Advanced accessibility settings and apps on your Galaxy phone or tablet

If it’s easier for you to press on physical buttons rather than tap on your screen, or if you’d like to map specific functions to your buttons, use your device's advanced accessibility settings. Your buttons can accomplish multiple things at once, like bringing up settings for color adjustments, muting sounds, and turning on spoken assistance.
Galaxy phone on a desk, next to a cup of coffee, displaying the Accessibility menu, with options fo
Galaxy phone on a desk, next to a cup of coffee, displaying the Accessibility menu, with options fo

Advanced accessibility settings and apps on your Galaxy phone or tablet

Accessibility button shortcut

The Accessibility button shortcut will appear on your Navigation bar so you can easily use an available service.

  1. From Settings, swipe to and tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Accessibility shortcuts, and then tap Accessibility button.
    Galaxy deice screen showing Accessibility shortcuts with Accessibility button highlighted.
  3. Tap Select actions and then select your desired services.
  4. You can then tap the shortcut button to activate the services of your choosing.
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Side and Volume up buttons

You can activate accessibility functions when pressing the Side and Volume up buttons at the same time. If two or more functions are set to the buttons, a Direct access window will appear on the screen, so you can select which function you’d like to use.

  1. From Settings, swipe to and tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Accessibility shortcuts, and then tap Side and Volume buttons.
    Galaxy device screen showing the Side and Volume up buttons settings menu with options for Accessibility, TalkBack, and Magnifier.
  3. Select your desired services.
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Volume up and down buttons

Pressing and holding the Volume up and Volume down buttons for three seconds will activate the accessibility service of your choosing.

  1. From Settings, swipe to and tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Accessibility shortcuts, and then tap Volume up and down buttons.
    Galaxy device screen showing the Volume up and down buttons menu with options for Accessibility, TalkBack, and Magnifier.
  3. Select your desired services.
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Flash notifications

The camera or screen can flash during alarms or when you receive notifications, so you’ll be alerted right away.

  1. From Settings, swipe to and tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Hearing enhancements, and then tap Flash notification.
  3. Tap Camera flash notification, and then tap the switch at the top to turn it on. Select your desired app(s) by tapping the switch(es). Then, tap Back.
    Galaxy device screen showing flash notification settings with Camera flash notification highlighted.
  4. Tap the switch next to Screen flash notification, and then tap either All apps or Selected apps. If you tap Selected apps, you can choose the apps that will cause the screen to flash.
  5. You can also tap Preview to view a preview of your settings.
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Time to take action

You can select how long unread messages will appear on your screen.

  1. From Settings, swipe to and tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Interaction and dexterity, and then tap Time to take action.
  3. Select from Default, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, or 2 minutes.
    Time to take action settings screen displaying time options with Default selected.
Note
When this setting is enabled, you may notice gray pop-ups on the bottom or center of your screen with alerts such as "Message saved as Draft,” "Something went wrong," or "Screenshot saved to phone.” These pop-ups may remain for a period of time and will appear in screenshots. Although you cannot remove them by swiping, you can clear them by opening the app or screen that caused them to appear.
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Spoken assistance

On One UI 5 devices, you’ll be able to use additional accessibility features for Spoken assistance. To find this, navigate to and open Settings, then tap Accessibility, and then tap Vision enhancements. The following options will be available under the Spoken assistance section:

Galaxy device screen displaying Spoken assistance settings with Speak keyboard input aloud and Audio description toggles turned on.

  • Select to speak: You can tap specific items on your screen (like text or an image) to hear them read or described aloud.
  • Speak keyboard input aloud: Your device will read aloud characters, words, or both. Tap the switch to turn on this feature.
  • Audio description: If it’s available, your device will automatically select the audio soundtrack that includes an audio description when you’re watching videos. Tap the switch to turn on this feature.
  • Voice Label: Save recordings on NFC tags. Voice Recorder must be installed to use this function. Tap Voice Label, and then tap Download to install Voice Recorder.
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Installed apps and services

It may be difficult to keep track of your accessibility apps, especially if you’re using several at once. The Accessibility Home screen provides a quick way to view all your installed apps and services in one place, so you can always check them.

  1. Navigate to and open Settings, and then tap Accessibility.
  2. Tap Installed apps to view a complete list of accessibility apps that are installed. You can turn the apps on or off from this screen by tapping each one and then tapping the switch.
    Galaxy device screen displaying Installed apps with Link to Windows listed.
  3. Tap Settings to open the settings list for the app.
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