Android has many built-in accessibility options that make it easier for everyone to use the operating system. You’ll usually find options to enlarge the screen, have it read text out loud, and even control things with your voice if you can’t use the touchscreen. However, accessibility options on mobile devices can always be improved, and Google seems to be working on just that with the upcoming version of Android. Google recently released a new QPR beta for Android 14 that included mostly bug fixes. While changelogs don’t usually reflect this, sometimes little surprises sneak in as features that are currently in development but not yet ready to roll out. This is when we depend on code experts like Mishaal Rahman, who often go through those betas with a fine-tooth comb and uncover features we’re likely to see soon. This time, what he dug up were some hidden “color contrast” settings, which he documented in great detail.
Short review
These settings allow you to play with the contrast of text, buttons, and even icons within your apps. You can choose all to “default”, raise it to “medium” or “high”, or even hit “maximize text contrast” to place a background behind the text for ultimate visibility. It even has a preview so you know what you’re getting into. Just keep in mind that every single app may not yet behave perfectly with these settings.
Unfortunately, these settings are still in development, but judging by the way they’re at this stage of completion in this QPR beta, they’re likely to appear in the full Android 15 release, which should arrive this fall. With such a big update, we might even see some other cool interface changes from Google (fingers crossed).