Seems on the regular Moto Z and Force you can swipe up to get a "one-hand" shrunken display (based on videos online). That doesn't seem to work on my Play. Is this a setting or does it not work on the Play?
No, it's there. You go to the Moto app (the one that governs Moto Voice and all the Moto actions) to activate it.
I hate how it centers the smaller screen though. You should be able to choose to default it to either of the lower corners depending on which hand you use.
Thanks and I agree that if they went to the trouble of providing that smaller screen, it only makes sense to offer the option of one corner or the other to make it easier to use one-handed.
I turned it off on my Force. I got so used to work with a big screen on my Nexus 6 that the Force's screen size seems very manageable, and the only time I'd activate the one-hand screen function was accidentally, which was frustrating. It's almost impossible to use Google Now on Tap without also doing the one-hand screen function.