I want to talk about my brief gerny into android.

I purchased a chaeap samsung mobile from long time ago, and i gave it to my wife,
ALso, i purchased Xiaomi Poco, it is a very good mobile with it's price, but really, apple is apple,
ANdroid becomes very good for people who are already using android from a long time, it became better and better now, but, Again
Apple is apple

Hi. I'm a long time Android user who can't switch to the iPhone. I have an iPhone 13, and I don't disagree with people who say Apple has a better accessibility experience, but I keep running into issues trying to switch. When I look into it, they are the same issues Android users have who are trying to switch to iPhones. I just wanted to point out being locked into the Apple world is not just an accessibility issue, it's just the nature of Android and iPhones.

THere are some issues that i found when using android:
1- syncing COntacts between the 2 tphones is really difficult, specially when adding a new one.
2- can not get used to all the talkback gestures very quickly.

Really it's a matter of how you can use the thing

So Brad I'm going to keep this as nice as I can because I'd hate to get my account frozen or some such thing, but being one of those people in the android world that offered help to you and then seeing a message like this is insulting. And i am not attacking you either so don't read into what's not there.

IPhones are great and have there good points and bad ones, but they will never take over the blind community. It may hold a huge part because people are too afraid to step outside their comfort zone and give android a try like yourself for more than a few hours and then bash android because it doesn't work like they are use too, but there will always be those blind users out there to fight for android. On the flip side of that android has its good and bad sides as well. I know because I use both the android and the IPhone. My android is my primary phone and there are things that work much better on the android than the IPhone and vise versa.

The android users may not have a nice pretty site and such like IPHones do, but that's because it's different and more layered and have soooooo many choices out there to work with than just the IPhone for apple. For android you have pixels, googles, samsungs and lg's and so many more and even though talkback is the same on all the layout may be just a little different due to the phone. But hell who wants everything to be the same that makes for a boring world? Accessible yes, but not the same.

A lot of people offered to help you and you did nothing but argue and bash just about every comment sent your way and went on and on about you going back to the IPhone. That's fine because it's what you are comfortable with, but don't go around saying that it's not newbie friendly because you didn't except the help offered and you admitted that you didn't even look at the tutorial which would have helped you at least get started as well or familiarize yourself with android again since you tried it once before. I understand the android isn't for you because remembered the gestures is too much for you, but keep this in mind. Within the last few years the IPhone has also been throwing in gestures that matches the android. So some day they all may end up having layered gestures and menus and such.

However, with that being said which I've also mentioned when I saw the blind android site I do have to agree with you there, that site needs work because it isn't newbie friendly, but find the right person and the android world could be.

Poor guy said nothing bad… Chillax bro…
In fact the thread is quite helpful to someone like me who stopped using android back in 2012.

@May1978: and then we have these people who went like, "oh yeah! I tried android 100000 years ago, and it was bad! *bashing continues*". Seriously, I've seen mager improvement on the android world over the years, so @everyone please do not compare it to the experience that you have long time ago. I've been using both phone, and okay, while I could say it is more comfortable to use IOS as my main phone, android is not a total garbage or anything. my suggestion is to stick to google's phone, not third party stuff. IOS has problems (yet for some reason IOS users are blind about it and refuse to admit this), and android does, too. I agree about community however, there is no something like applevis for the blind android user community, which is unfortunet. but what I know is, android users usually are more open minded and happy to help.

