Auto Scroll?
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In essence, to have functionality similar to a scroll wheel/middle click on a regular mouse.
It would remove the need to constantly swipe through longer articles and other content heavy webpages. I am not aware of any mobile browser which currently has a feature like it. Many newer devices are capable of higher screen refresh rates, which makes text a lot more legible whilst scrolling. Immensely helpful to those struggling with finger dexterity too I'd imagine.
Using a third-party auto scrolling app requires accessibility permission to be granted, which I'd prefer to avoid. From what I understand, an application like this would be generating something similar to a touch input to scroll around.
Instead, integrating this function into the browser itself would be a better experience, and without surrendering any additional permissions. I figured this would be possible considering the other ways web pages can manipulated as is, though do correct me if I'm wrong.
Please do suggest any ideas for how this can be implemented. Here's what I think:
A small hidden tab that juts out of either edge of the screen (option in settings for left/right handed users), and the option to add a button on the toolbar to quickly enable it. Let this hide and appear as the taskbar does normally, but allow the tab to float whilst scrolling is in effect, so that an integrated start/stop toggle on the tab itself can be pressed at any time. Ideally, this tab can be positioned at any height along the chosen edge of the screen.
Integrate another button on this tab which opens up a bubble/floating tile with some simple controls like a joystick, up/down toggle, directional dial etc. As long as there is fine adjustment of the scroll speed which can be set in real-time. Perhaps limiting to up and down directions would be practical given the layout on mobile devices.
While scrolling is active, let any other inputs temporarily override, so you could just hold your finger anywhere to stop the scrolling or swipe around yourself. Once there is no registered touch input, slowly ease into the previously set scrolling speed and direction. Perhaps a manual delay value could be set by the user for this.
On some wider aspect ratio devices, there would be a lot more text per line when viewing in landscape, so the definite scrolling speed should be adjusted according to the ratio of the screen resolution. This should hopefully make transitioning from one orientation to another require no additional adjustment.
Scrolling speed presets could be another thing, perhaps separate ones for portrait and landscape orientations too. However, being able to quickly adjust the speed on the fly would probably counter the need for this anyway.
Long post, I know. Just wanted to put all the ideas I had down for consideration as well!