Accessibility on Modern IOS vs Google Pixel

You're welcome!

Google's Lookout (with its Images Mode) or Seeing AI (with its Person Mode under More), should do nicely!

Both have that feature where the camera speaks how close you are to someone.

Open Camera? I never gotten that feature to work with said application myself.

I am still glad I switched to the Pixel from the Galaxy. I haven't experienced these bugs, and the experience has been quite positive. Obviously I don't have a newer galaxy to compare to, but talkback is snappier on the Pixel than it is on the S22 Ultra.

While I have yet to find a review on the Nothing 3 from a blindness perspective, all of the regular reviews I've checked out on YouTube lead me to believe that Nothing 2, circa 2023, is actually a better overall device than the newer Nothing 3.
with that, it seems that Samsung is the obvious choice here. I wish we had access to some of the European models though. Then again, I have no idea how well the accessibility works with those particular models. 😬

That is what I've heard. if you get a flagship nothing phone, it gets more software updates, I think seven versus four. One thing I like about the pixel is all pixel models, I think beyond the seven or eight, I don't remember, they all get seven years of software updates. samsung's s-series beyond the s24 also get seven yeras of software updates. I'm glad Android is catching up to iPhones in terms of software update policies.

That is what I've heard. if you get a flagship nothing phone, it gets more software updates, I think seven versus four. One thing I like about the pixel is all pixel models, I think beyond the seven or eight, I don't remember, they all get seven years of software updates. samsung's s-series beyond the s24 also get seven yeras of software updates. I'm glad Android is catching up to iPhones in terms of software update policies.

My partner upgraded from a Samsung S10+ to a Pixel 10 Pro and finished setting it up last night. I was playing around with it a little bit.

It is much faster than his old S10+. But I tried typing on the keyboard in a Discord message to myself, and it wouldn't read the keyboard (I will go in and double check if my bf is using Gboard, I believe he used Swiftkey previously and that worked fine with TalkBack). So, couldn't type. I also tried explore-by-touch to the bottom bar with recents, home etc and TB wouldn't read it out. Like, it would kinda just... freeze when it came to that section, but the settings menu I was playing with was functioning okay.

I won't install CSR since it's not my phone and I believe TB works fine for just about everything (I am too scared to try logging into our bank account because I locked my bf out of entering a PIN because I didn't realise I was typing it incorrectly, there was no audio or haptic feedback. This was on his old phone, though)

So yeah, just a quick play around and I'll more than likely end up playing with it some more. However, I probably won't switch - I swear by AirTags, and use Find My for sometimes tracking friends and parents, and iMessage for groups and messaging my friends (we're all vision impaired and use iPhone). Also like my Apple Watch when Siri wants to work (which is almost never). I do feel more comfortable and efficient with iPhone, too. Even when I tried Android as a low vision person previously, I found myself going back to iPhone.

When I finally get around to it, I think I will go into my local cellular provider, and spend an hour or more just playing around with a Pixel and probably a Samsung device as well. I'm sure the sales folks are gonna hate me, but when it comes to accessibility, try before you buy should be law. Lol

I definitely agree, and I think that's the best option. Curious to hear your experiences.

So I'm wondering what was up there, because while I don't prefer it, I can confirm I was able to type on gboard doing Pixel setup. Also, I don't use navigation bar, but prefer the gestures, and those work well, and I see no reason the nav bar shouldn't, but definitely odd. Everyone's experience will vary, but definitely makes me wonder what in the world was going on. I much prefer the talkback Braille keyboard to gBoard, but I can say gBoard does work.

Hi all,
I am back and using an iPhone. Even though I'm using the 2022 SE, it feels leaps and bounds faster than my pixel 9A. apps open faster than the pixel, braille things are more stable than when I left them when I switched... besides battery life, the iPhone does feel smoother and more stable than when I left it.

