Coke vs pepsi, chocolate vs vanilla, iOS vs android. We all know the debates and, for the most part, we’ve all picked a side. That doesn’t mean we’re all mindless droids or zombie fruit fiends, however, so I wanted to share my favorite things about the other side along with my reasons for giving them up. I’ve switched back and forth a couple times now and, while I’m not ruling out another flip at some point, I find myself much more on team android for now. Still, I have fond memories, many frustrations, and maybe I can shed some light for anyone who is just curious or considering your options. We all have choices and there isn’t one right answer for everyone. So, in the interest of playing fair, here’s what I regret most about mine and why I’m glad I made it anyhow.
I Miss iMessages
You know those massive group texts where you can all see each others’ reactions, can send voice messages that sound great and show off your great photos and videos to all the people with a single tap? Do you have that one family member or friend who’s always making your text conversations blow up with a notification for every single emoji reaction because they’re using regular text? It’s annoying. Even with google’s recent updates to make it slightly less awkward. There are workarounds, I can use Samsung quick share or google photos to share things, but that’s so much more cumbersome and time consuming for me and my friends. It doesn’t get any better with face time, though at least I can get invited to a call and use a web browser now. Apple built a sleek, easy solution here and it’s beautiful. I’m reminded how nice it is every time I’m stuck using one of google’s few stock message reactions … not a big deal each time but believe me it adds up to some frustration when it happens multiple times a week. Thanks apple. Oh, and if you’re switching from iPhone to android, please for the love of everything holy turn off iMessages in your apple account before you give up that shiny fruit phone! Just do it, you’ll thank me later.
Messages for Web
Call me old school but there’s nothing quite so satisfying, , or efficient, as a good old Qwerty keyboard for texting. Braille screen input is a good enough workaround on the go but, for typing fast and accurately, nothing beats the tried and true keyboard. If you’re an iPhone user with a windows computer this isn’t an option, unless you want to carry yet another device around and deal with a sometimes janky Bluetooth connection. Those of you with MACS often tell me how nice it is to get a text on your phone and reply on your MacBook. With google’s Messages for Web I have that same luxury, on all my devices, all it takes is scanning a QR code on my phone camera and I’m good to go. If I’m out and about with my chromebook I can use that. If I’m working on my windows machine and want to respond to someone without interrupting my routine to grab my phone it’s just an open tab away, no pocket rummaging or phone unlocking necessary. This may not matter to everybody but it sure makes my life easier.
iOS has better Braille support, especially for reading
I swear by Braille, the difference between listening to a thing and reading it is, for me, life changing. It’s no secret Apple got to Braille first, more Braille displays work over Bluetooth with iOS and for the most part the experience is better. Android Braille has come a long way, it mostly does what I need it to (more on that in a minute) but so far IOS Braille support is much more powerful and, ironically, customizable.
On iOS I can use the voiceover gesture commander to create pretty much whatever Braille commands I want. I can jump to the next level 4 heading on a web site with a custom shortcut, make a keystroke to navigate by row or column in a table etc. I also know right away when there’s a swipe down action, which again I can easily emulate from the display, without having to guess if that’s available for whatever item has focus on the screen. It’s powerful, easily configurable and I really do miss that.
IOS also, as of now, wipes the floor with android in terms of reading Braille books on your phone. Do you live in the states and use the Bard Mobile app? How about iBooks? They work, it’s relatively straightforward, you just might need to switch your Braille table to Computer Braille depending on the app you’re using to read … Looking at you, Bard Mobile. On my android phone all the braille books in that Bard app might as well be Greek or Javascript, though I’ve heard that’s likely changing soon. Perhaps more frustrating google play books and books from the Kindle store either won’t read at all or else the focus moves around so much they might as well be unreadable. Luckily my qBraille can store and read bookshare and Bard offerings without my phone or else I’d really be up the proverbial creek.
Android Braille is much better for writing
Yes, android Braille actually gets a win and not a small one. Anybody who’s used Braille on iOS for serious writing work doubtless knows just how frustrating it is to have the cursor move to a totally different place in the document, sometimes without even showing you this on the display. It’s a serious glitch in otherwise solid iPhone Braille support and, given that it’s been a problem for years without any resolution, I’m betting it always will be. So, with all its limitations, I actually prefer Braille on android just because I can write with the peace of mind that my cursor will stay put. I can actually draft papers, longer e-mails and the like without having to use the terminal clipboard or a purpose built app like Voice Dream writer. For me that makes the reading difficulties worth it, though it wouldn’t if my display had no on board storage.
