for an upcoming foldable device... built by Samsung. The foldable phone in question will launch next year according to Burke, who appears to have confirmed something Samsung hasn't itself yet announced. We're currently at Samsung's Developer Conference in San Francisco, which overlaps directly with the Android Dev Summit.

No details were provided about the device other than to say it's foldable, so we're waiting for Samsung to offer up additional information. We'll be attending a session at SDC that focuses on the foldable phone UI experience, as well, which may provide some insight in terms of what Samsung's next-generation foldable interface will actually look like.

That's all we've got for now, but there you have it: Samsung's folding phone is actually, finally happening. Next year. If you want to learn more about Android's upcoming foldable-friendly changes - what little Google has shared, at least - check out our article here. It has a nifty animation.

UPDATE: 2018/11/07 11:46am PST BY

Samsung has confirmed the folding phone's existence - learn more about it in our article here.