How to Make Using Your Phone One-Handed Easier

There will be times when you only have one hand free to use your phone. You might be walking the dog, carrying groceries, hanging from a subway pole, or simply don’t have another hand available. But since almost all modern phones have a screen that’s at least six inches from corner to corner, using one hand to operate the phone can be a difficult balancing act.

Fortunately, Android and iOS phones come with built-in features to make one-handed phone use less cumbersome. There are also some useful options in individual apps that you can use.

Android has a dedicated one-handed mode that lets you shrink any app to the bottom half of the screen for easier access. The way to activate this mode may be slightly different depending on the manufacturer.

• In settings on a Pixel phone (or most other Android smartphones), go to System > Gestures > One-handed mode and activate the toggle switch.
• In settings on a Samsung Galaxy phone, tap Advanced Features > One-Handed Mode and activate the toggle switch.

Either way, you can simply swipe down on the screen to bring the top half of an app within reach. Make sure you swipe down to the bottom of the screen, otherwise you’ll simply refresh the screen in whatever app you’re in. Tap anywhere above the app to return to full-screen view.

Whichever app you’re in, you can make sure Android’s default Gboard keyboard is easier to access with one set of fingers and one thumb. With the on-screen keyboard:

• Tap the four-box icon above the keyboard on the left.
• To choose With one hand in the pop-up menu.

The keyboard then pushes one side of the screen. Tap the arrow button to switch to the other side or the expand button (four arrows) to return to normal. (You don’t get this on the standard Samsung keyboard on Galaxy phones, but you can always install Gboard on any Android phone.)

It helps if the shortcuts for apps you rely on most often are at the bottom of your home screen instead of at the top. You can organize this manually, but on Pixel phones you can also have a row of most used apps at the bottom.

• Open settings then touch Applications > Default applications.
• Tap the gear icon next to Pixel Launcher.
• Touch Suggestions and enable Suggestions on the home screen.

If you have a Samsung phone and use the Samsung Internet Browser, you can also move the web address and search bar to the bottom of the screen. (Strangely, Chrome for Android doesn’t currently let you do this, although Chrome for iOS does – go figure.)

• Tap the hamburger menu (bottom right) and then settings.
• To choose Layout and menus.
• Enable Show toolbar at bottom It is Show address bar at bottom.

(Note: Some Android phones will not have the Show toolbar at bottom resource listed.)

You can find the same option in Firefox for Android: tap the three dots (top right) and then Settings > Customize and choose Bottom to the toolbar.

If iOS is your mobile platform of choice, you can do many of the same tricks as you do on Android.

The one-handed mode that covers all of iOS is called Accessibility. You can find it in Settings on your iPhone:

• Touch Accessibility > Touch.
• Turn on the Accessibility light switch.

Swiping down toward the bottom of the screen will collapse any apps or system menus you have on the screen, making it easier to access with one hand. Tap the arrow at the top of the window to return to normal.

The iOS keyboard also has one-handed mode. With the on-screen keyboard:

• Press and hold the icon in the bottom left corner (it will show a globe or emoji symbol depending on the keyboards you have installed).
• Tap the left or right keyboard layout to pin it to that side.

You can use the white arrow that fills the space left by the keyboard to return to the normal layout.

As mentioned above, Chrome for iOS allows you to move the address and search bar to the bottom of the screen:

• Tap the three dots (bottom right).
• To choose settings.
• Touch Address barthen (at the top of the screen) Bottom.

This is the layout that Safari for iOS uses by default. If it has been changed for any reason, you can reset it via Safari in iOS settings, under the Guides header.