Blindness specific apps are better on the iPhone
It’s no secret that most developers in our small community focus more on iOS and only get around to android as an afterthought, if they get around to it at all. Financially this makes sense, especially in America. There are very few blind people actually paying for these specialized apps and almost all of those people have been on the Apple side of the fence for years. I love NFB newsline and it has a great iOS app, no such luck on android. I really want to try the BE My Eyes virtual volunteer but the waiting list didn’t even open up on android for almost a month after iPhone users got the chance to register. The oko app for detecting when street lights change is not on the play store, promises notwithstanding, and I’m doubtful it ever will be. Goodmaps on android is at best a mess, at worst totally unusable unless you like your GPS giving you wildly inaccurate information about things several blocks away from where you actually are. If you like Blindsquare or Seeing AI, they aren’t even on android. While I find Google Lookout generally works as well or better than Seeing AI I do miss some of the extra features, like the indoor navigation with breadcrumbs. IN short, android users are second class citizens in the blindness app world and that’s not changing any time soon.
Most apps on android are more accessible by default
Do you like turning on and off screen detection in the telegram app? How about the voiceover bugs with facebook that inevitably crop up with major app updates? Did your Uber app ever break after getting auto updated from the app store? For reasons too technical to go much into here, mostly talkback requiring less optimizations than voiceover on the app developer side, I rarely have this problem. It’s true I don’t have screen detection but I also rarely need it… and, for the odd app where that would come in handy I can at least get sighted help to label the inaccessible icons and I never have to worry about that app again. In my three years on android I don’t think I’ve ever had an update from the play store break accessibility in any app and I can’t say the same about iOS. Maybe that tradeoff isn’t worth it for you but I definitely chose the less frustrating pain for myself.
Voiceover works better for flicking through the screen
Believe it or not, voiceover doesn’t usually show you exactly what’s on the screen. In the youtube app, for example, the options by every video to go to channel and open the menu to share, save to playlist etc are only accessible with a one finger swipe down. For sighted iPhone users all of those options are on the screen but apple decided to minimize the number of swipes required with voiceover. While this can make it more efficient if you only swipe through your screen it also makes life a little harder for app developers and, more to the point, doesn’t actually show you how everything’s laid out. This is good and bad depending on your philosophy and use case but my experience providing tech support for sighted and blind users alike really made me appreciate google’s approach here. I can walk my sighted girlfriend through an app we both use with confidence that we’re actually looking at the same thing in the same way and, when I google a tutorial for an app, I can just follow it without any modifications. Still, I do sometimes miss Apple’s more streamlined approach. I don’t think there’s only one right strategy for everyone here, pick what matters more to you.
The good side of apple optimization
Lastly, Apple makes it easier to just buy a phone and be confident accessibility will just work the way it’s supposed to. All new I devices run the same software, go through the same testing process, and voiceover is basically the same whichever flavor of fruit you end up buying. You can get your phone and be pretty confident it will mostly work like every other iPhone you’ve ever used. While android has made progress here the fragmentation between manufacturers means you really have to do more research to find your ideal fit. Get a google phone and you run the best version of talkback, with worse hardware. Get a Samsung phone and your talkback will always be about a year out of date unless you know how to get google’s version on your phone with the ADB terminal. Get a Xiaomi or Oneplus and there’s really no telling how accessibility works before you actually use the darn thing. It’s more of an open market and with that comes fragmentation and less controlled accessibility. You’ll never have that problem with Apple.
The good side of fragmentation
Do you miss a headphone jack on your phone? Do you want the chance to run multiple screen readers for redundancy, like you can on Windows? Do you want to use TTS from anywhere other than Apple? With android you have all those options precisely because things aren’t optimized like Apple. On my phone I have two versions of talkback, one with the latest features and one that’s designed for Samsung’s software, and I can switch between them in less time than it takes to turn off Jaws and activate NVDA. If you’re comfortable with less secure software you can use Commentary screen reader, which gives many more features and customization than talkback, then switch back to talkback with a simple volume key shortcut. More choices, more risk, more potential to break things or make them better for you. The choice, as always, is yours.
