Android 12 RUINED One Handed Mode – News and…
Google is RUINING One-Handed Mode! Xiaomi perfected it years ago!
One handed mode shrinks the display on an Android Device so that users can operate the phone with one hand. While the feature has been added to Android 12, the execution is lacking.
For more on this, check out the video at the bottom of the page.
One handed mode is a great tool that makes using a smartphone much easier on the thumbs. Shrinking the area makes everything easier to reach.
But they should’ve made that UI easier to reach!
To toggle this option, go to your Settings followed by:
System > Gestures > One-Handed mode
Note: If emulating Android 12, it may not yet be available on your virtual device!
Jeramy Johnson at Android Central published a tutorial for enabling this feature
After enabling, swipe down on the pill to shrink the screen down into the bottom half of the phone. Unfortunately, this feature SUCKS in Android 12.
When the screen resizes, it turns into a square shaped area for use while sacrificing the aspect ratio. AND I still have to move my thumb across the entire width of the phone. In other words,
a smaller screen with the same amount of strain.
So what’s the solution? How do we fix this? Turns out Xiaomi already figured it out!
On the Xiomi Pocophone F1, this feature is much more accessible and it look much cleaner.
- It shrinks the screen down to a smaller rectangle with the same aspect ratio
- It feels like I’m using a smaller phone (when I need to)
- You can still access the quick settings and the side opposite your thumb without strain
- It shrinks to the left or right side depending on which way you swip on the home button
- You can still access the top of the screen without losing the original aspect ratio
To toggle this option, go to your Settings followed by:
Additional Settings > One-handed mode
Once in the menu, you can toggle the setting AND set the screen size! To use it, swipe the home button left or right. Clicking the negative space resizes to normal.
Google’s new version of Android has some interesting features. But they totally missed the mark on this one. Hopefully, they’ll add custom gestures for this mode along with custom resolutions for One Handed Mode in the future.
Until then, I guess it’s hip to be Square.
For more on this, watch the video below.
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Coding Fanatic
Sources
Jeramy Johnson “How to enable one-handed mode in Android 12”