Good day to all. Brad, thanks for sharing your thoughts regarding Android. Hmm, that scares me already. Does this mean I actually specialize in something? here are mine. I have had to become familiar with Android due to my being a tech trainer and being familiar with both platforms, Yes, it's required in my profession.
To really get to understand Android and it's accessibility in my opinion one needs to spend some time with it.
I took my sim card out of my iPhone, dropped it in my Pixel 5 and decided to suffer the technical term for leaving my comfort zone and embarking on a new and educational journey.. Why do I say that? I've never made an android phone my primary phone. This is the best way to learn about a new device.
What did I learn? There are some really good things about Android.
1. I love the new talkback gestures and the fact that I can create my own. No more squiggly gestures for me although I hear they still exist for those who enjoy them.
I love the way I can delete mail. double tap and hold on a message, here the bleep and it is selected. I can do this with multiple messages and then hit the delete button on the tool bar and they are all gone.
Navigating the device is fairly easy, going to the app switcher simply take 2 fingers and move up until you feel the vibration and take your fingers off and there it is.
I love the fact that I have a clear all so rather than closing apps individually I double tap clear all and they are gone.
Hot spot is great something I use and what I appreciate is even if my phone is locked the hot spot broadcasts like any wifi network and I can find it, key in the password on my device and log in. This is really helpful when using the Shark openspot 3 a device that allows me to connect with DMR radio, (N2FGB) here.
With apple you have to either go to control center to enable the hotspot or go to hotspot settings and as long as allow others to join is turned on the hotspot broadcasts so other devices can see it. The problem is once the phone locks if you are connected your good but if not you have to open hotspot settings again allowing the hotspot to rebroadcast or go to control center to make it discoverable again.
So, what am I saying here? It's all good. I'm back on iPhone by choice not because android is horrible but iPhone has a few things that I personally prefer.
I love the rotor, I like that I can select text from just about any ware where in android you need to be in an edit field or download a third party program to do that, I prefer iPhones web navigation and that it offers more elements to navigate by and it's just a bit snappier.
Also, I run an apple watch and although since it is the LTE mottle it can stand alone there are some oddities that come up when the iPhone is not present.
So, Enjoy android, enjoy apple, be kind to those who have alternate opinions and remember, google is your friend. It's all out there and I have found great information on each.
Woof,woof from the Yelow lab under my desk.

first of all, why are you talking about android on an apple community website? if we want to hear about android we would go to android website. I still don't get why the article is good for? any way, thank you for your complain/experience! lol

Well I just learnt something new.

Thanks @John W. Hess.

Something to remember the next time I play with an Android phone.

My last android experience wasn't the best, but the phone I borrowed at the time was an old Soney Xperia my brother had in one of his draws.

The phone stopped talking, but talkback was apparently still on, so he had to turn it off and back on in settings.

I don't know enough to use an android phone comfortably, but he also said newer phones would most likely not have those issues.

If I were to switch to an android, I think I would play with one for a few days to get the feel of the operating system and not give up so quickly.

Brad's right about one thing, there isn't enough beginner resources to get you started, I'd guess that's because of all the different hardware, kind of like windows, but we all are pretty comfortable with windows because we're use to it.

I'm wondering if this might slowly change once people start getting windows 11 PCs and dabble with android, but their subsystem sounds like it's different.

A screen reader within a screen reader, now there's a first.

I think chromebooks have been doing this for a while, but I'm starting to ramble so I'll sign off by saying this.

I won't be dismissing android, just because of a few bad experiences.

If android had some sort of beginner device, you could keep one device and switch back and forth until you got the hang of it.

I'd say just get a basic android tablet to play around with, but I hear screen readers aren't the best on the cheaper devices.

Something I hear commentary can solve, but I also hear getting that is like jumping through hoops.

Android lacks alot. Lets start by saying I have used both. What is android lacking.
1 no system wide copy and paste.
2 terrible braille support.
3 You can't use a keyboard reliably. What do I mean by this if you find a button on the touchscreen you can't necessarily click it with the keyboard.
4 no spell check for blind users.
5 buttons aren't there own controls neither are non visited links etc.
6 no screen recognition.
7 no dictionary to fix the way it says things or have it not speak certain things. This dictionary function was promised years ago by a Talk back dev on the old Eyes free list. When a company promises something then fails to deliver years later it shows they don't care.
8 you can't always label unlabeled buttons on android. I haven't found this to be the case. Google has yet to look into a report about a third party app that I sent feedback on through the send feedback option found in talk back. If they did they certainly didn't reach out like Apple does and said this is the status. Its almost like Google doesn't care about third party apps.
Does Google care I think not. Alot of these short comings have been pointed out for years. Where are we? Maybe 1 thing a year will get fixed. At this Rate Google will never catch up. I will pay more for an accessible product.
I was using Pixel phones it should be pointed out so I went and got a good android phone.

On android you can only do this on edit boxes. You can’t select text anywhere and copy and paste.

I found that to not work reliably. Lets hypothetically say it worked android is still lacking the other features I menchened. The bottom line is Apple has shown they care more about accessibility through their actions.

so on android if I want to select and copy an article from the web or certain text in an email and paste it somewhere else the copy last spoken phrase will not work for this. sighted people can do it, my son said so, so why can't we? and there is no system wide spellcheck for us talkback users. IOS is just more polished, that's just how it is.

Unfortunately I have to agree with Josh on this. There is no excuse for letting Google off the hook. Its time Talk back step up to the plate and fix what it has been lacking for years. Google is a huge company they could fix this in a year or 2 if they wanted. The bottom line is they don't want to. Actions speak louder then words.