Comments
no need to reinvent the wheel, these podcasts exist
Check out Carrie on Accessibility, she's done exactly this sort of thing for a while now. You can also look through the back catalog of the blind tech guys podcast I was part of a while back, we did a couple of iOS vs android comparisons that might whet your apetite.
Re: rosy assessment"
@Amir Look, both platforms have accessibility issues and I totally agree Damnmsung has dropped the ball with their talkback, I gave them quite an earful about it last week and will keep doing so. They certainly won't be getting any more of my money for exactly the reason you brought up. Both screen readers have serious problems, I just have an easier time dealing with the talkback ones. I wasn't trying to offer a rosy assessment so much as ... share why I picked the less thorny rose bush for myself. This is obviously an apple site, I respect that and indeed wish something like this community existed for my preferred OS, so I'm not trying to win any converts here. :) Your RSs clients and mastodon clearly matter a lot to you, just as my stable braille writing experience matters to me, accessibility is not one size fits all. I can deal with installing a better screen reader from my laptop, it was even kind of fun the first time I realized that was an option, but I can't deal with a screen reader that moves my cursor hither and yon, with no rhyme or reason, when I'm trying to write an email or forum comment on a Braille display. That's certainly not acceptable for flagship prices either. We all have different needs, different strengths, and I for one am glad we can choose accordingly.
At least on Doordash I can…
At least on Doordash I can order food on Android. On the iPhone it's a mess. And TalkBack's icon descriptions are pretty good so I generally don't have to worry about unlabeled items unless its a image of a dog or something. But phone icons, close icons, play icons, all that it works great with. I won't deny that TalkBack has a long way to go. It really does. Especially since with some people like me, if I open Google Assistant, TalkBack starts talking over me, and that's what Google hears, same with Bixby. But it's so much better to have bugs you can deal with, by muting TalkBack, rather than oh hey my Voiceover suddently stopped talking entirely while I'm just navigating on the home screen.
RSS readers
Have you tried Feeder? It works very well, has TalkBack actions, and unlike Lire, you don't have to clean up the articles list, you can just mark an article as read and TalkBack moves on to the next one. Simple, free, and nice to use. Tusky is also a good simple mastodon app. It's similar to Toot or Mercury than Mona though.
Re: RSS readers
Feeder lacks many of the features lire provides. It's good for a basic RSS-reading experience, but it doesn't provide, say, the full-text reading mode experience. Tusky isn't bad either but, again, it's less feature-rich than both Mona or the official Mastodon client. So apps are there, but the accessible ones, at least in these two categories, don't offer the same experience feature-wise. At least Tusky is on a good path.
Re: no need to reinvent the wheel, these podcasts exist
To clarify:
Unless they have switched to a different platform with new people, the Blind Tech Guys Podcast last episode was from June of 2022, and was folded into the Blind Android Users Podcast (with its many different names before it).
Also, latest episode of BAU is episode 130, which came out yesterday.
Tusky And MilkTea
As mentioned on their web site:
https://tusky.app/
, it's a lightweight client for a reason. See their FAQ:
https://github.com/tuskyapp/faq/blob/main/README.md
, for testing things and to share feedback.
NB. If you're wondering why 'quoting' toots ain't a thing with Tusky currently, it's because said feature isn't native to Mastodon itself (as of this writing).
MilkTea:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.panta.misskeyandroidclient
, is a native Misskey/Calckey application (where Calckey is a fork of Misskey) for those who want a alternative fediverse platform for chatting and the like.
I have not found an accessible IOS/MacOS client (as of this writing), but for a Calckey server that has the latest accessibility features being added to it constantly (since it is the ‘bleeding edge)’, feel free to join
http://birdkey.ml/
, which by the way does not have a captcha to deal with.
J/K to go through the timeline, n to compose a new post, Ctrl/CMD+Enter to send one and R to reply, are the current commands that I know of for the web interface.
Galaxy settup.
I check a video in YouTube about it. Not that great. If I was planning to move to it, the video would had made me say no way Jose.
Blind tech guys did not fold into BAU
Nimer and I continued it under the Blind Tech Adventures name for a while but turns out it's a lot harder to do a podcast with 2 hosts than 3. Both the BTG archive and BAU should give you what you need but I'd really recommend Carrie on Accessibility, she's great and concise.
Thanks For Clarifying With The BTG Details
Carrie On Accessibility is a podcast I have never heard of, thus I shall give it a listen.
