How to open notifications with one hand on the Google Pixel

Remember in the good old days of the smartphone where displays were around 3-4 inches? These days, we’re looking at phones that are pushing it close to 7-inches, and while that’s great for web surfing and playing games and consuming media, it can be quite a pain to use the phone one-handed.

This is especially true for gestures and operations that might require users to reach the top or corners of their phone, like pulling down the notification shade, for example. The good news is that if you have a Pixel handset, here are some of the changes to the settings you can make that will make it easier to check notifications using just one hand.

Open notifications with one hand on the Pixel

1. Launch the Settings on your Pixel phone
2. Scroll down and tap on System
3. Look for “Gestures” and tap on it
4. Tap on One-Handed mode
5. Make sure that the feature is toggled on
6. Under “Swipe down to”, you have two options
7. Select “Show notifications” and you’re done

So what happens now is that when you need to open the notifications on your Pixel phone, you have another option where you swipe down on the bottom edge of the screen to show the notifications shade. This will make it easier for you to interact with your phone with one hand when your other hand might be in use.