Love my SE 2022. 😘

https://accessibleandroid.com/vivo-x300-review/

I had that phone and it was a good one. A bit small for my liking, and battery wasn't enough to get me through the day, but I do a lot on my phone. Youtube, facebook, messages, music, etc. But VoiceOver performance was good. Honestly, since I made the switch to Android last year, I don't regret it at all. But I do understand milage may vary.
As for Galaxy vs Pixel, there are things I like about both, and wish I could find a way to get the best of both worlds. For example, I love Guided Frame. It is every bit as awesome as advertised. What I'm not a huge fan of though is the pixel's default phone app. Here Samsung wins hands down. Why? Because on the pixel, yes, you can get it to show your favorite contacts first, but there are no buttons to quickly call, no talkback actions, nada. You first have to tap on the person's name, then tap call. It's a phone app people, so you would think it should be obvious that if you tap them, odds are you are trying to call. If you want that to bring up their contact card, fine, but give us a quick call button or something. With Samsung you get faster calling without having to mess with so many screens. On the recent calls screen, you can have it show you favorites first, and there it does have a quick call button, but if they're not in your recent calls, you have to move to contacts, find the person, tap their name, then tap call. Google removed the favorites tab that used to be there that would give you the behavior I described in the Samsung phone app. Change for the sake of change alone and utterly stupid in my opinion. With Samsung you get a bit more customization. Another pixel plus though is battery life. It usually gets me through a whole day no problem. I'd usually have to top up the S22 Ultra, even though that phone had a battery replacement shortly before I got it, and has a bigger battery than the Pixel 10 Pro over all. But the Pixel gets me all the way through.

, which does have an AppleVis entry here:

https://applevis.com/apps/ios/photo-video/black-lens

, recently did get an update to version 2.0 this last February.

Still 2.00 USD, though worth it really. Of course, I haven't tried it myself since I currently don't have an iDevice.
Mainly sharing
that it's still kicking in the app store.

That was a really good review. That device actually sounds promising. 😊

Sounds like a pretty good device. Enjoy. :)

The only thing that bothers me about Pixel's, or any android phones really is the response time from when you touch the screen to when talkback registers it. This exists even in the high end android phones. There is some technical reason why, but it's just how talk back works. You do get used to it after a while, but it's definitely annoying paying so much for these devices, and having what feels like lag, when sighted people can just snap around the phone super quick. Talk back has gotten some new features that are pretty cool though. Right now I have an iPhone, and I also have a Samsung tablet. I've learned that I just can't deal with Android on a main device. Android is cool to mess around with, and I like how open it is, and I can just copy and paste video files and music onto it easily from a PC. Having micro SD slots was cool too, but most of the phone manufacturers don't include this anymore for whatever reason. iPhone is just better for getting work done and being productive.

This of course is pretty subjective, as something that drives one person crazy won't bother another at all. I will say, you may be missing out on some goodies if using a samsung tablet, as their version of talkback is always behind. This has already been covered in this and several other threads on this site. Unless you force Google's version on, you are missing some of the latest updates that have helped reduce latency even more, and honestly, it's to the point now where I feel like Talkback is a lot more snappy and the latency doesn't bother me.

For me, it wasn't talkback's lag that bothered me, but when I switched to iOS, it felt infinitely more responsive. My big thing was braille display stuf. you don't have braille access on android, you don't have the choose app thing where you can either use braille screen input or your braille display, but some of the really frustrating things were the lack of ability to perform basic android commands while a keyboard is open with a braille display. Even if I use contracted braille, I can't turn speech on or off, I can't use the rotor, I can't do all sorts of stuff on it. it is super annoying. not only that, but the limitations of how long a chunk of text can be, is straight up unacceptable. after 15000-20000 characters, the phone literally starts to lag, and beyond 30000-40000 characters? It becomes a turtle. My current novel I'm working on in total is 167000 characters. The only way I'm able to get around it is to split the files up, which is fine for organizational purposes, but one of my chapters is over 60000 characters long alone! So.... that's part of my take with the phone too.

