So I spent the past 3 to 4 months using a samsung phone with the latest android and talkback. And although there were a few benefits, like the speech having shorter pauses during punctuation and reading things like emails there were some major things that I missed. The most important thing that I missed was voiceover's image descriptions and screen recognition. I also missed how easily spellchecking is done on IOS. Now for the most part, apps work the same on IOS as they do on android. On both platforms I could use pluto tv, and various radio and video apps. Although liking youtube videos is much easier and much more consistent on IOS than it is on android. Also IOS has vizLens, android does not have any equivalent to this app at all. Web browsing on android has improved. But on IOS it is so much easier to cast to tvs and apple tv set top boxes. Magic tap responds faster on IOS than on android, and better keyboard and braille support... I'm sure there are other things I am missing. But in general, IOS is my favorite mobile OS. Is android useable? yes it is if you are willing to put up with its limitations. But if you want to be as productive as possible, I would recommend an IOS or iPad OS device.
Comments
iOS invests in accessibility for all Google doesn't
iOS invests in accessibility for Google doesn't. An prime example of this is keyboard support. You can accomplish everything using a keyboard that you can on iOS using the touch screen. You can't do this on Android. Lets take actions on android as of Talk back 13.1 you can't interact with the actions for android using a keyboard. You also can't spell check using a a keyboard on android in Talk back 13.1 I've requested better keyboard support since the eyesfree days and also contacted support for samsung disability they couldn't understand what I meant even after providing both links to iOS keyboard commands and there own and saying you need to add more keyboard commands. Google doesn't care. Apple builds accessibility in from the ground up. Google it is an after thought.
I find it kinda funny
Find it kinda funny that your praising apple considering all the vo problems but if you like iOS, that’s fine, I like how talkback for me works and doesn’t jump around when reading something like vo does for me, but if you like iOS, that’s grate
Injoy your iPhone.
Have you called Apple
To those having problems have you called apple accessibility let them gather logs and do a screen recording? Without these things they can't be fixed.
Replying to Dennis
You can use acctions with a keyboard, on android, I believe the keyboard command is alt shift right arrow to move you through the options, when you get to actions, try alt shift and up or down arrow to go to the option you want, then press alt enter to activate
tried that
When you try to activate them it doesn't work. Bottom line is Google has proven through actions they don't value accessibility as much as Apple.
Disagree
Does apple have more options, sure, but do they work, no, example vo jumping around all the time, I have reported it to apple so many times and it still happens but with talkback that never happens, also talkback doesn’t stop speaking well speaking like vo does.
So quit saying android isn’t accessible because it 100% is
android is not as accessible as iOS
plain and simple it is not as accessible as iOS.
android accessibility is just different
It is really best to have both an android phone and an iPhone. I'm still keeping my samsung phone. Why? it doesn't get stuck in form fields on websites like voiceover does sometimes, it doesn't get stuck in adds on sites, on the other hand, talkback's image descriptions, keyboard support, screen recognition, well they just are not that great. I like both. Just like I am glad I have both Jaws and NVDA. In other words you're trying to say a hammer is better than a screwdriver and it just doesn't work that way. The issue with the phones is, depending on the tools and particular kind of accessibility you need that will work best for your personal situation, what phone will you choose? I can use android and iPhone and switch between them almost seemlessly. For those who can't, or if you need good keyboard and good braille support, image descriptions and screen recognition, apps that iPhone has that android does not, then use iPhone. If you're like me and you find some apps work best on iPhone and others work best on android and vise-versa, then do what I do... Keep both an iPhone and android phone around. Both work fine, but you have to ask yourself what accessibility tools and items do I use most on a daily basis and then let that determine what phone you will use.
android for testing
you can get a samsung galaxy a14 for $200 for testing.
if you want a basic phone go with android
If you want a basic phone that allows you to do most things go with android. If you want good accessibility go with iOS. iOS has advanced things like spell check better braille support developers are more willing to make their apps accessible with voice over. with iOS you have screen recognition and image descriptions you don't get this with Talk Back. You also get voices like Eloquence on iOS. You can't get that on Android.
