Improving TalkBack Experience on Android Phones: Solving Double-Tap Issues and Enhancing Typing

hi,

You mentioned that some of the multi touch gestures were disabled doing this. Does that mean that things like the Action menu, 3 finger swipe for Rotor, and Split tap will not work this way?

Edited for typos

Thank you so much for posting this!! It makes me realize that my double tap issues weren't just my imagination. As soon as I followed the steps you listed, I could double tap on my Pixel tablet just like I can on my iPhone!! This is a game changer!!

Seems to me you fix one thing by doing this, but break another, as you lose the multi-finger gestures, and under no circumstances would I ever want to go back to old TB gestures, with just the L gestures. No thanks! I'm not an Android user anymore, but when I was, never had issues with double tap.

Maybe a bit off topic, but I've always thought that these one finger gestures have this unique charm iPhones just don't. I'd love to have these l gestures on samsung, I think now we actually have both as I can do one of the l to go to home screen, back and etc and the other up down up... or left right left... ish.

Oh gosh, I always found them to be a pain. But to each their own. Yes, you can do them on a Samsung.

I could never remember them; that was always my problem. The only one that seemed to stick in my brain is the gesture for Back.

Genius, thank you. I had gotten used to tripple tapping certain things, double tapping others. Much better. Thank you.

Nice tip. Kinda insane that a hidden away developer setting is needed to make the thing work properly though. Google need to sort this out properly.
I love the one finger L shaped gestures, I wish Apple would adopt them.
Dave

I agree, I wish Apple would adopt the angled gestures. I also wish Apple would adopt the multi touch and hold gestures that Android has. For example, with iOS, we can do a one finger double tap and hold, two finger double tap and hold, and three finger double tap and hold, then swipe, which I can never, ever, get to work. Also those last two cannot be modified. On Android, however, there are multiple touch and hold gesture choices that can actually be modified.

Hi,
Great tip, thank you!
I’ve noticed an improvement when I double-tap on the screen, but I don’t feel like typing has gotten any better. I also don’t think TalkBack has become more responsive.
The only thing I’ve noticed that has improved is that double-tapping is much more accurate now.

Has anyone noticed any improvements with typing? That’s something I’d really love to see improve.

One more question: do you have any similar tips for the Galaxy Watch 7?

Thanks so much for this!

I have decided to make the switch from apple to android. Just got the pixel 8 pro… wish me luck lol

Good luck! Keep us updated on your experience.

I do not know your level of experience with android devices. However, I will say that the Pixel 8 Pro is a very responsive device. I think you will enjoy it.

Saw it on a significant discount for black Friday so figured why not. I used to have an android about 4/5 years ago when I was backpacking. I remember the battery lasting much longer and the maps being more accurate.

Can't speak on the battery, but I have heard for years that Google maps were more accurate than Apple Maps.
I think I said this somewhere, but I'm considering the switch myself. I'm only waiting until the iPhone SE 2025 is released, then I will make my decision. Was not impressed with the iPhone 15 or 16. At all.

Myself despite getting my mac last year and iphone 14 before that, I am seriously thinking that my next phone in minimum 1 year from now will be an android, and probably a pixel. I want to be independent and comfortable on a maximum of platform if we get any crazy accessibility issues one day, and also more is always better than less alternatives when it comes to accessibility. I am overall happy that I am almost as comfortable on the mac now than I was on windows before, and I want it to be the same for android eventually.

The one thing that has kept me holding out for as long as I have, is the lack of a rotor action on the android side. Ironically, there was a time when iOS did not have a rotor action, but over the past several years, I have grown quite attached to this feature, and use it every day.
Ironically, Google apps on iOS have a rotor action, and Google apps on android, do not have any type of rotor action.
In case I'm not being clear, I am referring to the ability to swipe up or down on an email to delete, archive, etc., or swipe up and down on Google maps or Apple Maps to get directions, mark a location, call the location, etc. in other words, the Actions rotor item, not the rotor itself. Android does have that, at least ...

Yes, Brian, talkback does have the feature you mentioned, Talkback actions, but sadly, they are not widely implemented, as you can see by Google's own apps not even having the feature. This is one thing that ended up driving me back to iOS after only a few months on Android.
Talkback has come a long way, and it's really a matter of preference. No screen reader on any platform is perfect. I personally found I am faster and more productive with Voiceover, but Talkback is still really good.
Actually, I kinda like the three finger swipes up and down instead of the rotor gesture. I feel that the three finger swipes are less easy to trigger on accident. But I just haven't bothered going in to customize VO gestures.

After my brief experience with a friends Pixel 8 Pro, I went into the custom settings on my iPhone, and for a brief time, set my rotor gestures to use the two finger up down and two finger left and right swipes. It is totally doable, but take some getting used to.

Yeah, I would set them to the 3 finger swipes, but would then have to set all the current 3 finger stuff to other commands, so doable, but I'm already so used to the way VO works that I am not sure it's worth fussing with.

As for making an Android work better, there's always the commentary screen reader. That thing looks like a beast though, but the possibilities are insane.

Just went to go check that screen reader out and I’m definitely gonna be testing it! My biggest thing for android is, if it has direct touch typing with screen readers, I’ll be perfectly fine.

i've never been very good at the touch typing feature of smart phones, so for me it is split tap typing all of the way. 🤔

Hey, it’s not for everyone. I just learned to adapt using direct touch typing… For me it’s just much faster. Going back to that screen reader for a second lol, that looks fantastic. I’m wondering if that screen reader has different typing modes as well. I can’t find many YouTube videos on it… At least ones that are in English so it’s just gonna be a install and mess around lol but I really do like android for the ability to basically install what ever lol.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, android does have that typing feature. Just tried it on my partners Google pixel six.

