Thumb Arc compared with the Accessibility Menu and One Hand Operation +

I make Thumb Arc, so weigh this accordingly. My short answer: try whichever of the other two fits your phone first, because they're released products from Google and Samsung. Thumb Arc is for one specific job they don't cover as directly, which is pointing at any spot on the screen from a pad under your thumb.

These three aren't really rivals. The Accessibility Menu replaces buttons. One Hand Operation + gives you swipes for fixed actions. Thumb Arc is a pointer.

When the Accessibility Menu is the better choice

Pick it if the trouble is with buttons and panels: volume, brightness, lock, screenshots, notifications and Quick Settings. It has large targets, and there's a Large buttons setting that makes them bigger. You're also not giving a small developer access to your screen, because it comes from Google's Android Accessibility Suite.

Pick it if you use TalkBack, too. Google's instructions cover TalkBack users specifically, with a three-finger swipe to open it. I haven't tested Thumb Arc with real TalkBack use, so I can't recommend it to you.

What it won't do is press a link halfway up a web page. Its options don't include pointing at things inside an app. It's also a menu you open and close, not something that sits ready under your thumb.

On a Galaxy, Samsung documents its own Assistant menu rather than this one, and that menu goes further. It includes a Cursor option for reaching any part of the screen. If you own a Galaxy, I'd honestly try that before Thumb Arc. It costs nothing and it's already on your phone.

When One Hand Operation + is the better choice

Pick it if you have a Galaxy phone and what you mostly want is Back, Home, notifications or launching a few apps. Its listing runs through around thirty actions you can set on short and long swipes, including pulling the screen down. A swipe on an edge handle has fewer steps than opening a pad, steering a cursor and clicking, so for those fixed actions it should be quicker once you've learnt the swipes.

It's free, it's from Samsung, and the Play listing declares no data collected. Samsung's guide also covers tablets. The listing also names a virtual touch pad, though it doesn't describe it, so it's worth opening to see if it does the job before you look further.

Its limits come from what it is. You have to learn and remember which swipe does what, and diagonal swipes on a thin handle need some accuracy. Samsung's own listing says the handle can interfere with running apps, which is why there's an App exceptions setting. And Samsung documents it for Galaxy devices, so it's not a general Android answer.

When Thumb Arc makes sense

A small quarter-circle pad opens in the bottom corner. You slide on it to move a cursor anywhere, and the cursor snaps onto buttons when it's close. L clicks, R long-presses, and turning the outer ring scrolls. So you can press the thing at the top of the screen without changing how you hold the phone.

That's useful if your hand has a small comfortable range and the thing you need keeps being somewhere different, in apps you don't control. You can slide the pad up and down the edge, and it remembers the position for each app. It has no internet permission, so it can't send anything anywhere.

The free version includes the cursor, click, long-press and scroll, the Rail shape, hiding and moving the pad, and themes. Pro is a one-time purchase with a 7-day trial, and it adds a smarter ring that can also set sliders and turn pages, text selection and copy and paste, shortcuts, and per-app ring settings.

Where Thumb Arc is weaker

It needs Android's accessibility permission, and Android will warn you that it can view and control your screen. That warning is accurate. Google explains what this access allows, and you should only grant it to developers you trust. You have less history to go on with me than with Google or Samsung. My privacy page says what the app reads.

It's in closed testing on Google Play, not a finished release, so expect rough edges and changes.

It has only been properly tested on one phone, a Samsung Galaxy S25 on Android 17. I can't tell you how it behaves on other brands, foldables or tablets, or in games. There's a bottom-left corner setting, but left-handed use isn't tested yet either. It needs Android 12 or newer.

Real TalkBack use hasn't been tested, as I said above.

I also don't know whether it works with Advanced Protection, Android's high-security mode, which restricts accessibility services to verified accessibility tools. If you rely on that mode, assume nothing until it has been tested.

And a cursor is an extra step by nature. If you can reach the button comfortably, tapping it is quicker. If you want a more established cursor app, Quick Cursor is already public on Play, with over a million downloads, and is worth comparing.

The easiest way to judge the idea is the demo in your browser. The Thumb Arc page explains how to join the test.