Android
Android has everything you just mentchend so idk what your talking about, also i find at least for me, mor apps work with talkback, eg Tellagram, tellagram on ios is a mess with voiceover
Also an app i used to open my garadge dor worked with talkback and didn't work with vo, i no longer use that app, and yes i contacted the dev but got no response
this is the last I will say on this
If you want premium accessibility go with iOS. iOS has excellent keyboard support and the Braille support is better then talk back. Google takes years to attempt to catch up and hasn't have you tried spell checking with a blue tooth keyboard on android? if you try these things it has you will find it doesn't work. Android will never catch iOS. iOS innovates Talk Back does not.
My opinion
Somebody who has an iPhone 6s Plus a Galaxy 80 for S and Edward go pixel seven I’ve got a group with one point Dennis. Eloquence doesn’t work any more, well, at least an android 13. The reason for this is eloquence is ready to be at Karma and android 13 dropped support for some 32-bit apps. I’m wanting to see if Blaine help.net can make a 64-bit version of android, possibly. Because I still want android on my Galaxy and my pixel.
Braille I don’t use, so I can’t comment on that.
Spellcheck I don’t even edit my things on iOS, so who sings I would edit on android. I actually think some apps are more accessible on android. Officeworks is marques dB Spotify, is marques Estable,
Elequence
Elequence works on android 13, it will no longer work on android 14 unfortunately, because of that 32 bit apps thing that you mentioned
Eloquence
I used it in my iPad 9, nothing to write home about it. It is much better in my windows 10 with jaws than iPad and VO.
yeah
with Jaws and on android its much better than it is on IOS
on IOS it doesn't sound as good as all the other voices for some reason
I sent you an email
Joshua
I sent you an email from my account, check your inbox
Never got it
Hello
I checked and there is no email from you
Maybe try sending it again
I too agree you on this…
I too agree you on this because I recently switch to iOS and I feel that keyboard is more responsive than android. I am more impressed with swiping on the keyboard it automatically detect the text and insert into the edit field.
Dennis long
Bud everything you said i can do just fine on android, open your mind a little
Also, this best accessability you keep talking about just isn't there, voiceover is still a mess, apple doesn't fix bugs and talkback does so stop it
At least talkback doesn’t crash
Talkback doesn’t crash, well, at least not yet on my phone, and that, my phone is a low range phone number for gigabytes of RAM and 128 GB.
Should slow, but it doesn’t crash.
joshua
JOSHUA!!!THIS IS THE LAST TIME i WILL RESPOND TO YOU. FIRST MAYBE YOU SHOULD GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i HAVE AND HAVE USED A S21 YOU CAN'T DO THOSE THINGS USING A KEY BOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i ONLY RESPONDED BECAUSE YOU ATTACKED ME IF YOU RESPOND I WILL IGNORE IT AND REPORT IT!!!! MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY WHAT YOU CLAIM WORKS USING A BLUE TOOTH KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TALK BACK IS A BASIC SCREEN READER AND IS NO WHERE AS POWERFUL AS VOICE OVER
I have a galaxy a04s
Even though it’s slow, it will last me for the next two years.
And I don’t is Bluetooth keyboard to Braille displays.
proof that android is lacking in keyboard commands
Here is the android list.
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6110948?hl=en
Here is the iOS list.
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-voiceover-with-an-apple-external-keyboard-iph6c494dc6/ios
Every platform has issues. If Google were iOS everyone including the blindness organizations would be complaining about the lack of accessibility. It is time Google is held to the same high standards Apple was to make Apple the leader in accessibility. Yes Apple has issues but so does Google. I am hoping in iOS 17 that a lot of bugs are smashed.
If you have a mid range Samsung phone, that’s not crashing the A
If you have a mid range, iPhone version of red range galaxy phone. The med ranged iPhone has this crashing issue but you can use the galaxy device fine
What is shame Apple? What a shame.
