My experiences with a Google pixel 9a phone

I would be curious to hear from people with extended use of this phone Weather their experience of talkback compared to VoiceOver is similar to the 1 second delay mentioned above.
I'm sat here right now tapping and flicking on my iPhone and imagining a one second delay in responsiveness. Can't say that the prospect excites.

It depends on the voice used.

RH Voice = No delay
ESpeak = No delay
Acapela = No Delay
Vocalizer = No delay

Said voices above have no delay even on a phone with 4GB RAM!

FYI:

Be mindful with the Vocalizer voices after Android 13.
With Android 14 and later, you "may" have a Vocalizer voice go silent on ya, thus ou'll have to turn Talkback off then back on.

They work reliablly on my Android 15 running Motorola.
Google TTS has delay.

Also, while I haven't experienced pixels, when I was on a Galaxy S22 Ultra, I would say a 1 second delay is a bit much. I used Eloquence sometimes and other times Google tts. Was there a slight lag compared to Voiceover? Yes, but we're definitely not talking a full second. But yeah, it does largely depend on your hardware.

I've used ESpeak NG on Galaxy S22 with 8 GB ram for a few years and also tried it on Galaxy S25 with 12 GB RAM for a few months. I've Google's version of TalkBack on both this devices.
It definitely has lag comparing to VoiceOver, maybe with some TTS it's even longer, but with such lightweight TTS as ESpeak it still has delay. For example, try to quickly slide over keyboard and type some letter as an end of the gesture: with VO I've always typed what I want, but with TB it almost every time types next letter, i.e. when TB announces this letter my finger is already on the next letter.
And it's not only about typing, just representative example. For instance they're some issues with web content, which works inconsistently with TalkBack as long as I remember, while VoiceOver has almost the same behavior in native apps and on the web, only rotor-actions are missing.

I don't deny there is a delay, but I don't think it's a full second, and I did get used to it and was able to be pretty productive. That's all I'm saying.

There should be no delay. Just another reason iOS shines.

, bashing does no good. Kindly sharing your feedback with the Disability Support Team, does "everyone" good.
FYI:

Turnning off Talkback sounds helps (if ya don't need them.) And as stated awhile back (if wearing BlueTooth headphones), ones with APTX HD support (or if they have a gaming mode) helps with latency. And yes, Jieshuo does indeed have "NO" delay when scroling/typing.

PS. The higher quality Google TTS voices do work better, but they're only available for US English currently.

In the TalkBack settings, there's a setting called "Detailed Image Descriptions". Switch that on, let it download and go to the Photos app (as an example). Find a picture and go to the TalkBack menu (I find it easier to do a capital-L shape, by swiping down and then left) and there should be a option that says "Describe image". It is amazing, and I wish Apple would please integrate it. But Android falls slightly behind because there's no automatic image descriptions/alt text.

Talkback does have it, though its only available within Chrome browsers.
Again, somethig to share with Google directly either via Be My Eyes or via the link I shared earlier.

PS. I prrefer the descriptions that Google's gives instead of Apples, but that's just me.
PSS. You can labels much easier via voice commands by doing a Right+Up-Swipe, say the word "label", followed by the name ya want to give it. You can do this even on already made labels.

That is helpful, thanks. I just noticed playing around on my partner's Samsung phone that it doesn't have automatic descriptions on the Photos app, which I do find very handy to have.

You're welcome!

And yes, you are correct.
Samsung's version of Talkback "still" does not have said Gemini image features.

Now to be totally fair, Jieshuo (Commentary) does let you label more obscure elements which talkback does not see as labels (and that's even with the "free" version!) More on that found at:

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

Talkback definitely has some nice features. The quick access to detailed AI image descriptions chief among them. I also absolutely love the L shape gestures and other one finger gestures.
There are other areas of course where I prefer VoiceOver on iOS.
For the most part it’s a case of weighing up personal preferences, but the one thing I just can’t cope with is the very slow typing experience. So for me, unless that’s fixed, there’s not even a decision to be made.
Dave

You can either:

1. Switch your GBoard's layout to the "PC" layout.
2. Switch to the Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard and switch the "Typing Preference" under Talkback Settings to "Hold finger to select any key, then double-tap", as SwiftKey has lift to type built in.

We shouldn't have to do this this this and this to be able to type on our phones.

I've tried a sampsung phone and another one that I can't remember right now and the reason I didn't switch was truely the typing. It's to slow and clunky out of the box.

Yes it can probably be fixed but I don't think that should be on us. If a sighted person can type a sentence in 20 seconds, we should be able to do the same thing on both devices.

