Google is testing a new “camera switch” option as part of the Android Accessibility Suite’s switch access feature. The new camera switch option, first reported by XDA’s Mishaal Rahman, is available in the Android Accessibility Suite 12.0.0 beta, which was launched in the fourth Android 12 beta. This feature allows you to control your Android smartphone with facial gestures. This article will show you how.
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Control your Android phone with facial expressions (2021)
Before we get started, I want to make it clear that the switch access feature is not limited to Android 12 phones. I sideloaded the latest beta version of the Android Accessibility Suite to ROG Phone 5 running Android 11 and it worked perfectly fine. If you don’t see the camera switch option, try downloading the APK file from APKMirror or updating the Android Accessibility Suite from the Play Store when it becomes widely available.
Set accessibility services for camera switches
1. Open the settings app Tap “Accessibility” Shows accessibility settings. Under interaction control Tap “Switch access”..
2. Next, Enable “Use Switch Access” toggle To get started. A pop-up appears requesting full control of the device to control the screen and perform actions. [許可]Tap to confirm Set the function.
3. When you enable switch access, you will be given the option to select the type of switch and the number of switches. Select “Camera Switch” as the switch type.. You can choose one or two switches, but it is recommended that you use two switches to access more gestures.
4. Now you need to choose how SwitchAccess scans the content on your screen. Available options are linear scan, matrix scan, and group selection.Choose an easy-to-use method and it’s in the lower right corner of the screen[次へ]Tap. On the next page Select one of the facial gestures you want to use..
5. For example[クイック設定]Like opening the panel[笑顔]I set a gesture. You can assign gestures to other actions, such as navigating to or returning to the home screen. You can follow the same steps to set the action for other gestures (check the image below or the next section). If you change your mind[割り当ての編集]You can tap to reassign the gesture to another action.
Android 12 Accessibility Suite: Face Gestures and Actions
To summarize briefly, here are all the facial gestures possible with Switch Access and the camera switching actions that can be assigned to them:
Face gesture
- Open your mouth
- smile
- Look to the left
- Raise your eyebrows
- Look to the right
- investigate
Camera switch action
- Pause camera switch
- Automatic scan
- Reverse auto scan
- select
- Next
- Before
- Touch and hold
- Scroll forward
- Scroll backwards
- House
- return
- notification
- Quick setting
- Overview
How to use camera switch action on Android
Now that you have set the camera switch on your Android smartphone and understood all the possible facial gestures and actions you can use it, let’s do a quick demonstration of this feature. In the GIF below, I used the “open mouth” gesture to return to the home screen.
And here’s another example of using the “smile” gesture to open the quick settings panel. There is only a demonstration, but you can combine actions and gestures to your liking.
Control your Android phone using switch access
This concludes the guide for using Switch Access to control your Android phone with facial expressions. Please let us know if you have tried it and found it helpful in the comments. If you’re a Mac owner, check out our article on how to use the Headpointer accessibility features on your Mac and how to display accessibility shortcuts in the menu bar and Control Center.