Seems the same
The keyboard commands for talkback are as good as they are on ios, the only thing i see that ios has that android doesn't is the keyboard help
its not the same
try moving to previous and next misspelled word, color, font change, style change, move by paragraph, announce current text style, and so on. You can't do that on android whether you are using a touch screen or standard bluetooth keyboard, braille display, or a switch, but you can sure do that on IOS and iPad OS. Try writing well-formatted notes or a professional email with different fonts and styles or a paper on a samsung tablet or android phone, with talkback, you cannot do that. With IOS and iPad OS, you can in fact do that.
You can do that
You can do that on android too
Google accessibility anounsments
Heres the blog post to all the announcements by google at global accessibility awareness day which was last week. heres the link. https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/global-accessibility-awareness-day-google-product-update/
@josh Kennedy
Thank you for confirming what I had stated. Clearly there are some fan boys here of Android that won't be honest and admit where android falls short.
my thoughts
Hello.
Having been an Android user and recently getting my first iPhone, I have the following points to share based on my experience:
1. For the users who said that TalkBack doesn't crash, they certainly have never experienced using a low-end phone like my Galaxy A10. TalkBack crashing was one of the most common things, especially in Chrome.
2. Regarding it never stopping talking, just like in the first point, in my experience, this is not true. It happens, for example, when I didn't touch the phone for a long period of time and then didn't receive any feedback.
3. In terms of stability, I completely agree. The focus of TalkBack doesn't jump around the screen like VoiceOver does.
Since I switched to the iPhone, I have never noticed VoiceOver disabling itself or things like that, just a considerable delay in response that happens randomly.
Best regards.
Dennis, what you said is hypocritical
Thank you for confirming what I had stated. Clearly there are some fan boys here of Android that won't be honest and admit where android falls short.
Android fan boys? I’ll have you know I was literally with Apple for like seven or eight years. I’m not a fan boy I’m stating the truth.
And Miguel, you said.
1. For the users who said that TalkBack doesn't crash, they certainly have never experienced using a low-end phone like my Galaxy A10. TalkBack crashing was one of the most common things, especially in Chrome.
I also have a phone which you can sort of coal low to mid range, a galaxy a zero for S what’s up gigabytes of RAM in 128 GB. I have none of the issues. Some of these people are talking about. Talkback is a little slow though, but I imagine it will get better over time.
android fan boys?
I was using apple for a long time, my first phone was an iphone 4 back in 2012 or 2011
so I wouldn't call myself a fanboy, Dennis certainly is though
android
Was watching a video about iOS and news of the week by guy from 9to5 stating that more android people move to iOS this year so far. I would like someone who has both to do a podcast from getting them and starting VO or talkback. and so on. The sane apps demonstration in both would be good to see.
A main stream article that shows iOS is more popular
https://www.techradar.com/news/android-fans-are-switching-to-iphones-in-record-numbers-heres-why
I am not a fan boy just honest Apple has better accessibility and innovates Google does not look what is coming to iOS 17. Google will never catch up. Could they? yes but Google has shown they don't care about accessibility for all. actually read the differences in keyboard support and you will see the point.
Thots
I would rather have something that works, and isn’t buggy compared to having something that is a buggy mess that has a bit more features
And talkback just works and voiceover is a buggy mess.
Yes, google cares about accessibility, Apple just want you to think that they do. Meanwhile, there’s bugs have been around for a long time that haven’t been fixed, there was a pretty bad bug with talk back a while ago, where every time you would move to a different part of the screen, it would say system UI before saying what was there, EG system UI, 10:00 pm that was fixed in the next update, so Google cares about accessibility and Apple doesn’t.
google
If I recall android did not play nice with HID for Braille. They originally agree with apple, microsoft and themselves but later change their minds. Is that accessibility that they care? NO.
@Holger Fiallo
I agree with you 100000000000000% Does Apple have problems yes all companies do but at least they listen and do fix bugs. it might not be as quick as we like but they do listen.
I'm done
I'm done arguing with you Dennis, you stay closed minded thinking that apple is the best when I know there not, I will just injoy my android phone, you injoy your Iphone and all the bugs that voiceover has and I will injoy stuff actually working properly.