Galaxy
Well actually, I did a series on setting up the Galaxy, you can find on my YouTube channel, it’s under Galaxy set up in the videos tab
From 1 to 6 because there are six episodes, your side between one minute and four minute demonstrations on the phones set up because you know how to enter and information do you know
Here is my channel
http://www.youtube.com/@dominicandmyself10
I would actually be very interested to have a look at that galaxy video you looked at, can you send it to me
3 Things why I currently stick to iOS
Hey, there are three things that still keep me on iOS and which I didn't find a solution on Android up till now.
to be fair, last android experiences is from the beginning of 2022, so I am willing to try it again.
Strike 1: Talkback, even on potent hardware still has a laggy feel to it, gestures, swipes and taps felt slow and unresponsive with a notable lag.
Strike 2: On iOS I use the direct touch typing method. For those not in the loop, the keyboard acts as if VO isn't active and the keys get passed through right to the edit box which makes typing lightning fast.
On Android I only found the 10 finger type method, so the letter only is written if you raise your finger, which, after using direct touch typing since iOS 8, just feels clunky, plus the lag of talkback.
Strike 3: The apple watch is the killer feature in this, given that it works out of the box, flawlessly does what I want it to do, is snappy and responsive and a great device overall.
Greetings Moritz.
Apple Watch
I'm not a watch wearer, that would be an instant catastrophe for me, and maybe that's why I don't understand why smart watches and the Apple Watch in particular are exciting to people. It's my understanding that these watches don't really do much unless you have it paired to the phone.
I carried a pocket watch up until I got the phone, which gradually became my main way of checking the time. Though I miss being able to check the time without everyone in the room knowing I'm doing it... and probably staring at me for being rude.
If those watches worked without the phone, it would make more sense to me, and I would attach it to a lanyard or chain to use as a pocket watch/phone/computer.
I think the same will hold true for when they come out with smart rings, which I'm sure will also have to be connected to the phone.
Old Bear
No. You could get a cell watch and you would not need to have the phone with you all the time.
There is a few compatible i…
There is a few compatible i message apps being developed on android .one is called super bird an the other one is beeper.both will be available soon on samsung devices. both will be able to connect the i message proticle and client in some way into the app sso that the androi users can interact with the i o s i message users.
Holger Fiallo
That's mildly interesting. I suppose the watches will get closer and closer to the capabilities of the phones. I still wouldn't wear one on my wrist.
Very insightful
Thanks for this, this was really insightful and totally doesn't help the urges I have to switch to Android. For the most part, I like Android - I love Google Lookout for the short text mode, it works better than SeeingAi. And the fact that writing with a Braille display on Android, accessing text messages on Windows, and easier file transfer doesn't help. There's features I love about iPhone, like it's quicker to text and the image descriptions, so that's making the decision harder :P Are you familiar with Android watches, though? I'd like to go Google Pixel phone + Samsung watch, since the Pixel watches seem a little too slow
Re: 3 Things why I currently stick to iOS
Solution to the first two strikes, is 'Jieshuo' aka 'Commentary.'
Guides and walkthroughs for said screen reader (among them being direct touch typing), can be found over on Accessible Android & the Blind Android Users podcast.
Yes, Jieshuo is 'JAWS-Like' with features and definitely will take time in finding everything, but it’s very customizable once ya get the hang of it all.
From a proper virtual navigation feature for inaccessible apps to a VR mode (requires premium), spending $15 for a year or around $45 for 3 years, will be valuable for many.
NB. The official support community for Jieshuo can be found at
https://t.me/jieshuochat/
And hey, who doesn't like using Minecraft sounds for a sound scheme, or Narrator for that matter...
Slight Name correction With One Of The I-Message Android Apps
It's called 'Sunbird', not Superbird.
https://www.sunbirdapp.com/
watches
I've got another techy friend who recently sprung for the best Galaxy watch, I forget the model but it's the premium pro whatever, and he says it's comparable to the apple watches in terms of accessibility and linking with his ecosystem of devices. I don't have any experience there but the options do exist. As far as commentary screen reader it does indeed have many more features than talkback, with comparable snappiness to voiceover, but there are security concerns that made me ditch it in favor of talkback exclusively. I don't mind apps sending data (google assistant anyone?) but even when I hadn't used CSR for months it was still sending stuff back to a server somewhere and for me that's just not acceptable without a privacy policy. Still, Trenton is absolutely right it's snappier and has more features. That's not to say I find the talkback lag bad, it's just a few more milliseconds here or there and it disappears entirely with a Braille Display, which happens to be my preferred way to drive a phone.
