Bug with talk back on Samsung devices

By Apple-fan01, 12 July, 2026

Forum
Android

Hello AppleVis members,

After updating your Samsung devices to One UI 8.5, have you noticed a strange bug with TalkBack?

Whenever you are extensively editing with the keyboard—especially tasks requiring intensive use of the reading control to scroll between paragraphs, words, characters, lines, etc.—TalkBack will suddenly lose its ability to explore by touch. This makes it absolutely impossible to type anything with the keyboard. Since you can't explore by touch, the only way to navigate is by swiping on the screen, even for typing-related purposes.

I realize this issue is only present in One UI 8.5 and has not been present in previous Android versions.

Has anybody experienced this issue, and how did you manage to resolve it permanently? I did manage to get the issue to go away temporarily by itself, but it always comes back.

How do you resolve it permanently?

Options

Comments

By Brian on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 14:40

Does this affect Samsung's version of TalkBack, or googles as well?
Does it affect other (third-party) screen readers on Android?
Not sure when One UI 9 is supposed to be released, but it will have Google's version of TalkBack on it, so here is to hoping this bug is fixed by then. 😇

By Trenton Matthews on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 15:16

Considering when this issue happens at random, it makes all screen readers go odd.

OneUI 9 should definitely fix this odd happening.

By Brian on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 16:34

When exactly does One UI 9 come out? Pretty sure I'll be getting my S26+ before then. 🙁

By Trenton Matthews on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 16:40

Around the same time the Z-Fold/Flips come out.

So, for you, it won't be long.

By Apple-fan01 on Sunday, July 12, 2026 - 23:40

Haven’t tried other screen readers extensively on it as I don’t need them. However present on both versions of talk back.

By Sara on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 14:20

Yeah, I’m getting that bug too. I type a lot and edit text all the time on my phone, so it’s really annoying. Hopefully One UI 9 fixes it, because at this point it’s honestly becoming a bit of a deal breaker for me.

By burak on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 16:35

Hello,
That issue with explore by touch comes and goes for me since way back 2024.
I can't get it to disappear permenantly, but one of these ways might help in random probability:
1. Switching apps
2.1. Long press three fingers on the screen to open screen search
2.2. Enable Talkback braille keyboard
2.3. Type in random letters, then delete
2.4. Switch to normal keyboard
2.5. Try explore by touch
Or there's always turning Talkback off and on, but that has a pretty low chanse of helping.

By Brian on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 17:40

If someone is having this issue with a Samsung S26, how is my S26+ going to handle this? 🙁

By Sara on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 20:32

it’s definitely quite annoying, and Explore by Touch can be a pain sometimes as well.

Something I keep forgetting to mention is another bug I’ve been seeing. Every now and then, when I touch the screen, TalkBack doesn’t announce anything at all. But if I swipe instead of using Explore by Touch, it reads everything normally. Sometimes turning TalkBack off and on fixes it, but other times the only solution is restarting the phone.

I don’t know if I’m the only one experiencing this. It’s happened on my S26, and I’ve also seen it happen on an S26 Ultra. I haven’t been able to find any pattern. It just seems to happen randomly.

As for the typing bug, I really hope One UI 9 fixes it. I’m not in the US, and Samsung support where I live is honestly pretty awful. They barely know what TalkBack is, so reporting accessibility bugs isn’t very useful.

I type and edit a lot on my phone, and I often have to move large blocks of text around. That’s where TalkBack really struggles. It’s definitely one of my biggest frustrations with the S26 right now.

Just to be clear, I’m only talking about TalkBack because it’s the only screen reader I use, so I have no idea how other Android screen readers behave. Hopefully you’ll be able to find some feedback from people using other screen readers. If they don’t have these issues, then you should be totally fine.

The good news is that, as far as I know, One UI 9 should be released in July, so hopefully you’ll be able to find feedback from other users before deciding, because you’ll know what to expect. In the meantime, I’m just using my iPhone for writing and other productivity tasks until this gets fixed.

By Trenton Matthews on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 23:12

I have no idea if Samsung will honor Talkback tech support stuff once OneUI9 comes to the S26 and later.

It's 1-800-Samsung, for the record.

, or via the Samsung Members app.

Easiest with Google is through Be My Eyes. Assuming you get a person on the line that's um, professional though friendly enough?

Samsung support's better in this regard.

I'm still on an S23 Plus at the moment so, no issues with any screen reader at start up.

By Trenton Matthews on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 23:29

Expect The Galaxy S26 to receive OneUI 9 during the month of September.

It comes to the brand-new fold & flip series of phones (now on their eighth generation) on the 22nd of July 2026. Which is also the official launch of Z things.

By Joshua on Monday, July 13, 2026 - 23:52

This might be the cause but i haven't been able to pinpoint it, it just seems to happen at random for me and doesn't go away till i restart my phone, so annoying.

I am using the S23+

By Soren on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - 10:28

The bug is caused by a stuck pointer that tells talkback that a finger is pressed down even if that is not true, this causes explore by touch to obviously fail as now two fingers are registering doing impossible things. A fix could be done either by the screenreader or the system. Both are easily doable.
Before people ask me how I found this out, adb logcat is the answer.

By Trenton Matthews on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - 11:02

Definitely report this to Sammy ASAP.

Honestly would have never thought that'd be the culprit...

I have mine completely turned off!

By Brian on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - 17:22

With it turned off, does that mean you don't have this issue on your S23+?

By Sara on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - 19:25

Hi! Yeah, I already tried contacting Samsung Support through the Samsung Members app and by phone.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m in Europe and the support here just isn’t great, or if I was simply unlucky, but the person I spoke to on the phone told me to disable TalkBack. Obviously that’s not really an option because without TalkBack I can’t use my phone. So either they didn’t know what TalkBack is, or that was just a really strange suggestion.

I also tried reporting it through the Samsung Members app, but I haven’t received any reply yet.

I even went to a Samsung Store, but I couldn’t really explain the issue because, once again, I was told to turn TalkBack off.

So at this point I don’t really know what else I can do. I haven’t tried contacting Google Support through Be My Eyes or any of Google’s other support channels. So far I’ve only tried Samsung Support.

By Sara on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - 19:26

Hi guys! If that’s really what’s causing the bug, I’d like to make sure it’s turned off on my phone too. Where can I find that setting, or how can I disable it?

Thanks in advance! This bug is annoying as hell.

By Trenton Matthews on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - 21:34

Settings>Security & Privacy>Auto Blocker

, and make sure it's set to off.

I'd also go under app info for any screen reader you use and change the battery setting to Unrestricted. By default, it's always set to Optimized.

By Trenton Matthews on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - 21:39

Correct. Not having said issue here.

Think of the upcoming OneUI 9, similar to iOS 27 and iOS 12, since those were stability OS updates.

Kinda happy that OneUI 9 will be my last on the S23+ I have to be honest...

OneUI 8.5 just feels like iOS 26 in many ways. (Only know that thanks to reviews of course since I don't have an IPhone to back that up myself.)