The subject says it all. Thank you so much for this workaround!!!

And, just to be fair, I've tried the 3-finger single tap to open the menu, 3-finger swiping up and down to read characters, words, ETC, and 2-finger swipe up and down to turn pages in my music player app. All works!

So I wonder, what multi-finger gestures might be disabled? Because none of what I use daily are off.

Thanks again, my Hibi Digital M-300 media player is more snappy now!

Visit this link to get you started.
https://accessibleandroid.com/jieshuo-screen-reader/

If you don't like the three-finger up/down or left/right gestures, you can also move among them by doing a 'down-than-up' swipe to go forward, 'up-than-down' swipe to go backwards.

You are a true gem lol. This is soooo resourceful! Was just going through the documentation and not gonna lie, that automatic video descriptor for any video that you’re watching is pretty cool despite its limitations. The amount of work that the developer has put into this is probably some of the best work I have ever seen at least in a while! I’m enthralled! They have my money and I don’t even have my android yet lol. Who knows, may just call in to work sick today to get it set up when the Google pixel gets delivered. Haha.

Yeah, I started reading up a little on the commentary screen reader a while back, when I was considering getting a Samsung S 24. While I think Samsung's are solid devices, I am a little wary about the whole Google versus Samsung debacle that is currently going on right now. So for now I have my eyes set on the pixel nine Pro.
Whichever way I end up going, if I go Android, at least I can have a customizable screen reader with CSR. Honestly, with all of the custom add-ons for it, it's like have an NVDA, but for your pocket.

yeah csr seems very interesting. Aside the communication issue I've heard of with the dev, and apparently the payment is via paypal? ... But yeah it looks good.

Honestly, we have so many tools at are disposal that communicating with someone who speaks another language is not that difficult. For example, I have a story, kind of not related to this thread, but it all ties together.
Just over a month ago I had to fly to Vancouver for an appointment. For those that don’t know, I live in Canada. Obviously I had to stay there a few days so I tooke advantage of uber while I was in a big city. While taking uber, I had 1 driver who barely knew how to speak English, Iranian was his first language. Hopefully that was spelled correctly lol. Me realizing this and knowing that chat gpt had the new advanced voice model that was released, I decided to use it as a live translator. I told chat gpt: “ I have a friend here who only speaks Iranian. Please translate everything I say into Iranian and everything he says into English.” After that I put my phone on the center console and before I knew it, him and I were speaking in our own languages and still understanding each other.

Another story but that isn’t as good as the first but still beautiful, my brother is married to a Ukrainian who does speak English, however her parents don’t. So when we message them on messenger or send emails, we use either Google Translate or ChatGPT, depending on what the closest app to us is at the time lol and we all type in our perspective languages and have the tools translate what we’re saying.
Needless to say, corresponding with someone who speaks another language these days is not hard at all.
Also, I do encourage everyone to use ChatGPT advanced voice mode for translating a live conversation if you ever have the opportunity. It is quite magical.

I use Google Translate on my iPhone. It is pretty decent for a free app. Regarding using PayPal for CSR. That is only if you want the pro tools/features. You can totally use CSR in freeware mode, without doing anything with PayPal whatsoever. You still get a whole Lotta features, and a very customizable screen reader. Also not sure what everyone is so up in there about PayPal for. Personally, I feel PayPal is far more trustworthy than a lot of the other online pay options that are available these days. 🤷🏽‍♂️

If more people **would** actually try using the Commentary screen reader, many of the applications out there that have unlabeled buttons could possibly be more accessible if more people would take the time to label the buttons and throw them up into the cloud. It seems like I'm one of the only few that **does** it.

I don't know how many folks are into crypto among this forum, but I myself labeled the entire coin application thanks to Commentary's labeling feature. With the TalkBack screen reader, it is practically unusable.
N.B. Yes, I do have an invite to the coin app if folks would like to mail me outside of here. :-)

I will make a separate thread on this later, but many of the applications that you can increase your PayPal balance with could help with paying towards a Commentary screen reader license for the premium version. I mean, the cheapest one is only 18 bucks for an entire year, and 48 bucks for 3 years, if I do remember correctly. And PayPal is one of the most secure and accessible applications for this kind of thing.

Do I wish that Commentary had an alternative to PayPal so that other people can stop whining? Sure! Will that ever happen thanks to Google and, well, Google being Google? Who knows at this point!

Speaking of labels to bring this back into focus, There is a recent article on button labeling that the accessible Android folks did, which if you haven't read it will be most interesting to you. Link to that, shall be below:

https://accessibleandroid.com/how-to-identify-and-add-labels-to-unlabeled-elements-in-talkback-and-jieshuo-screen-readers/

I’ve installed that screen reader, but for some reason, I can’t find it anywhere on the phone.

I believe that link I posted above may have a guide for installing it. Otherwise, try checking something like settings and accessibility, or maybe even under talkback settings.

The screen reader will be under the "Jieshuo" name. You have to go under "accessibility", toggle it to on, and then you may or may not have to visit theyour "apps" area and allow it to run by visiting the "Allow Restrictions" More Options menu.

The camera and the image description feature with talkback is absolutely phenomenal since I last used android just over five years ago. And that guided frame…Ooph.