What’s new in android accessibility suite/ talk back 9.1:
• Local and global context menus unified in a single TalkBack menu
• New gestures on some devices
• Reading controls to quickly change settings you use often
• Voice commands
• Braille keyboard available in Spanish and Arabic
• Updated tutorial

Other:
• Customizable Switch Access context men
I would encourage anyone who has not used android in years to go through the tutorial. I would also give it more then a day. Does iOS have major advantages over android? Yes. However you will not know if android or iOS is for you if you only give the platform a day. If you have 14 days to return the phone give yourself a week to 10 days.

First let me restate again I am on iOS full time. Now to the question why isn't 1 day enough? You won't be able to over come your issues. Some people offered to help you. Maybe you would've had a better experience with android had you went through the tutorial or taken people's help. Another reason 1 day isn't enough is I had a SE 2020 I had a terrible time doing the home gesture and app switcher on my 13 pro. If I gave up after 1 day the phone would be back at the Apple store and I wouldn't have it. It takes more then a day to get good at anything.

I have gone back and forth a lot do to loving tech. I agree IOS is more pollished than Android and that is from someone who is writing this on a Galaxy tab. I think there are a few things for me that stand out. Apple acts on there caring for accessibility. I know braille is a pain point but even that works better. Audio discription in the iTunes store they have none on the Google store for movies and tv. The fact Apple beta's are more open than Googles talk back betas are a huge thing for me. They have this tester approved thing over at Google that you have to apply for lol but yet Talkback releases are beta at best when released. The current version when a user touches the top of the screen says ui like any normal person would know what that means.

I'm happy talkback is maturing but for me as a daily driver it isn't good enough yet. Thankfully I can have a android tab and a iPhone for me this is the best world to watch things if they change. I have met some good folks on the Android side but just like folks here some are blinded to loyalty.

Hey there @ Dennis Long, Just would like to clean up your points there.
1. Copy and paste is possible. not as relyable as voice over however. Is the issue when selecting things with VO on the web fixed btw?
2. Braile support? if you mean braile display, yes, it's offel. but android has braile keyboard came from talkback.
3. You can. either by pressing enter, or alt+enter.
4. true.
5. Not sure what you mean here. but on webpages you could navigate by headings, links, tables, etc. although yes, I don't think it'll tell you if the link is visited or not.
6. true.
7. I believe you can now. both via talkback itself or the tts. remember that, unlike vo, android got some tts engine out there, with and without the dictionary support.
8. Now you can.
btw on the other hand, this is a bit out of the line, but there is another screen reader software for android called CSR. It is so much better and faster than talkback. with this one, you could select things, perform screen recognition etc. I know it's a bit unfair to brought that up, but what can I say, android is really that wide, you dislike how an app do things? you could just look for an alternative. And this is also something that make people feels overwelm with android. some people just gave up trying without looking for some other ways, and I understand that. If possible we would like for things are setup and ready in just a few minutes. unfortunetly that is not the case for android phones. once things are setup however, it'll be worthwhile tbh.

Hi all,
Seems like I only come here when android gets misrepresented by folks who try it for a day or think it's awful all around because it doesn’t do what they need. In my mind neither OS is accessible and, indeed, they’re both kind of slipping as time goes on. Anyways, I use both phones often but find android suits my needs better as a daily driver and here’s why:
1. Messages for web. Apple lets you use your computer to text … as long as you have a MAC. Being able to send and receive texts from my computer … from any of my computers has been, and I’m not exhagerating, lifechanging. Maybe you don’t text enough to make that a useful feature but I certainly do.
2. Better voice control: Try asking siri to change your rotor from headings to braille screen input. How about asking her to make your voiceover speak faster. Maybe you want to open your notifications while your phone is in your pocket. Google just does voice control better.
3. Braille screen input. Sure IOS braille screen input has tons more bells and whistles … but you have to activate it in the rotor every time you want to type with it in an edit box. Mine just pops up whenever I double tap on an edit box. I’ll take that over IOS implimentation any day though I realize plenty of folks would prefer the increased power and increased effort you get with IOS braille screen input.
4. Universal copy. It's an app you can download from the play store which solves the copy/paste issue Dennis brought up and indeed does so in a more efficient way, for me, than IOS.
5. No stupid lightning
port … you know how nice it is to have a single charging cord to top off my phone, my windows machine, my chromebook, my braille display and my headphones? If Apple got rid of lightning I’d seriously have to think about IOS again because, as has been mentioned already, it does some things better and that's just fact. I’d like the better braille support, more keyboard commands and more powerful web browsing voiceover could give me … but not if I have to carry another cord in my backpack which I’ll inevitably lose and have to get replaced time after time because even MFI cables get rejected by apple’s stupid proprietary charging control eventually.
Anyway, can we please realize everything has tradeoffs and, just because something works better for you, that doesn’t make it better for everyone? Accessibility is about finding which features work best for you and which bugs you can tolerate – heaven knows there's plenty of both to go around whichever phone you use. Incidentally, I’m finding IOS braille support getting worse with each IOS update and, at least for the kind of power use I want to get out of a mobile device with a braille display, neither IOS or android can do what I need. I don’t think I’m alone in that opinion.

