The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is Samsung's first phone to run Android 12L. The new version of the operating system has also been released to the Galaxy Tab S7, Galaxy Tab S8, and Galaxy Z Fold 3. It brings all the features, including the taskbar, that Google has designed for large-screen devices.
You can use the taskbar to launch your favorite apps from anywhere. It eases app switching and improves split-screen multitasking. However, Samsung's taskbar implementation in One UI 4.1.1 differs slightly from stock Android 12L. According to 9To5Google, the taskbar in Samsung's devices gets disabled when you use a third-party launcher. While it seems frustrating initially, there is a good reason why Samsung has implemented this restriction.
To see why the company disabled the option, you have to force the OS to allow you to use the taskbar even when you are using a third-party launcher. Yes, there is an option to do so. To bypass the restriction, you have to navigate to Settings » Display » Navigation bar on your devices and scroll down to the Looking for something else? section. Clicking it reveals an option to turn on the taskbar even when using a third-party launcher.
However, when you use the taskbar with a third-party launcher, such as Niagara, you'll quickly notice that the taskbar stays visible even in the multitasking menu. And you can see app icons on the taskbar and those on the bottom of the multitasking menu. The whole UI looks out of place. That's not the only issue. The launcher also crashes now and then and sometimes doesn't show any app. You will have to turn the taskbar on and off to fix the issue.
In stock Android 12L (at least on Pixel devices), the taskbar appears even when you use a third-party launcher. However, similar to Samsung's One UI 4.1.1, stock Android 12L continues to show the taskbar in the multitasking menu. Sometimes, it doesn't sync icons on the taskbar with those on the launcher's dock.
So, this appears to be a problem with Android 12L itself. And until Google provides a fix for the issue, it is a good idea to stick with the stock Samsung launcher if you want to use the taskbar on your Galaxy device.