Kindle
With android though, how can i get talkback to read, not Tts as it asks me to do when i load a book? also, how do i set the speed of the TTS that android is reading with, for kindle? i use a 3a android 12 is the Os.
Re: Kindle
I may not be the best person to ask as I primarily use bard and the bookshare web reader. I can give some general info that may help though, on android each different TtS app has its own separate controls for speed, pitch etc. Perhaps going into the tts settings (not talkback settings, very important) may help, if there isn't anyone else here with experience using Kindle on the android side I'll be happy to give it a whirl and see what I can find. I know amazon doesn't have the best track record for accessibility and it's entirely possible their iOS app is just better.
Braille screen input, and budget devices with decent performance
I am honestly thinking about making the switch. I havven’t seriously done much with Android for a while, since 2018 I think it was.
Regarding Braille screen input, is it possible to switch languages for text entry? What about switching from Braille keyboard to emoji and back?
Also, how is Apple music working with Talkback? Last time I tried it that app was sooooo sluggish. What about music recognition? Can Google assistant do that like Siri?
Any recommendations for a good, yet affordable device, even if it isn’t one of the major brands? I know Umidigi used to have some devices that were decent priced, had pretty good build quality, and for that time, decent specs.
Another thing that has had me locked in to Apple is homekit, but I have just about everything in the Home app also set up in Alexa, so shouldn’t be that big of a problem.
Re: BSI and budget devices
BSI on android does indeed have multiple languages, probably not as many as iOS, and you can switch between contracted and uncontracted Braille as needed. The process for using emojis kind of depends on the app you're using. Sometimes there is a dedicated emoji button near the icon for sending the message, usually that's how it works and you don't need to switch away from BSI at all. In apps where this isn't the case, say Gmail, the process is a little more involved than iOS but not extremely so. You have to dismiss the BSI with a three finger swipe down, that will let you switch to your primary keyboard which will have a button for emojis. I use apple music with talkback and it's fine, no real issues but nothing all that outstanding either it just works ok.
I do have to ask what you mean by budget. The cheapest android devices will be horrible, you probably won't have multifinger gesture support or a screen good enough for BsI. I'd say you probably need to pay at least $300 for something decent, a Pixel or Galaxy A series kind of phone. Otherwise you won't get a fair comparison and you'll come away thinking android is just aweful compared to iOS, even Apple's cheapest devices are sold at solid midrange or even upper midrange prices for android.
Thanks for this. Much…
Thanks for this. Much appreciate the info. Was hoping to find something around the $150 amount, but completely understand what you mean about super cheap devices. Problem is, I can’t buy anything expensive unless I sell my iPhone or iPad, but don’t want to get rid of the phone until I have had a chance to transfer stufff over. It’s a bit of a tough spot. I’m not someone who does absolutely everything from my phone, and have previously been okay with devices that aren’t the latest or greatest. So, even if it’s not the best device, it would be nice to find something under the $200 mark, so that if I try it and don’t like it, I’m not out a ton of money.
Youversion Bible and Dexcom?
Just out of curiosity, do you have experience with either the Youversion Bible app, and/or the Dexcom appp, for getting readings from my Dexcom g6? Both of these apps are great on iOS.
Re: Money!
I totally hear you there. Mods please delete if this isn't allowed but if you can wait a few months I'll be upgrading my Galaxy s22, still works great and no obvious cosmetic damage, you can contact me privately if interested and we could work something out. Otherwise I'd look at one of the cheaper galaxy A devices or maybe something used on fb marketplace. There also may be some hidden gems at that price range, worth looking into.
Thanks. Unless something…
Thanks. Unless something nice comes up before then, I might just do that. Even if you wipe all your data, would you be able to keep Google Talkback instead of Samsung talkback? Also, can the S22 take eSim, or only physical sim cards?
Sure I could do that
Yes my s22 works with regular and esim, in fact I'm using an esim exclusively now. I could keep the google talkback after a factory reset but be warned that's only a temporary fix. Any time Samsung does a major one UI update for each new android version, so about once a year it will automatically install the samsung talkback. There are scripts you can use to switch it back without messing around on the command line but it's still kind of annoying.
