The Google Pixel 4A is a thin, sleek device, but it has a fairly large screen. This makes it comfortable to watch videos and read Web pages, even when the phone is in landscape mode.
But you might have noticed that when you turn your Pixel 4A to the side that the Home screen doesn’t automatically switch to landscape mode.
While your phone is likely configured so that it will use the accelerometer to switch between portrait mode and landscape mode based on how you are holding it, there is a special setting that controls whether or not this happens when you are on the Home screen.
You can allow your Google Pixel 4A Home screen to rotate between portrait and landscape by holding your finger on the Home screen, choosing Home settings, then turning on the Allow Home screen rotation option.
Now your Pixel 4A should switch between portrait and landscape as you rotate the device in your hand, even when you are just on the Home screen.
Our tutorial continues below with additional information on activating the rotation of this screen.
How to Rotate Your Home Screen on a Google Pixel 4A
- Tap and hold on your Home screen.
- Choose Home settings.
- Enable Allow Home screen rotation.
Our guide continues below with additional information on how to rotate your Pixel 4A Home screen to landscape, including pictures of these steps.
Can You Rotate Your Home Screen in Android 11? (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on a Google Pixel 4A in the Android 11 operating system.
Step 1: Tap on an empty space on your Pixel 4A’s Home screen.
Step 2: Choose the Home settings option from the pop up menu.
Note that there are also options here for Widgets and Styles & wallpapers.
Step 3: Tap the button to the right of Allow Home screen rotation to turn it on.
You can now go back to your Home screen and rotate the device to the side. The Home screen should automatically rotate into landscape orientation.
Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about enabling the Hoem screen landscape rotation on your Android 11 device.
More Information on Enabling Google Pixel Home Screen Rotation
You can tap and hold on an empty space on any of your Home screens. It doesn’t need to be the first one.
Now that you know there is a shortcut menu available by touching and holding on the Home screen, you may find that this is a much easier way to change your Home screen background, or customize the widgets on your device.
Even if you have this setting enabled you can still disable screen rotation on the phone. If you pull down from the top of the screen you can touch the Rotation Lock button to keep the phone in portrait orientation. This works for everything on the device, including the Home screen.
When you put your Google Pixel 4A Home screen in landscape mode, then icons in the dock at the bottom of the screen move to the right side of the screen instead.
Some of the other options that you can adjust from the Home settings menu are:
- Notification dots
- At a Glance
- Add app icons to Home screen
- Swipe to access Google app
- Overview suggestions
- Suggestions
- Allow Homr screen rotation
- About
As you can see, this menu has a lot of useful settings, many of which you may have wanted to customize before. For example, if you like to keep your Home screen free of clutter, then you may have wanted to stop the phone from adding icons for new apps every time you install one. That is possible by disabling the “Add app icons to Home screen” setting.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing technology how-to articles and tutorials for over a decade. He has extensive experience in information technology both in small business and as a consultant.
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