How to Control Your Android Device With Just Facial Expressions
Are you tired of boring touch controls to interact with your phone? After all, for the last decade and a half, this is exactly what has been done with almost all smartphones. While some phones have dabbled in various gesture-based controls in the past, none have caught on. Perhaps Google will change this as the company now only allows you to control your phone with facial expressions.
How can I control my phone using only my face?
Android implements this option as part of the Switch Access accessibility feature. Switch Access adds a blue selection box to your display and allows you to use external switches, keyboard, or buttons on your Android to move that selection box between many different items on the screen until you get to the one you want to select. …
A big update to Switch Access is making facial gestures triggers that move the selection box around the screen. This new feature is part of the Android Accessibility Suite 12.0.0 beta, which is included in the latest Android 12 beta (more precisely, beta 4). If you’re not running the beta on your Android device, you won’t be able to take advantage of this exciting new feature until Google brings Android 12 to the public.
However, if you want to try it out right now, you can simply register your device in the Android 12 beta program and then download and install the unfinished software on your phone. Follow the instructions in our step-by-step guide to set yourself up.
How to customize facial expressions on Android 12
To get started on a device running Android 12 beta 4, go to Settings> Accessibility> Switch Access , then tap the switch next to Use Switch Access . You will need to give this feature full control over your device, which includes viewing and controlling the screen, as well as viewing and performing actions. Click Allow to confirm.
The first time you do this, Android will automatically open the Switch Access setup guide . Here click ” Switch Camera” , then click ” Next” . On the next page, select one or two radio buttons, the last one recommends Android. With a single radio button, you use the same gesture to select items on the screen as you would to select a specific item. With two radio buttons, you set one gesture to highlight and the other to select.
We’re going to show you instructions for selecting two switches . On the next page, choose how you want Android to crawl a specific settings page:
- Linear Scan (Except Keyboard): Step through the items one at a time. However, if you are using the keyboard, scanning will be performed line by line.
- Row-Column Scan : Scans one line at a time. After selecting a row, navigate through the items in this list.
- Group selection (optional): All elements will be assigned a color. You perform a facial gesture that matches the color of the item you want to select. Reduce the group size until you reach your choice.
In this walkthrough, we will choose Linear Scanning . Once you’ve made your selection, select Next , then select the gesture you want to assign to Next (which tells the blue selection box to navigate the screen). You can select Open Mouth , Smile , Raise Eyebrows , Look Left , Look Right, and Look Up, and you can assign any number of these gestures to one action. Just know that when you assign a gesture to an action, you cannot use it with another action. When done, click Next .
Now choose a gesture for the Select action (which selects the items above which the blue selection box is). You can choose from the same list as before, except for the gestures assigned to ” Next” . Once you’ve made your selection, you can start using these gestures to continue, as you can use your first gesture to navigate through the options and your second gesture to select.
Finally, select a gesture to pause or resume camera switching. You don’t need to use this feature, but Android recommends that you do. Select your gesture or gestures, then click Next . Once you’ve done that, the setup is complete and you can now use face gestures to navigate Android.
Other settings and options for face gestures
When you are done with the setup, you will find some additional settings that you can make. In the “ Face Gesture Settings” section , you will find all the gesture options, as well as the actions assigned to them. Click on one to test it, adjust the size of the gesture, set the duration of the gesture, and edit the assignment for the gesture.
Under the advanced settings of the camera switches, you’ll find four more options to choose from:
- Improved visual feedback: Show a visual indication of how long you’ve held the gesture.
- Improved audio feedback: Plays a sound when something on the screen changes in response to a gesture.
- Do not turn off screen: Do not turn off the screen when camera switching is on. Camera switches cannot unlock the screen if it is off.
- Ignore Duplicate Camera Switch Triggers: You can select a period of time during which the system will interpret multiple camera switch triggers as one trigger.
How to turn off facial expressions (camera switches)
If you find that controlling your phone with facial expressions just isn’t for you, don’t worry; it’s easy to disable this feature. Just go back to Settings> Accessibility> Switch Access and select Settings . Tap Camera Switch Gestures , then tap the slider next to Use Camera Switches . This will disable the entire feature when saving settings. If you want to re-enable this feature, simply return to this page at any time and tap the switch again.