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Voice Access on Android makes your phone easier to navigate without all that tapping

The feature is designed to help make the phone more accessible for anyone with a disability, but can also be used when your hands are full.

Mike Sorrentino Senior Editor
Mike Sorrentino is a Senior Editor for Mobile, covering phones, texting apps and smartwatches -- obsessing about how we can make the most of them. Mike also keeps an eye out on the movie and toy industry, and outside of work enjoys biking and pizza making.
Expertise Phones, texting apps, iOS, Android, smartwatches, fitness trackers, mobile accessories, gaming phones, budget phones, toys, Star Wars, Marvel, Power Rangers, DC, mobile accessibility, iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, RCS
Mike Sorrentino
2 min read

Voice Access on Android lets your voice control your phone, including tapping on links, browsing through apps and scrolling without having to use your hands.

Google

You'll soon be able to tap, scroll and navigate your phone using your voice on Android. Google's new Voice Access feature is a move to improve accessibility for anyone who needs to use a phone without relying on their hands or arms.

Announced during Wednesday's Samsung Unpacked, the feature will launch as a built-in option on the Galaxy S22Galaxy S22 Ultra and Tab S8.

The feature acts much like the Google Assistant, but with a larger focus on what's on your phone's screen at the moment. For instance, in the GIF on the right, you can see the feature being used to "tap best brunches" on the Google Maps app. 

You'll be able to use voice commands to tap, scroll and navigate through apps and webpages.

To use Voice Access, a phone can either be set up to always be listening for commands while the device is in use, or you can say, "Hey Google, Voice Access" to prompt the feature.

Voice Access on Android appears to have much in common with Apple's Voice Control feature, which debuted in 2019 on iOS and MacOS. Voice Control also lets you rely more on vocal commands in order to tap on areas of a screen without physically tapping. You can also use it to add emoji to messages.

Voice Access debuted alongside a number of features Google is spotlighting for Android 12, including YouTube previews in Google Messages, group YouTube viewing in Google Duo and the colorful Material You design arriving on Samsung's Galaxy S22 phones.

Watch this: Samsung Galaxy S22 first look: Hands-on with all 3 new phones