Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is developing a new ‘Action Corners’ feature for Android, which could be similar to ‘Hot Corners’ on macOS.
- This feature may allow users to trigger actions, like launching Recent apps or opening notifications, by moving the cursor to one of the four corners of the screen.
- The feature is not yet live but may be part of a broader push to make Android a more capable operating system for PCs.
Shortcuts are crucial for saving time on any device, but they’re especially vital on large screen devices like tablets and PCs, where manual navigation can be slow. Apple allows macOS users to set up ‘Hot Corners’ that perform actions when the cursor is moved to a corner of the screen. While Android doesn’t have a direct equivalent to this feature yet, that might change soon.
While digging through the latest Android Canary release, I discovered evidence of a new feature called ‘Action Corners.’ Similar to Hot Corners on macOS, this feature will let you assign a unique action to each of the screen’s four corners: top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right. Moving your cursor to a configured corner will trigger its assigned action. Currently, these actions include going Home, launching Recent apps, opening the Notifications panel, or opening the Quick Settings panel.
Android’s Action Corners feature isn’t available yet in the Canary release, so I had to manually enable its page in Settings. Once it goes live, you’ll find a “customize corner shortcuts” option under Settings > System > Touchpad and Settings > System > Mouse.
It’s unclear when Google plans to release Action Corners. Since the feature isn’t live in the current Canary build, it could launch with the second quarterly release of Android 16 or be saved for a future update.
This development is part of a broader effort by Google to improve Android’s keyboard, mouse, and touchpad support, likely in preparation for its eventual merger with Chrome OS. If Google wants Android to become a first-class operating system for PCs, it has to continue adding thoughtful desktop features like this to ensure the OS doesn’t feel barebones compared to established platforms.
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