Accessibility.

Our commitment

We want Daydream to be usable by as many people as possible, regardless of how you read, hear, move, or navigate. Accessibility is not a one-time pass; it is an ongoing effort that rides along with every release. The settings described below let you tune the experience well past the default, including text contrast that meets the strictest published standard on every theme.

Conformance status

We are working toward the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA. Many areas already meet that bar, and several go beyond it: the AAA contrast mode below raises body text to the AAA contrast ratio on every skin. Where we fall short, we list it under Known limitations and we are actively closing the gaps.

Accessibility settings reference

All of the controls below live in one place. Open Settings, then the Accessibility tab. Changes apply immediately and are remembered on your device. If you ever want a clean slate, the Reset control at the bottom of that tab restores every setting at once.

Motion

Decorative motion. Controls non-essential animation across the app, with three levels. On plays every animation. Reduced keeps only motion that communicates something, like a loading state. Off removes decorative movement entirely.

Shimmer. Controls the subtle shimmer on the active item in your sidebar, with three levels: Off, Limited, and Endless. When set to Limited, you can choose how many shimmer cycles play before it settles, from one to ten. Shimmer is paused automatically while Decorative motion is Off.

Reduced motion follows OS. When on, Daydream reads your operating system’s “reduce motion” preference and applies the Reduced level for you, so you do not have to set it twice.

Memory-saved shimmer. Briefly shimmers your message when a conversation saves something it learned about you. The “Memory saved” note in the corner appears either way, so turning this off never hides the fact that something was saved; it only removes the animation.

Screen reader announcements

These settings tune how much your screen reader speaks. Turn on the ones that help and leave the rest quiet.

Verbose loading announcements. Announces loading state on message and server placeholders, so a screen reader tells you when content is still on its way.

Status announcements. Reads out a person’s status (online, idle, or do not disturb) through your screen reader.

Typing indicator announcements. Announces when someone starts typing.

Character counter announcements. Announces when you approach the character limit while writing a message.

Keyboard

Enable keyboard shortcuts. Turns the full shortcut set on or off. Escape and the cheatsheet shortcut (Ctrl + /) keep working either way, so you are never locked out of the basics.

Customize shortcuts. Rebind any shortcut to a key of your choice, so the layout matches how you work.

Show shortcut cheatsheet. Opens the full list of keyboard shortcuts. You can also open it at any time with Ctrl + /.

Shortcut hints in tooltips. Shows the matching keyboard shortcut next to the action inside tooltips, so you can learn shortcuts as you go.

Visual

Increase contrast. Strengthens text, borders, and chat bubble outlines within your active skin’s color scheme, without changing the overall look.

AAA contrast mode. Raises body text to the WCAG AAA contrast ratio (7:1) on every skin. A few non-text elements, such as focus rings and borders, and white text on colored chat bubbles, are held to the AA non-text floor rather than 7:1.

Text size. Scales body text and chat bubbles across four steps: Default, +1, +2, and +3. The larger steps are tuned to stay within the chat bubble bounds on mobile.

Bold text. Increases the weight of body and interface text for a stronger, easier-to-read stroke.

Underline links. Adds an underline to every link, so links never rely on color alone to stand out.

Confirm before opening external links. Shows a short confirmation before you leave Daydream for an external site, so you are never surprised by where a link goes.

Installed app (PWA)

These two settings apply when Daydream is installed to your device as an app.

Reduce background sync animations. Suppresses spinner animations while Daydream quietly syncs data in the background.

Standalone-mode quiet badge. Stops the tab or app title from flashing for notifications while Daydream runs as an installed app.

Reset

Reset to defaults. Restores every accessibility setting on this page to its original value and clears any custom shortcut rebindings. The app asks you to confirm first, and the action cannot be undone.

Assistive technology and browsers

Daydream is tested against current versions of the major browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox, and is built to work with common screen readers. The announcement settings above let you tune how much a screen reader speaks. For the smoothest experience, keep your browser and your assistive technology up to date.

Known limitations

We would rather name our gaps than hide them.

• A few richly animated areas are decorative and carry no essential information. If they are distracting, set Decorative motion to Reduced or Off to quiet them.
• White text on a small number of colored chat bubble styles meets the AA non-text contrast floor rather than the AAA target. We are tracking this.

If you hit a barrier that is not listed here, please report it using the contact below.

Feedback and contact

Found an accessibility barrier, or want a setting we do not have yet? Email and tell us what you were trying to do and what got in the way. Accessibility reports go to the top of the queue.

The same address handles privacy and general questions. You can also review our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.