Folks, usually I tend not to get involved in discussions of this ilk, but can't stand by this time around due to the points raised. I prefer iOS because:
1. I'd rather put my money and resources where I feel accessibility is taken more seriously. And it's not a biased statement that, after so many years and so many attempts, Google hasn't taken Android accessibility as seriously as desired. Google Assistant breaking TalkBack's ability to stay silent while issuing spoken commands time and again, sudden losses of speech, lack of a proper beta-testing strategy, the offloading of TalkBack development to Samsung in recent months and the confusion it has introduced, and so on, aren't encouraging to say the least.
2. I have a good number of accessible dictionaries on iOS. Oxford English Dictionary -- recently made accessible, AHD 5, Merriam-Webster, and even the built-in iOS dictionary are all perfectly accessible. Such professional dictionaries on Android are downright inaccessible or pose serious access challenges, and Android, unlike iOS doesn't have a built-in dictionary to begin with.
3. I use Google Assistant on iOS in combination with Siri, and this is the best of both worlds. I've found Siri much intelligent recently, so oftentimes I end up satisfied.
4. I prefer Apple's approach to the provision of TTS and voices to that of Google. Google TTS doesn't provide me with the voices and languages I need, so I have to purchase them from other vendors whereas, on iOS, I have Siri and Vocalizer voices/languages free of charge -- in addition to stuff like Alex. Yes, one has more choices on Android, but are they as polished and well-documented as those of iOS? Definitely no.
5. I use RSS a lot, and iOS offers a good number of accessible RSS readers. Whereas on Android I haven't yet found something as accessible and full-fledged as, say, Lire.
6. I use VoiceOver's built-in spellchecker and screen recognition/image describer, and they are absent in TalkBack. Now CSR might fill the gap in a couple of areas, but CSR, with its lack of proper/out-of-date documentation and unorthodox style of distribution, isn't for me.
Of course, I do respect the choice of everyone and understand why some might prefer Android. But if sticking to standards and committing to accessibility are our major concerns, Google should mend its ways sooner rather than later. And, while we're at it, let's not underestimate Applevis and the lack of such a website dedicated to Android accessibility. Email lists - especially non-moderated ones - and half-baked websites don't cut it for me when I should be able to locate the needed info as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I agree with Amir The spell check and screen recognition are big for me. The keyboard support is as well. The copy and paste should be in talk back it isn't this has been requested for years. Voice over has it. I shouldn't need a third party thing do accomplish what someone who can see is able to do. When I brought up on the old eyes free list that Android needed something like Applevis I was told you want it do it yourself. This is in part why android has the rep it does.

Hi Amyr and Dennis,
This sort of conversation seems more constructive to me than iOS good android bad or vice versa. As far as needing external apps to do things that voiceover does by default … I see pros and cons there. If you don’t like the way android coppies and pastes you have as many options as you can find in the play store or other places should you choose to sideload apps. I see the security pros and cons there but I love being able to still use, for example, nearby explorer even though it's gone from the play store. We don’t have any GPS apps aproaching the quality of that one lost gem and, thanks to sideloading, I can still use it for as long as I want.
Amyr, I’m glad you found the tool that suits your use case better … my only real response is that google accessibility is actually alive and well and they do take feedback seriously. I’ve heard they don’t give talkback the extra copy and paste global capabilities because sighted users don’t have them by default and I think there's at least a conversation to be had there. In my experience they’re about as responsive as apple’s accessibility team … and I think both platforms have accessibility breaking bugs which often rear their ugly heads with major version updates. Remember how people couldn't use siri to make calls for … what, about a month? I’d say that's pretty on par with the google assistant talkback bugs that * pixel owners * were experiencing and, at least in android land, you can downgrade to previous versions of things with a little technical know how.
I’m just happy we’re talking about specific use cases and pros and cons, I hope we can all agree each platform has both and it's no longer a case of one being more accessible than the other across the board.
As far as resources like applevis not existing in android land, well, there are plenty of facebook groups where we get arguably more personal interaction and for me that's been a suitable substitute. Of course applevis is great but if you’re the type of person who prefers androids slightly less decentralized but more tweakable accessibility you probably won’t mind spending a little extra time looking in a few places. Maybe that kind of resource doesn’t exist in the android world because it's not quite as aplicable as it would be for something like iOS where you have one screen reader, a few phones and everyone’s devices have pretty much the same options. Anyways I appreciate the discussion and thanks for hearing me out. :)

