Over the years, smartphone manufacturers have created increasingly taller devices. While this has made media consumption more enjoyable on cell phones, it has made many phones impossible to use with one hand. To compensate, several phone manufacturers have developed software solutions to improve usability with one hand: most notably Apple with its accessibility feature. Now, Google is ready to bring its own version of the one-handed mode on Android 12.
XDA now I hear that Google is developing a one-way mode feature for inclusion in AOSP, the open source version of Android. This means that the feature will be accessible to any smartphone manufacturer using AOSP. Most importantly, this means that OEMs who have not developed their own feature with one hand will be able to use the version of Google’s software. However, we don’t know whether Google plans to enforce the inclusion of its one-handed version on all Android 12 devices.
While we’re not sure how the one hand mode of Android 12 will be designed, we think it will be like the many OEM implementations that reduce the entire screen to a corner (for example, like the ASUS implementation shown in the featured image) We know that Google’s current implementation on Android 12 involves reducing the screen size to 40% of its maximum size. We also know that there will be a way to trigger one-handed mode using the traditional 3-button mode, as well as the latest gestural navigation mode. Currently, one-handed mode is planned to be added to Settings> System> Gesture> With one hand, which makes sense, since it is triggered with a gesture (probably swiping left / right in the navigation bar).
The addition of a one-handed mode on Android 12 comes long after many OEMs have already made their own versions of the feature. At one point, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei even tried to send its version of the feature to AOSP, but Google rejected the addition. We don’t know exactly why Google rejected this version, but it’s not uncommon for Google to spend its time implementing the main features already present on its partners’ Android devices.
For example, Google is also finally introducing a scrollable screen capture feature on Android 12, years after it was implemented by OEMs. In an Ask Me Anything topic on Reddit last year, Google said it did not want to implement scroll screens in an incomplete way; the company pointed out how several OEM implementations don’t work on certain pages or fail to piece together images when scrolling through certain views. Likewise, Google may be applying a similar level of diligence in its one-handed work. In addition to reducing and repositioning all elements of the system UI, Google should also consider how one-handed mode affects third-party applications, as its implementation will affect the entire Android ecosystem, rather than just a subset of devices.
As we do not have images of the hand mode of Android 12, unfortunately we cannot demonstrate exactly how it will be. However, we expect the first Android 12 Developer Preview to appear later this month, so we may not have to wait long to see the feature in action. However, we are not sure whether Google will include the feature in the Developer Preview or even in a future beta or stable release. If Google decides that the feature is not yet ready for launch, we may not see the feature until next year’s Android version.
Picture shown: ASUS one-handed mode on a ZenFone 7 Pro running Android 11