Lol Subject line says it all. I've never, nor would I ever, want to write anything that long on a phone. I honestly wouldn't even on the computer, but writing isn't my thing. I can see how this would be problematic for you. I can't imagine it being much better with VoiceOver and the focus bugs that have existed, but if it works better for you, then awesome.

iOS actually works really well with it. in iOS 26 and 26.1, the cursor routing and all that was pretty buggy and unstable. but apparently, in the four months I didn't have an iPhone, they fixed my biggest issues. And yeah, iOS loads any of those chapters like, "Hold my beer."

I actually did remove Samsung's version of talk back, and installed the play store version a while ago, and aside from some newer features, the input delay still exists. I've had flagship android devices in the past, and that input delay was always there. Maybe if I didn't get so used to iOS before switching to android, I wouldn't notice it as much. I've tried other screen readers on android like jieshuo, and that one is way more responsive than talk back for me, but I still prefer talk back's gestures and features.

Agreed. Jishuo is really responsive, but I don't really like the gestures, and was unwilling to pay just to be able to fully edit them, plus I love the Talkback Braille keyboard. I've heard SoftBraille Keyboard has been updated, and I was using that thing long before Google ever thought about making a Braille keyboard, and SBK does have a few tempting features, like having tts language change when typing in a different language, which when you need to do that is really nice, rather than having English Eloquence butcher whatever language you are typing in, but the thing I never liked was having to turn Talkback on and off all the time. I have gotten to the point where I don't even notice the lag anymore.

It'll be great to see an updated review of the latest Nothing Phones, as well as the smartwatches and how well their ecosystem integrates from a blind person's perspective.

I recently tried the Guided Frame feature on my partner's Pixel 10 Pro. It's really neat, except my arm tends to shake a bit if I'm holding the phone outstretched for too long so I'd lose my placement. But it is awesome, being able to take an actually straight selfie and then having Gemini describe it to you.

Glad you were able to try that out. Yes, it really is cool that we can do that, and then gemini descriptions of images help confirm we got a good shot.

Hi everyone! As I’ve mentioned here before, I was a Google Pixel user for a while. I couldn't really use the Pixel as my daily driver because I didn't find the experience comfortable and TalkBack felt slow to me, but I know this is subjective and a lot of people love the Pixel—I think it depends on many things...
A few weeks ago, I gave up on the Pixel and stopped trying. I just stuck to using my iPhone.
The last time I had used a Samsung was the S23 and I really liked it, but then I decided to give the Pixel a try...
Recently, I started using a Samsung S26 and I wanted to share my feedback. Even though this post is about the Pixel, I thought this might be helpful.
Samsung will be using Google's TalkBack starting from One UI 9, and in my opinion, that is great news!
TalkBack on Samsung feels much more responsive to me than on the Google Pixel, which makes the experience of typing and using the phone for work much more comfortable when needed.
I'm not sure if this is a recent addition, but Guided Frame is already available on Samsung, at least it is on my S26. It doesn't work for animals and objects yet, but it works really well for people. It's flawless!
I also really like having multiple options like Gemini and Bixby.
I love Samsung's customization, though I haven't explored Routines that much yet.
I am absolutely loving the phone. I'm using it daily with both my work and personal SIM cards, and I'm really, really enjoying it.
I also love the fact that I can use fingerprint unlock for banking apps and so on, and it works incredibly well.
I hope this feedback was helpful!

Thanks Sara,

I've been considering my next upgrade and have really been looking into a Samsung device. I very much appreciate your review above, because it makes me feel better about my decision to go with a Samsung as soon as I upgrade my device. Like you, I really am fascinated with all the customization options at Samsung offers, and I have heard from Several people, that Samsung devices are just that much more enjoyable these days.
It is also awesome news to hear that Samsung will finally be using Google's version of talkback over their own modified version. Even better, the new TalkForward screen reader that has recently been released for Android, should be quite the experience on a Samsung.
So again, thank you for your review, it is appreciated. 😊

I plan to upgrade to either the S26 Ultra this year (if I can get a good deal on it) or the S27 Pro next year (especially since I myself don't need an S-Pen.)