Personally for me, typing with touch was always suffering. But greatest issue of Android accessibility is the web-content, which very inconsistent. For example, using an iPhone with the external keyboard I can easily go to Applevis site and write this comment, while with TalkBack I’d rather go and wake my laptop up, than handle with constantly jumping focus and similar problems. And it’s system wide issue, i.e. doesn’t depend on a specific browser, E.G. I tried Chrome, Edge and Samsung Internet and they all the same in terms of TalkBack user experience. It also related to any form of web-content inside other apps, for instance book’s text in Voice Aloud Reader.

I'll admit the delay when typing can be frustrating. But one thing I've enjoyed while using my Pixel tablet more and more, is that there are no obnoxious focus issues. This is what has been causing me to put down my iPhone and pick up my tablet more often.

I'm glad you can enjoy it, I don't experience those focus issues but i've heard that others have.

I can't say I remember doing much typing with Gboard last time around, on the S22 Ultra, but Talkback's Braille keyboard is pretty clutch. I liked it a lot other than the language switching issue. I never felt the need to use either the samsung keyboard or GBoard. About the only time I ever needed those was just for emoji, and then I do remember being a bit annoyed that those weren't super easy to get to.

It's right next to the spacebar, on the left. Though you may need to change is from in the settings as it may say "Next Language" instead.

, that's apart of the toolbar. Though if you have Goodlock and the Keys Cafe module installed, ya can place it whereever.

I do not have any problem typing on a Gboard keyboard.
You have a lot of settings options.
From TalkBack menu, select TalkBack settings, advance settings and under Typing and Keyboard, make some changes
Typing preference and
Touch and hold delay when typing
I have set to 1 second and feels quicker
Also from Settings app, select system then Keyboard tools select pointer speed

You know people, when I check the videos by Flossy on the many android phones they look nice but always wander about talkback on them. Now that I read all the issues in here and others thread makes me sad. iPhone has no issues with delate with VO. 16 pro max. I am not going to say that the phone is perfect because it is not. I am not one of those who worship on the alter of Apple and light candles to them. I got it because apple lie about AI. Will see what happen later regarding that.

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I've been using Android phones along with iPhones for years now. For the first time, I am no longer using an iPhone as my main device, thanks to this new AI image description feature in TalkBack. Typing on GBoard is buttery smooth and I can type quickly as I have suggested words and auto correction turned on. A lot of the time, I don't even have to type a full word out as the auto word completion feature works quite well. The downside to using any Adnroid phone is that the Braille keyboard falls way short of the Braille keyboard on the iPhone which isn't perfect as it always use to fail to register dots time to time. As for dictation, I don't use it much but what I can say is that I'm having to do less editing on my Pixel as Google makes less mistakes because it understands me a lot better for some reason. Still I prefer to use GBoard for a lot of tasks. I do miss BlindSquare but I do have Lazarillo which is a good alternative for now. There was no mention of image and screen AI detailed descriptions coming to IOS 19 from what I gathered from the latest Applevis podcast which is a massive disappointment and my transition over to Android has been well justified. I'll always concede that VoiceOver is the most polished screen reader because of the 0 lag but it's not enough for me to switch back over to the iPhone. May be I might reconsider if Apple implement these image description features in VoiceOver but for now, I'm Pixel all the way. This is coming from someone who used an iPhone as my primary device for at least 14 years. If anyone of you want to play around with the latest version of TalkBack, do not waste your money on investing in the latest Samsung device as their TalkBack doesn't have these AI features and there is no sign of Samsung addressing this problem.

Not entirely sure why people don't like the tb Braille keyboard. On my new tablet, it works very well. Actually, I'd say my accuracy on that is probably better than on Apple BSI, because as of late anyway, BSI seems to be adding extra dots and extra spaces. Not so on the TB Braille keyboard.
Lag on my tablet is noticeable but not enough so that I wouldn't want to use it. I am pretty happy with the state of Talkback at this point.

My experience with Android was on an old Sony Xperia phone, so it’s woefully out of date, lol. But I mainly want to chime in about braille screen input on iOS.

I choose to type in grade one, so I don’t get any of the issues people are mentioning.

Editing with braille is doable—you just need to be focused in an edit field. I’d say the easiest way is to swipe up or down in command mode.

There’s no need to hold a finger on the screen to cycle between characters, words, and lines.

I actually discovered this by accident while playing around with command mode.

It isn’t perfect by any means, but at least they give you the option to assign commands. Since I hardly use it—and only when necessary—I leave most things at their defaults.

interesting, didn't know that

thanks