Ah this is good to know…
Ah this is good to know. What if any major features is Samsung Talkback missing these days? I know for a while, it was taking them a while to update, and people were missing out on all the cool new stufff and not happy about it. How is battery life, not just on this phone, but in general compared to the iPhone? I feel like I don’t get the best on my 13 Pro, and that Voiceover tends to drain it fast.
Also, how is the process of creating folders, moving apps around the homme screen, etc? I used to use Nova Launcher, because with default launchers, it was a pain. Has that gotten better?
Re: Good to know
Samsung talkback is about a year behind, I think most people don't really notice because talkback updates are usually small and iterative. Still if there's a new feature you'll miss it, as a Braille display user I need the google one since they fix little bugs with Braille support each update. Battery life is one area where the qualcom chips in most android phones have gotten much better in the last year or two, my s22 was barely an all day phone when I got it and now I do need a charger to top it up a little throughout the day. As far as home screen folders and such you can double tap and hold an icon to move it or put it in a folder, you can also use talkback actions to do the same thing. I've not used iOS in a couple years but the process seems about the same from what I remember.
Thanks for all this good…
Thanks for all this good info.
One bbummmer about Android though is no Eloquence. Otherwise, I’m liking everything I hear.
How is android 14?
How was android 14 in terms of accessibility? I read there were a lot of improvements. Similarly, I heard that I enjoyed 15 is probably going to surpass voiceover in overall accessibility and usability. I’d love to know more about android in terms of opening up and editing documents, signing PDFs, audiobooks, using Google Assistant/Gemini. I don’t really care about verses. I just wanna know how to use something.
Eloquence and android 15
I still have an old eloquence version on my phone and I'm getting all the milage out of it I possibly can lol. I actually didn't notice much difference between 13 and 14 with accessibility except the Braille screen input got some more gestures for moving around an edit field, they remind me a lot of the old M Braille app if you ever used that before BSI got included in voiceover. Also the Braille display support got a little better. I went all in on GPT and, since I don't have a Pixel phone gemini isn't really baked in yet except the google assistant seems to understand what I'm asking a little more often than it did before. I'm personally skeptical that either iOS or android will far surpass the other any time soon but your sources may be more reliable than mine who knows. I'm expecting more AI with android 15, it seems like apple is taking their time to come out with something more polished on that front so if I had to hazard a guess android 15 will have more AI bells and whistles but the AI in iOS 18 will probably be a lot smoother. I'm hopeful that android 15 will finally make progress with the more popular HID Braille displays but Apple still has a better track record there and I can't pretend otherwise. As far as audiobooks go the audible app is about the same in both platforms but android has this app I really love called Smart audiobook player for any audiobooks (or music libraries) you already have stored on your phone. It automatically categorizes folders and usually knows the order to play files without any prompting, not really a new feature but the interface just works really well for me. I don't really sign pdfs on my phone but docusign works the same as iOS and Envision is great for reading inaccessible PDF stuff, well as great as any OCR app can be.
I actually just got my hands…
I actually just got my hands on a Galaxy s22 ultra a guy from my church was selling. He was interested in my iPad Pro, so I came out better in the end, because I got the phone plus some money, so that was great!
There is a lot to love about this device, but also have a few questions, need some app recommendations, etc.
1. No matter where I'm at in the system or in any app, I keep running in to the Edge pannels. Not sure what they do but would like to make it where Talkback doesn't keep announcing this. Any ideas?
2. I need a good weather app, that doesn't have lots of clutter. Something as close as I can get to the iOS weather app would be awesome. It doesn't have to be exactly like it, but I mean in the way info is presented, no ads, etc.
3. If anyone has experience with the Youversion app, I find it to be decent to use, but couldn't get the audio Bible playback to work though the controls seem easy enough. Has anyone else had issues there? Any settings you recommend to make the app, especially in the Bible reading a little less cluttered? Seems like verses get divided up a lot, making it take more than one swipe to get through an entire verse sometimes. I know I could probably just switch to a different Bible app, but I've got a reading plan I'm going through and don't want to stop that.
Answers to some of your questions
You can turn off the edge panels if you don't want them by going to settings, display and somewhere in there is an option to turn off the edge panels, they are a pannel that comes out on the right edge of the screen and can show different things, i use them for the cumpis
Awesome! Found that and shut…
Awesome! Found that and shut those off.
Any tips for getting better at locating the finger print sensor? Having that be under the display has been rather problematic for me. I also have face unlock enabled but sometimes if the angle isn't just right, I can't get it to work.