Yup? Guided Frame is indeed on the S23 series onwards with OneUI 8.5. The fact the S23 line (in my case the S23+) is getting OneUI 9 as its swan song, truly special! Ass I've mentioned elsewhere, still keeping said S23 Plus. It's a fine backup phone for what it is. And it's Lavendar! Can't forget both Bixby and Gemini do pretty nicely with it (even with it being 3 years old now.)

Why keep buying Samsung phones? So, I can switch screen readers at will! Oh, and multi-sound.

Almost forgot!

If you have Routines Plus installed (the GoodLock Mod), you can share routines! Just make sure to take out location stuff before sharing.

OK, please educate me. What is the difference between an Ultra and a Pro when it comes to Samsung?

Thanks to the fine folks over at
https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s27-pro-everything-to-know/
and
https://samsung.gadgethacks.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s27-pro-battery-leak-points-to-5000mah-cell/
, it's basically the S27 Ultra without the S-Pen and more compact with a larger battery.

Now that's cool! I use Guided frame a lot, and love it. One of the major reasons I switched to the Pixel. Not going to be switching devices any time soon, but in a few years when I am ready to upgrade, I'll probably switch back, as I like a lot of Samsung's way of doing things. The phone app for one, which is a big one. If only you didn't have to use the samsung store, and could manage all apps via Google Play. Will be interesting to see what Google and Samsung do over the next few years.

Hey! So glad it was helpful. I hope you love your Samsung when you finally upgrade, I’m absolutely loving mine! 🙌

Hi! I was also torn between jumping back to Samsung now or waiting for the S27 Pro, but a good deal popped up so I just went for it. I'll probably end up getting the S27 Pro when it drops anyway, it's just too tempting lol. This one will become my work or backup phone, I always like having a spare just in case.
As for me, I don't really switch between screen readers, I just stick to TalkBack. But the cool part is I haven't even felt the need to try another one, which means TalkBack is doing great on this phone. Typing is super smooth and it doesn't feel laggy like my past experiences, so I'm happy about that! I'm still trying to figure out how to edit the home screen, but I'll get there, still learning!
I’m definitely going to explore routines more, I think you can do a lot of cool stuff with them. And I also really love having multi-sound. The fact that you can listen to music on a speaker while TalkBack stays on the phone is so nice! I’m honestly really enjoying it. It feels like my old S23, but maybe a little bit faster.

This device sounds dead sexy, if those specs are to be believed. Now, I just have to hold out another eight months, give or take...

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S26 and I'm happy with it. The writing is fast and without lag. You mentioned Samsung cameras above in the comments. There are voice instructions for the camera and it focuses on your face and automatically takes a picture, the same goes for the rear camera. It may not be like a pixel, but it's still there.
You can extract text from a photo by opening it in the gallery and there is a button to extract the text.

First of all, I’m glad Samsung is improving TalkBack accessibility on devices.
This segment of text hope serves as as a clarification since there may be some confusion, according to many sources Guided frame will remain exclusive to Pixel devices. But it’s always welcome when some company improve accessibility.
In this case for the new Samsung users who recently bought devices are still using the Talkback version provide by Samsung? Or are you trying some beta on it?

I’m also curious about the claim the typing experience is faster we have to remember Samsung uses its own keyboard, which makes me wonder. Can you use dictation with doble tap gesture?

, is not meant to replace Google's own Guided Frame. The version of guided framing Samsung has, only works with people.
Nothing else.

I mostly stick to Gboard—it's just my favorite, plus the two-finger double-tap to start voice typing works like a charm. That shortcut doesn't work on the Samsung keyboard, but I think I read somewhere that you can hold down the power button while speaking and let go when you're done. Never actually tried it, though. I usually type everything out and only use dictation in very specific situations.
As for Guided Frame, I don't think it was meant to be an exact copy of the Pixel's. I just wanted to point out that taking photos is way easier on Samsung now thanks to this feature. But like I said, on Samsung it only works with people, while the Pixel handles people, animals, and objects.