@Holy Diver, thanks. I'd also appreciate it.
The point is that such centralized resources exist for sighted users -- think Android Police and 9to5 Google. However, having to constantly zap people for advice, app suggestions, gesture recommendations, etc, while not necessarily bad or out of the ordinary, doesn't take the place of proper and centralized documentation. Of course, here Apple hasn't done it either -- the terrific guys and users behind Applevis have, so asking Google to do it might not be fair.
The global copy/paste issue is just one example and when we say Google doesn't take accessibility as seriously as Android deserves we mean, for instance, complaints have been raised about Braille support or proper physical keyboard support for years to no avail. And the same is true about the provision of a more reliable web-browsing experience on Chrome.
Of course, I don't remember not being able to make calls with Siri for a month. The problem was that when the phone was locked, Siri sometimes, not always, would fail to respond with VoiceOver turned on. But yes, Apple also deserves criticism where criticism is due -- no one is exempt, and I made sure people be aware of such a bug before its resolution. But as things stand right now, I can't trust Google unless I see meaningful and tangible action on their part in the form of bringing their AI power to Talkback for image/screen recognition, revamping Braille/keyboard support, providing a spellchecking facility, improving the web-browsing experience, opening up TalkBack betas to non-US residents, improving the copy/paste facility, etc.

Hi Amyr,
Fair enough I was going off of what friends and the internet were telling me about that siri bug, I’m glad it was fixed!! I don’t mean to defend google accessibility … they’re as far behind with braille support as apple is with voice control and both companies have serious issues they’re too complacent to address. i I just think us more tech savvy folks have a responsibility to at least let people know what the tradeoffs actually are. Like have you ever used talkback voice commands? You can control your whole screen reader with one gesture and voice commands, it's much more than google assistant. You can invoke talkback voice commands with whatever gesture you set up and, say, change granularity from headings to links, move to the top of the screen, change speaking rate to 25 percent, dim the screen … anything you can do in the talkback menus or with the normal gestures. I’ve worked with clients who struggle to remember how the rotor works, let alone accessing the control center or highlighting text in sellection mode with voiceover. That's a massive piece of accessibility apple has neglected and, as much as I want braille support, I daresay more newly blind people would rather be able to control their whole phone with their voice If I could get my blind neighbor with a TBI to unlearn the iPhone only stuff he was fed at the training center I have no doubt he’d be able to do simple things like copy gift codes from his e-mail into the uber app, navigate websites by headings, the kind of stuff we take for granted because we don’t need that kind of accessibility. Well, people who could use it deserve to know the options there, that's all I’m trying to say. I’m with you in being frustrated at google’s crappy braille support, poor image recognition in talkback etc … but I hope you’re at least as angry with apple for their own accessibility shortcomings, some of which android handles better. That's all.

Hi Holy Diver,
Interesting observations and points indeed.
I do agree with you about TalkBack's voice commands -- they're awesome. However, the fact that I can't utilize them especially when I'm out and about -- in public places -- has prevented me from appreciating them. IMO -- or to me at least, they are more of a luxury feature as unfortunately speaking to one's phone in most places isn't feasible whereas better Braille and physical keyboard support might lead to more use cases without necessarily attracting unwanted attention. That said, I do hope such a nifty feature finds its way into VoiceOver.

