Phones with big displays give you more screen estate to view content bigly, stack two apps in the splitscreen mode, and pack more icons on a page. But sometimes it\u2019s really hard to reach across the screen with one hand.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Thankfully, iPhones have a one-handed mode<\/a> which you can activate by swiping down on the bottom edge of the screen. Now, Android\u2019s next version could get a similar option too.<\/p>\n According to a report by XDA Developers<\/a>, Google is set to include its own implementation of the one-handed mode in the open-source version of Android (AOSP). This means that any phone maker loading Android 12 on their devices will be able to use this out of the box.<\/p>\n The report notes that this feature will shrink the screen size to 40% of the original display to help you reach out to different areas easily. There will be a gesture setting that will let you configure how to trigger the one-handed mode.<\/p>\n Manufacturers such as Samsung<\/a> and Huawei<\/a> already have their own version of this feature. But Google\u2019s implementation might make it accessible to more people. A search on GSMArena tells me that more than 300 phones launched last year had a display larger than 6.5 inches. So, Google\u2019s upcoming feature would be really handy for these devices.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have any visual reference to how Android 12\u2019s one-handed mode might look. Hopefully, Google will release the first developer preview soon so we can try it ourselves.<\/p>\n Did you know we have a newsletter all about consumer tech? It\u2019s called Plugged In \u2013 and you can subscribe to it right here<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n Published February 16, 2021 \u2014 05:49 UTC <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/02\/66e3d04e3e59e12d78ba2738a2110f3d-e1613452443680.png\")