You are correct. With Samsung's keyboard, you can dictate by holding down the power button, or that key on the bottom left of the space bard (which can bring up the normal keyboard switcher by holding it down for like a second or so at any time.) It's a toggle.

I'm reasonably happy with my iPhone - the bugs are tolerable, I'm fairly efficient with it and it integrates pretty well with my Mac. I think with tech there is always that grass is greener feeling and I would like to try an Android for a bit.

One thing that has come up for me recently which has frustrated me about iOS is how difficult it is for me to get my own apps installed on it. As an example - recently I bought a SwitchBot fan and the app is only partly accessible. I asked Claude to write me my own app that would let me control it more easily with bluetooth. Now I can install it on my phone with Xcode, but after 7 days it will stop working. I can install it over wifi now which is handy but I will still have to keep doing this, or hack together some sort of cron job to do it. I could pay $100 or whatever a year to have an Apple dev account but this seems crazy for what I am trying to do.

My understanding with Android is you can just put an apk on your phone and be done with it.

I don't want to derail this thread into an argument over vibe coding, but it does seem to be something that is perfectly suited to my particular problem - and I've been writing lots of Mac apps that solve specific things just for me and I would love to convert some of them to iOS apps too. Not all of them are suitable as web apps.

I do see vibe coding as an accessibility feature as it is allowing a lot of people to overcome limitations of other apps by taking back control for themselves. It's not the right solution, but given that most companies can't even be bothered to add a couple of labels to their app, it is an alternative.

Anyway this is something that really appeals to me about Android.

One downside is that the Android watches are supposed to be fairly bad with TB.

Hello, I hope this brief explanation helps you understand the differences between each of the cameras and their accessibility features. If you have an iPhone, I'll leave you an iOS app so you can try it. It seems the cost is $2, and so you'll be able to understand a simulation of how the camera works on a Samsung and Pixel device with accessibility.

"The accessibility offered by the camera on an iPhone is really basic. The only description it gives you is face detection, and that's it.
"I recommend downloading this app.
iOS Black Lens app
"Even though this app' features are limited, it will give you some idea of the differences between camera devices.
How Black Lens Works
• Spoken Directional Cues• : Tells you to move the phone left, right, up, or down to center a face.
• Haptic and Audio Feedback• : Uses sound prompts and vibrations to indicate when you are in the "sweet spot”.
• Auto-Capture• : Automatically takes the picture once the face is framed and held steady.
• VoiceOver Support, : Fully compatible with iOS accessibility tools.
Obviously, the functionalities that Guided Frame offers are many more. I leave you below a description so that you can understand all the extra functionalities it offers.
. In addition to all this, I recommend that you search for videos on YouTube so that the appreciation of the description is much better.

Guided Frame for Google Pixel devices
Important:
Guided Frame is available on Pixel 6 and later, including Fold.
• Scene descriptions are currently only supported in these countries and languages:
Australia (English)
Canada (English, French - CA)
France (French)
Germany (German)
India (English, Hindi)
Italy (Italian)
Japan (Japanese)
Spain (Spanish)
Taiwan (Chinese - Traditional)
United Kingdom (English - UK)
United States (English)
When you take a photo with Guided Frame, you can get cues to help you frame the image. Guided Frame signals when your subject is in view. A visual frame surrounds your subject, and verbal cues and vibrations signal when to take the photo.
This feature works with:
• Front and rear cameras.
• Photo and portrait modes.