Eloquence
Brad,
Thanks for the link. I downloaded and installed the apk, but when I went to use it, it crashed. Plus brought up warnings about how it isn't compatible with latest Android versions.
Finggerprint
You just have to keep using it and over time it will get easier to find
Damn.
Sorry to hear that.
I assume you tried the latest version?
Perhaps you could try emailing the website to see if they can help?
Re: Eloquence
There are two eloquence versions on that site I think. I still use one of them though I wasn't about to advertise it here ... but what the hell, it's abandonware at this point. Still one of them is working on my s22 can't go check it right now since I let it die somewhere in the house and still need to go hunting ....
If you aren't willing to switch phones, but want to try android
If you aren't willing to switch phones, but want to try android, you could try a tablet. I have a fire tablet in my house, but it's technically not mine and it runs fire OS not stock android. Plus it doesn't have google play or any google services. You're stuck with amazon's app store, which sucks. The kindle app on there is nice, and they have a few of the Ivona voices. It's cheap. That's the only other great thing about it, besides the voices. I also have a pixel tablet which I love. I recommend it. It's really big, so it might be easier for learning gestures. It also comes with a speaker dock, which I generally keep the tablet hooked up too unless I'm using the screen for some reason instead of my bluetooth keyboard. If I don't want to use the speakers on the dock or tablet itself, I can connect it to my Bluetooth headphones. It's also got chrome cast built in. It's kind of nice to be able to cast something on Youtube to my tablet when I want to listen in the other room. The talk back experience is solid, and if you want, you can download other screen readers and extra voices to use with the tablet instead. I don't use it all the time, as I've got a windows laptop and Iphone I can use as well, but I like it for my use case. So think about a tablet if you aren't keen on walking around with two phones all the time. I hear a few other companies make tablets as well. I can't really comment on those as I've only used an old Samsung tablet from 2010 before this. I also agree on what was said in the original post. I haven't gotten a chance to test the braille yet due to needing to send my braille display in for repairs, and failing to do that for several consecutive months due to laziness.
Eloquence
Holy Diver, when you do get a chance to check that version, please let me know as while google tts doesn't suck, I do like eloquence better.
One thing I'm not crazy for in the talkback Braille keyboard is having to switch both language and grade. Technically in Spanish, there is a such thing as contracted Braille, but it's not common, almost nobody knows it, but of course when I write in English, it's always contracted. So, there needs to be a way to have it remember contracted vs uncontracted depending on the language, as well as a gesture to switch keyboard language without going in to the keyboard menu. Not sure what that gesture could be though. And heck, maybe that's already happened or is in the works on Google Talkback. I don't know. I haven't made that jump yet. I'm still getting to know the device, so not ready for anything crazy advanced just yet.
Always wanted to get a…
Always wanted to get a google pixel to play with but not sure how much they're running. I wouldn't use it as my main phone, not by a long shot but always wanted to have a play.
Re: Eloquence
I'm running version 1.3.3. You got the s22 ultra right? That'd mean we have the same chip so I'd imagine it should work for you.
android phones
to the poster who wishes to dabble in android you don't need the latest and greatest; granted yes a pixel 8 pro will run i would hope, far superior than my 3a but you can still experiment with android try commentary screenreader etc.
Ah okay. Yeah I use to have…
Ah okay. Yeah I use to have an Android tablet back in the day but that's running Android 5 and last I tried, couldn't upgrade it unless I wanted to root the tablet. I honestly don't know if I can even do such said thing. That thing is old at this point hehehe. Am I better off getting a phone or another tablet? Note I do have experience with android but yeah, would love to give the new stuff a play as I know things have changed lots.
I think it depends on you.
If you prefer bigger screens, go with a tablet, smaller, a phone.
Eloquence, tablets and more
Holy Diver, yeah galaxy s22 ultra. Thanks for the info.
On Amazon I also picked up a tablet from a Chinese company called Chuwi. I've bought very cheap but great laptops from them in the past, so hoping their Android offerings are just as good. It's Android 13, not 14, but supposed to be a pretty stock experience. Just picked it up, supposed to arrive today, but got it to just have something to mess around on to have less drain on my phone battery.
Hopefully you get a screen that can handle talkback
Every sub $300 android tablet I've had has lived somewhere in the continuum of paperweight on one end, nightmare inducing abomination on the other. I hope you get a screen that can handle multifinger gestures at least but you may not.