Turning Off 3 Touch Zoom on Android

Android has several accessibility features to enhance and give users a better experience. One of these features is triple-touch zoom. There are certain times you receive texts in your Android phone written in strange fonts in which you are not well-versed. Someone might also send you a diagram or drawing that requires analysis or a closer look. Moreover, some apps display information/text in rather small fonts than what we’re normally used to. To enlarge the displayed information on your Android screen, you will need the triple touch zoom feature.

Triple touch zoom allows you to magnify your screen by tapping on it three continuous times with one finger. It gives you a detailed, close-up look at what is on the screen. As is the downside with all tap-based gestures, occasionally, this feature ends up zooming you in when you don’t want it too.

Enabling and Disabling Triple Touch Zoom on Android Phones

You can enable triple touch zoom whenever you want to use it, but sometimes we might not need it. You may find it convenient to disable it altogether. Disabling or turning off the triple touch zoom is a particular convenience when playing a video game on our phone, or using other Android apps that require frequent tapping. If you do not turn off the feature, triple touch zoom might slow down the screen’s response time, resulting in a frustrating experience with an app.

Different Android phones have different locations of the Accessibility feature. In most phones, this feature is located in Settings under Additional Settings. In other phones, it is located in settings under Personal settings. The best option would be to open Settings and search in Search Settings.

Enable Triple Touch Zoom

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down until you find the Accessibility feature or Additional or Personal Settings, depending on your Android.
3. Click on the Accessibility or Additional or Personal Settings.
4. Click on Magnification Gestures.
5. Turn it On.
6. Now tap on the screen three times and see what happens.

The screen should be able to zoom in once you do a triple tap and zoom out once you do another triple tap. However, some phones with older versions of Android do not support this type of magnification. This is because the Accessibility feature is not installed.

Disable Enable Triple Touch Zoom

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down until you find the Accessibility feature or Additional Settings or Personal Settings. Remember, any of those options will bring you to the screen you need.
3. Tap on the Accessibility or Additional or Personal Settings.
4. Click on Magnification Gestures.
5. Turn it Off.
6. Now tap on the screen three times and see what happens.

Nothing should happen!

Navigating Triple Touch Zoom

Once you are in full zoom, you can fine-tune and move around your view.

Zoom In and Out

You only have to quickly triple-tap on the screen with one finger. This magnifies the screen to bring it closer to you. You can “push” the content away, or zoom out when you triple touch again.

Scrolling

Drag two or more fingers on the screen. If you use one finger, the screen might take longer to respond because it will be loading to check if the tap is part of the two valves that might follow to make them triple taps.

Adjust the Zoom Level

To adjust the level of zoom, pinch or un-pinch two or more fingers on the screen.

• To pinch, place two fingers apart on the screen and bring them closer together.
• To un-pinch, move those fingers apart.

Temporary Magnification

If you do not wish you use triple-tap zoom’s full zoom feature, you can use temporary magnification. Temporary magnification works well when you want to do a brief, quick check of something on the screen.

The magnification of the screen does not apply to the keyboard and the navigation bar, and not all phones can easily access the magnification accessibility option through Accessibility or Settings.

To find it, select search in your Settings and explore Magnification Gestures.​ In some other phones, to get to Magnification Settings, navigate to Accessibility > Vision > Magnification Settings.

• Magnification can range up to 8x, though some phones only allow up to 5x.
• When you open or close an app when zoomed in, the phone will automatically zoom you out.

How to Use Temporary Magnification

1. Quickly triple tap and keep holding on the last tap for as long as you want.
2. Drag your finger across the screen.
3. Lift your finger to cancel the zoom.

Magnify the Display on Android TV Sets

You can enlarge the information displayed on Android TV sets as well, especially when accessing the internet. Unlike in mobile phones, you use a remote control to zoom, not gestures.

1. Open the Internet Browser app on your TV.
2. Press the PROG+ or CH+ button on your remote control.
3. Choose your most preferred and appropriate option: 100%, 150%, 200% or 300%.

To disable or decrease the display size, press the PROG- or CH- on your remote control.

Demerits of Triple Tap Zoom

One major demerit about this feature is that it is inappropriate at times, especially when you’re texting with someone, copy-pasting information, or playing a smartphone video game. This is because your phone may misinterpret each tap you make might for magnification. The screen will keep on zooming in and out, and unless you know how to disable the feature, it might prove to be quite annoying to you.

Conclusion

Developers invented triple touch zoom back when most Android phones had smaller screens that made it difficult to read the display’s content. The zoom feature was a breakthrough, but unfortunately, most users do not know how to use it (enabling and disabling) appropriately. Just like any other feature on Android OS, triple touch zoom is a feature that can be enabled and disabled when not required, and you probably wouldn’t even miss it if it were disabled.

So why even keep it as an Accessibility feature? The fact is, our screens may have gotten larger, but farsightedness, a curiosity of the finer details, and small text remain the same.