Tips: Portrait mode will only detect faces.
Guided Frame is enabled by default when your phone has TalkBack on.
• When your phone isn't in TalkBack mode, a suggestion prompt to use Guided Frame appears when one of the Accessibility features is used.
• You can turn Guided Frame on and off in the camera settings anytime.
Use Guided Frame
1. Open the Camera app
2. Point the camera at your subject.
3. Follow the audio or visual instructions or vibrations.
4. When subjects are framed correctly, the Camera app takes your photo automatically.
To do it manually, press either Volume up or Volume down button.
4 To trigger Scene Description so your device describes your photo, on the camera viewfinder, use one finger to swipe down in the middle.
If Talkback is turned on, use 2 fingers to swipe down.
Tips:
To switch between front or rear cameras, double-tap the front or rear camera button.
To use Scene Description in landscape orientation, from the middle of the camera viewfinder, swipe from left to right instead of a downward swipe.
Subjects that Guided Frame recognizes
When you take a photo with Guided Frame, it helps recognize the subjects and can describe it to you. This feature leverages Gemini models to provide context-rich description of scenes and subjects.
Recognizable subjects for framing include:
• Faces
• Pets
• Food
• Drinks
• Documents
• Vehicles
• Electronic devices
•Plants and flowers

Tip: Guided Frame works best with a single subject.
Use Scene Description with Guided Frame
Important: The first time you use Scene Description while offline, you may get a "No internet connection" error. If you do, wait a few moments for the AI model to finish its background processes and try again.
Your Pixel can provide detailed info about the scene in your camera view with Scene Description. Powered by Gemini, Scene Description is built into your Camera app. It also helps users with visual impairments take photos with ease through the use of audio and haptics.
On Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel 10 Pro Fold, you can use Scene Description without an internet connection. The regions and languages supported are:
Australia (English)
Canada (English, French - CA)
France (French)
Germany (German)
India (Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu) 
Italy (Italian)
Japan (Japanese)
Spain (Basque, Catalan, Galician, Spanish)
Taiwan (Chinese - Traditional)
UK (English - UK)
US (English, Spanish)

On Pixel 6 and later phones, Scene Description supports more languages with an internet connection:
Austria (German)
Bahrain (Arabic)
Belgium (Dutch, French, German)
Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
Croatia (Croatian)
Czechia (Czech)
Denmark (Danish)
Estonia (Estonian)
Finland (Finnish)
Greece (Greek)
Hong Kong (Chinese - Hong Kong)
Hungary (Hungarian)
Indonesia (Indonesian)
Ireland (English)
Israel (Hebrew)
Kuwait (Arabic)
Latvia (Latvian)
Lithuania (Lithuanian)
Malaysia (English - UK, Malay)
Mexico (Spanish, Spanish - Latin America)
Netherlands (Dutch)
New Zealand (English - UK)
Norway (Norwegian)
Oman (Arabic)
Philippines (English - UK, Filipino)
Poland (Polish)
Portugal (Portuguese)
Qatar (Arabic)
Romania (Romanian)
Saudi Arabia (Arabic)
Singapore (English - SG)
Slovakia (Slovak)
Slovenia (Slovenian)
South Korea (Korean)
Sweden (Swedish)
Switzerland (French - CH, German, Italian - CH)
hailand (English - UK, Thai)
Turkey (Turkish)
United Arab Emirates (Arabic)
Vietnam (English - UK, Vietnamese)
Tips:
• If TalkBack isn’t active, make sure you turn on Guided Frame in your Camera app’s advanced settings.
• If you turn on Scene Description for the first time, you’ll be asked for your consent. This consent is required to allow the feature to process scene info and provide descriptions.

If this application's for your use only, why not just turn it into a persistent web app (PWA)? Honestly, it's probably the best you're gonna get on iOS, without having to deal with the politics of an Apple Developer account.

Curious about your thoughts on the new Pixel 11? Have you had a chance to check out some of the latest YouTube videos on it?

Well, as I said, web apps aren't suitable for everything and probably not the apps I would like to run on my phone. The example I gave of controlling a bluetooth fan is, as far as I am aware, not possible through a PWA. It also cannot read/write to my disk the way I would like.

It's definitely an option for some things. I would still need to be convinced that it can work as well as a native app though.

But the point being that Android does not have this limitation which would make it much more compelling if you were doing this a lot.

It's may be not so easy, but you still could use SideStore: it allows to install up to 2 additional apps, and create Shortcut to automatically refresh them without PC.