Since smartphones seem to have very large screens, with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Xiaomi Mi 11 reaching 6.8 inches diagonally, some people with smaller hands may find it difficult to properly reach all ends of the screen. A new feature in Android 12 can help fix this.
Android 12, the 2021 version of the annual Android update that comes for most non-iPhone smartphones, looks like it may come with an alternate one-handed mode to make the phone easier to use without using all ten digits. This comes from XDA Developers, which found reference to the feature in the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP).
Android is open source software, which means that anyone can borrow it and adjust it to suit their needs, and AOSP is the source code repository as it appears on phones. The presence of the one-way mode reference in AOSP probably means that the feature will come to Android 12, although it is certainly not confirmed.
How can this feature of Android 12 work?
Android is open source software, and many smartphone companies edit the code just before putting it on smartphones. Some brands, like Samsung and Sony, actually already have their own one-handed modes.
For the most part, these modes reduce the visible screen to about two-thirds or half the size it was before, and move the usable area to the bottom left or right corner of the screen, to make it easier to reach with one hand. Normally, the rest of the screen that is not in use is turned off when this happens.
This is not necessarily the only way to implement a one-handed mode, and it is possible that in Android 12 we will see it differently. Possibilities include moving the main controls to one side to make them easy to reach, or a joystick on the screen to control the touch.
Either way, one-handed mode would allow people with smaller hands to be able to use huge phones. This will allow them to still take advantage of the large screen space when needed, such as for streaming TV shows or games.
The Android 12 update is expected to start rolling out to phones near the end of the year, but before that, we should see Google formally announce the software update in the middle of the year.