@Amyr thanks for engaging with this!! I’m amused because literally the only times I use talkback voice commands are when I’m out and about walking and don’t want to stop to fiddle with the phone. I think it may depend on the gesture you choose to use but I get that's wayy beyond the scope of applevis. I do wish android had some kind of central accessibility portal like applevis, I wholeheartedly agree that's one of the main disadvantages with android accessibility.
@Brad Sure both iOS and android let you do basic things just fine, if you just use your phone for calls, texts and the occasional web browsing there are no issues. I’m more talking about persistent bugs in both products that haven’t been addressed for years. Braille on iOS is really deceptive because it seems like it will be great, indeed it is if you don’t do a lot of writing … and of course android’s braille access is awful as of now. I guess I should have said both voiceover and talkback limit what we can do with our phones compared to sighted users much more than, say jaws or NVDA do with windows machines. Try writing a google doc with a braille display on IOS or reading a a complex table in google chrome with talkback. Both experiences are miserable, those are the kinds of things I’m talking about.

Hi.
tb was too laggy and mostly lacking, dont care about braille displays, my Iphone just allows me To do everything fast

We could hold far more productive discussions without people instantly bashing Android, iOS, Windows, Mac or what ever.
I doubt that OP has any knolledge about what Android can do and what kind of tricks it offers with the apps on the playstore or simply things you can side load, for example, universal copy that someone mensioned on the first page of this topic.
I myself am an iOS user but I want to take a dive into android with probably a google Pixel when I can get my hands on one, things that are currently holding me back is the sorta jumpy Talkback focus on the web and the fact that there is no direct touch typing as in iOS, only the lift to type mode.
And if Talkback doesn't work out, we have another Screen Reader that we can use, something that people seam to overlook given that they are only in their iOS bubble.

I had a galaxy s7 years ago and talkback focus definitely jumped around a ton. That's not been an issue for me at all in the past few years. Voiceover is better on the web but only because it will read tables without you having to remember what row and collumn you’re on, oh also voiceover’s rotor can provide much more robust navigation by like check box, edit field, combo box etc but talkback lumps those all into "controls" for some reason I’ll never understand. Anyways I find talkback to meet needs for a mobile browsing experience just fine but I suspect if I didn’t have a computer for the more complex stuff I’d really want iOS. Oh and talkback does have both touch typing options like voiceover and indeed has had them for over a year. If those are your hangups with android I think you’re in for a pleasant surprise should you ever check it out again.

Since no one has talked about the alternative screen reder yet that's mentioned in the subject line, I'm passing along the playlist featuring it from the Blind Android User's Podcast/Group which was last updated two days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEWjCTv5_Uk&list=PL5iI0uwraRqopLuw5obLdjyV9JeH4y4qd

For those who wish to try it themselves, grab the latest local and international versions from

https://github.com/nirenr/jieshuo/releases/latest

, and join them on Telegram over at

http://t.me/jieshuochat/

When I was primarily an Android user, the first-ever device I had was the Sero 7 Pro, a device similar to the first Google Nexus 7 with Micro SD expantion running Android 4.2.1. It was suppose to get Android 4.3, though that never meterialized.
That was followed up by the BLU Life One X 2016 running Android 5.1.1, the Galaxy J7 2016 running Android 6.0.1, the Galaxy S8 running 8.0 upgraded to Android 9.0, before going to my last Android phone which was the Galaxy S10E running Android 10 at the start, though did get Android 12 (though I gave my phone away while I was on Android 11).

These days, I'm on an iPhone 13 Pro with the 128GB of storage variety. I got it for the LiDAR,, and the battery life. I also purchased a Coffee colored case for it.

To be perfectly fair, I do have a Lenovo Chromebook Duet that does have Android 9 alongside it (which hopefully should get Android 11 in do time).

The number one thing I will always prefer on Android, is Telegram. With all of the products from Meta being a close second.
As folks have said here and in prior threads when it comes to Android vs IOS debates, it all depends on your use case and how ya use your tech.

It would be cool if someone did a comparison between Chrome OS and iPad OS in detail, but thats for another day.

Tips:
To switch between Talkback & Chromevox when inside an Android app, press Search-A+Right-Bracket and Search-A+Left-Bracket respectively.
Press Search+0 for Talkback Settings and Search+K for the Keyboard Shortcuts list and changing the Talkback Modifier from Search to Alt if desired.
Learn more at

http://chromevox.com

Wait, it actually does? Last I remember and that was I think about half a year ago I only found the normal double tap to type option and the one where you search a letter on the keyboard and raise your finger to type a letter.
The mode where you would just tap the keyboard and the letter gets typed wasn't there, any hints where you can set this up?

Greetings Moritz.

I feel a little weird giving android structions here but what the heck. Assuming you’re on android 10, 11 or 12 you’ll want to go into talkback settings > advanced settings > typing and keyboard. That should have the toggle you’re looking for.