Foldy Bird is a Flappy Bird Clone That Turns Your Expensive Foldable Smartphone Into a Controller

A game developer named Rebane has thrown a curveball at foldable phone owners. His creation, Foldy Bird, is a very clever clone of the infamous Flappy Bird experience that allows gamers to control the little pixelated bird by opening and shutting their device.

Rebane built the game as a simple web page that can be run directly in Chrome. All users have to do is go here, and as long as they have a compatible foldable device, they can play it right there in the browser, no download or app store required. The site greets visitors with a clear message: this works only on foldable devices, Chrome provides the necessary support, and players proceed at their own risk.

When you start playing, the familiar green pipes and stubborn little bird return, and not much has changed: gravity is still tugging the bird down after all. However, the trick is to keep it flying by flapping your phone open and closed. The sensors in your phone perform their job, sensing how far you’ve opened it… and if you open it as quickly as possible, you’ll get a flap up. A few users have observed that the jump triggers appear to happen just at the end of an unfold, so you have to snap your phone open at the very last second before every pipe

It should be noted that larger book-style foldables manage flapping better since their hinges can sense angles with more precision. Smaller flip-style phones may function in theory, but all the talk is about those who own larger devices.

High scores necessitate flapping your phone like mad, talking dozens upon dozens of times in a single run. Every time you play, you will accumulate a large number of folds, far more than you would ordinarily do in a day’s worth of use. The manufacturers rate the hinges to withstand a few hundred thousand cycles… but that is based on slow, steady movements in a lab, not the frenzied back and forth you’ll be doing if you want a good score.