Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR Android is updating its screen magnifier to finally allow users to zoom in on the on-screen keyboard, addressing a major accessibility limitation.
A new “magnify keyboard” toggle enables the full-screen magnifier to enlarge the keyboard and navigation bar, which were previously fixed in size.
Contributed by an Amazon engineer, the feature is now live in the Android Canary channel and is expected to arrive in a future update for Pixel phones.
The Android operating system is used by billions of people, many of whom face challenges interacting with their phones. For those with visual impairments, reading or inputting text can be a struggle, which is why Android offers accessibility features like text sizing and screen magnification. However, Android’s current screen magnifier doesn’t zoom into the keyboard, making it difficult to see emojis or individual letters while typing. Thankfully, the latest Android Canary release addresses this limitation.
Android’s built-in screen magnification tool can enlarge either the entire screen or just a portion of it. In the full-screen mode, you can pinch with two fingers to zoom and swipe to pan. Previously, no matter how much you zoomed, the keyboard and navigation bar remained fixed in size because Android didn’t support zooming in on layers above the app. For example, here’s a screenshot of me zooming into Chrome with the keyboard open on a Pixel running the latest Android 16 beta:
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority Zooming in to Chrome using the screen magnifier in Android 16 QPR1
With the new Android Canary release, zooming in on the keyboard and navigation bar is now possible. This is enabled by a new “magnify keyboard” setting under Settings > Accessibility > Magnification, which lets you “zoom into the keyboard to see emojis and letters when using full-screen magnification.”
Screen magnification options in Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2 Screen magnification options in July Android Canary build
Although this setting was off by default in my testing, enabling it allowed the screen magnifier to zoom in on both the keyboard and the navigation bar.
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