I have a Pixel tablet, and everything is working well except for this one issue. I've gone into Talkback's settings, and there seems to be a toggle that controls whether Talkback reads notifications when the screen is locked. But even though it's set to Off, it's still reading. It's driving me crazy, because every time I get an email, Talkback starts talking. I'd rather have it silent and just have the notification play, which I do on iOS. But beginning to wonder if that's actually possible.
Comments
Have you tried the mailing list?
It's called blind android users: https://www.freelists.org/list/blindandroidusers
I think there was another one, something to do with peapers, something without peappers, eyes, mailing list, but i can't find it for the life of me.
Google
Hey there Brooke,
I did some searching on Google, and eventually found a YouTube video on this, but it was related to a Pixel 6 smart phone. Maybe it will work for you though?
Anyway, if you go to Settings > Notifications > Lockscreen, there should be (in theory) settings to control how notifications work on the lockscreen.
From the video, it looks like you can disable them from appearing at all or appearing and reading aloud, etc. Give that a try (if you have not already) and see if it helps. 🙂
Lockscreen shouldn't affect talkback
This is actually frustrating part on both sides. On IOS, if you don't disable lock-screen notifications, the screen wakes up for each notification, and voiceover ends up chatting.
On Android, Screen doesn't wake up, but yet talkback starts chatting.
As the OP said, it's crazy. When I say no speach when screen is locked, it means exactly that. Shut up chatty robot please.
Responses
Brad, you were probably thinking of the old Eyes-Free list? I used to be active on there ages ago, I don't think that one is still active. It used to be a tough crowd over there though, which is why I've hesitated posting on the Blind Android Users list. I may have to though.
Brian, I need to go through those settings again. I did once, made a few changes... broke a few things, Lol, and had to change back. I need to go through one at a time and see if anything works.
SeasonKing... exactly!!! That toggle in the Talkback settings should just work, and it doesn't. It's frustrating! My screen doesn't unlock, but I can hear Talkback from across the house even though it shouldn't be talking.
@brooke
I probably was, yeah.
Good luck fixing your issue.
Re: Lockscreen shouldn't affect talkback
You are probably right, but what can it hurt to give it a try?
@Brooke, stop breaking things. 😜
Fixed it!!
Woohoo, I think I've figured it out. I'll post the steps here. Just keep in mind... this prevents Talkback from speaking when a notification comes in, but it also keeps the device locked. So you'll hear the notification sound, but the device won't wake up. That works for me, as it's basically what I was looking for.
Go into Settings, then Hub Mode Dock and Lock Screen. Then Lock Screen Privacy Notifications and Home Controls. Once in there, toward the bottom, is a toggle called Wake Screen For Notifications. Turning this off should do the trick.
@Brian… I'm done breaking things for now. All seems peaceful in Pixel TabletLand, Lol.
Brooke
You, sister, are a tenacious tablet samurai! True story. 😄
Wish I could find something…
Wish I could find something like that to fix this on my Galaxy S22 Ultra and Chuwi tablet.
This drives me crazy. Especially when the stupid thing is in Do Not Disturb, and at 3:00 in the morning, it very much decides to disturb. lol Has happened a few times, I think it has something to do with charging. I have some battery protection stuff enabled, but still, if the phone is in DND, then I don't need to know when you switched charging modes, shut the heck up and let me sleep.
But then sometimes my Windows laptop does the same. It had been asleep for hours since last use, and it randomly just starting spouting off with a bunch of nonsense. Don't ask me what, I wasn't awake enough to take all that in. Funny enough I did yell at it to shut up as if it would actually listen. Only tech that listens when I tell it to shut up is Alexa. lol
Mute
I am not too familiar with how Android's handle DND mode, but what I tend to do even with my iPhone and both my PC and MacBook, is to just mute the sound before closing the lid.
I tend to be a bit of an insomniac and so, I cherish every little bit of sleep I can manage. 😳
Yeah not sure why it started…
Yeah not sure why it started trying to chat me up at 3:00 in the morning. Not a regular thing. The phone has done it before, but not the computer. I probably could mute them like you say, but probably wouldn't remember doing it the next morning, and then would be really confused and annoyed as to why all my tech was suddenly giving me the silent treatment. lol I know, first I yell at it to shut up, then get mad when it actually does? There's just no winning with me. lol
@Justin Harris
Lol I've done that exact thing. My iPhone seemed to go through a phase where certain notifications were getting through at night, so I had the idea of muting speech before I went to bed. I got plenty of sleep that night and a panic attack first thing in the morning when I picked up my phone and couldn't get it to do anything. It took my only-half-awake brain a while to remember what happened. I was already creatively trying to decide who to call on my iPad to ask for help with my phone, when my brain cells reconnected to each other, Lol.
Yeah this is an annoying issue
It got so bad, my boyfriend was begging me to change the settings and shut it up by like the third day. I've done several things to try and make things more bearable. I tried turning the volume down lower. I tried turning my speech off. Those of course had draw backs. I have the displaying of information when you're in screen saver mode off though. I also have the lock screen notifications toggled off. I've also made it so that I don't get email notifications unless it's something important in gmail.
@Leela
Have you tried the fix I posted in one of the comments? I don't know if it's available for every Android device, but it solved the problem on my Pixel tablet.
Notification
No issues in my iPhone. Lucky me. When I set up to sleep on focus it stop.
DND
Well, iPhones have a few snazzy features as of recent with regards to quieting speech output. For example, if you lay your device face down, you will not (or at least 'should' not) hear any spoken notifications or even hear your ringtones when someone calls you.
And of course there is Do not Disturb, which can be setup to silence all notifications and tone alerts.
Not sure how comparable all of that is on the Android side of the fence. 🤷
DND
So, it's not all notifications I have going off, just stuff for like when it switches charging modes or something like that. Android also has a feature you can enable to silence everything if you put the phone screen down, but since I use a wireless charging pad, that won't really work all that well for me.
Old Skool ftw
...and that is one reason I am fine with the tired and true charging cord. 😜
Wireless charging pad
That thing makes my Apple Watch go crazy! It's constantly making the sound like it's reconnecting to power even though it's still laying where I put it. I haven't dared use it for my phone, because that thing talks enough when it's not supposed to. I don't want to give it any ideas! 😂
The voices under your bed...
In your closet, and in your head.
Ok, so that was terri-bad paraphrasing some song lyrics.
Sue me. 😇