Pixel’s new Easy View characteristic makes your cellphone simpler to make use of

Google designs the Android working system to be as accessible as doable since they understand it’s utilized by billions of individuals worldwide. That features the aged and folks with visible impairments, for whom Android gives various settings to tweak the show dimension, textual content scaling, and navigation mode. Navigating these choices can nonetheless be complicated for some customers, which is why Google is introducing a brand new Easy View mode within the first quarterly platform launch (QPR) of Android 15 that permits probably the most optimum settings for enhanced readability.

Android 15 QPR1 is rolling out as a part of the most recent Pixel Drop for December 2024. When you replace your Pixel cellphone, you could find Easy View underneath Settings > Accessibility. The characteristic guarantees to “enhance textual content legibility” in addition to “simplify display structure and navigation.” Extra particularly, it allows settings that “enhance textual content and icon dimension, simplify structure, and add navigation buttons.” Most of these items might be modified elsewhere within the Settings app, however Easy View gives a single, one-click toggle that adjusts a wide range of settings for higher readability.

Particularly, Easy View makes the next modifications:

1. Font dimension is elevated by one tick (from the default scale of 1.0 to 1.15). In case your font dimension is already bigger than this, then Easy View will nonetheless scale back it.
2. Show dimension is elevated by one tick (will increase the DPI).
3. System navigation mode is modified to three-button navigation.
4. The lengthy press timeout, the size of time in milliseconds that should cross earlier than a press is taken into account an extended press, is elevated (from the default 400 to 1000).

Disabling Easy View reverts all of those settings again to their earlier worth.

I’ve ready a gallery that showcases what the Settings app, Google Chrome, and residential display appear like in Android 15 QPR1 when Easy View is enabled. As you may see, content material turns into a lot simpler to learn all through the OS thanks to those modifications. Nevertheless, it doesn’t have an effect on webpages in Chrome, which has its personal accessibility choices. Nonetheless, Easy View is a superb characteristic for customers who’ve hassle seeing textual content and icons on their display, so make sure to allow it when you’ve got hassle seeing content material in your Pixel cellphone.

At present, Easy View is unique to Pixel telephones working Android 15 QPR1, which incorporates the Pixel 6 and later. The characteristic doesn’t help the Pixel Fold, the Pixel Pill, or the Pixel 9 Professional Fold in the mean time. And in contrast to different modifications in Android 15 QPR1, Easy View received’t be added to AOSP, the open supply model of Android utilized by different smartphone OEMs.

Whereas digging by way of the Android 15 QPR1 launch, we noticed strings that counsel Google will add Easy View to the preliminary setup wizard. The strings say that “for a cleaner design and easy onboarding, Pixel can routinely obtain important apps and widgets, optimize display structure, modify font, and extra.” The half about Pixel routinely downloading “important apps and widgets” is especially fascinating as a result of the web page for Easy View within the Settings app doesn’t point out that.

As well as, we additionally noticed an unused wallpaper that appears to be related to the Easy View characteristic. It appears Google has or had plans to alter the wallpaper when Easy View is enabled, however this at present doesn’t occur. That would change sooner or later, although, so we’ll hold our eyes out.