Have a grate day
Re: I'm done
@Joshua, feel free to do whatever you like, but your action doesn't hide the fact that TalkBack, even on high-end phones, is affected by many bugs and issues. TalkBack mainstream app support on Android is nowhere near that of VoiceOver, and Google needs a lot of catching-up which, despite their recent announcement, is absent from their actions and releases. You are not the only one who has tested or used Android - I've also used it on phones like Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra, and the experience wasn't nowhere near that of VoiceOver on iOS.
@anir
I agree with you. Thank you.
They are terrible, both of them
Let's face facts people. Apple sucks at things, google sucks at things. Nothing will be perfect. In fact, My thermostat has been offline for more then a month, because after changing Wifi networks and password, google was to stupid to say hey, your thermostat is offline, change network? Yes. Find it, enter password, done. Nope? They want you to do a ton of crap I could care less about just to get it going again. Bottom line, tech companies are good at things, crappy to be G rated at others.
Dennis
Dennis and everyone else, you should go and listen to the blind Android users podcast, maybe you will learn a thing or 2 about android and it’s accessibility.
Re: Dennis
FYI, Dennis is an advanced Android user. So he knows a lot about Android accessibility. The fact that Android accessibility lags its iOS counterpart in many areas such as equivalent keyboard access, AI features, auto-picture descriptions, Braille, extended Rotor features, prominent third-party/developer recognition, etc., can't be disputed by flooding the comments section of this post. This is my last comment on that.
Of course Dennis Long is right.
Then you can choose not to use Talkback, like I did, and use Commentary, which is much faster. But even so the iPhone experience is always better. For example, I had Advanced Braille Keyboard installed, and sometimes when I used it it didn't work, I had to reset the keyboard to default and then put ABK back... in short, Iphone has a more fluid and integrated experience.
Android
I have a Galaxy S20 FE 5G. DoorDash works very well on that phone. Evidation works wonderfully. I can play video games. TalkBack is snappy, and rarely has issues. But I can do a lot more on my iPhone. My NLS EReader works with the phone, allowing me to type and read silently. Image descriptions are good on the iPhone. And, here's the biggest thing. Someone wrote a book on using the iPhone, using the iPhone to write the book. All the way through. When Android gets to that point, then it'll be on par. A person I know uses his iPhone, with VoiceOver, for almost everything he does. Android users seem to use their PC's for most everything they do. Oh also TalkBack and the accessibility framework are miles behind VoiceOver on what apps can do. How long have apps been able to define direct touch areas in their apps? Since, like, iOS 10? Apps can't do that with TalkBack. So users have to turn TalkBack off in games. And then? How will the game talk to them? Oh no, now they have to make their own screen reader. And that, y'all, is why Mortal Kombat has accessibility features on the iPhone, and not on Android. And developers will *remember* that. They are not gonna sit there and go "okay let's build this screen reader in our Unreal Engine for blind Android users." No. They'll keep looking to iOS and fixing stuff there. Like this is a real-world use of phones. You know where gaming is finding a boom? Mobile. And you know who has steadily built, over the last 10 years, a platform and accessibility frameworks that allow these games to give us blind people a great experience? Apple. Because not only can we access the gameplay portions of Mortal kombat. We can access user interface elements too, with VoiceOver. I don't have to turn Voiceover off at all during the entire app experience, unless I'm doing a "show your might" segment of the game, and that's only because the developer didn't make that a direct touch area, and not because of any flaw in the accessibility framework. And like, I love Android. I love the idea of Android. Freedom, installing any app I want, video games, all that. But because of Braille support being where it is, the simple framework that doesn't allow for direct touch and sending text directly to TalkBack, including to the Braille display, and oh yeah Google Play Books *just* got the ability to turn to the next page automatically when reading with TalkBack. As in, a month ago. The Books app has had that forever. Like, they've got a lot, and I mean a Lot, of catching up to do. And as Apple showed last week, they aren't standing still either. Oh also Google will support the NLS EReader in TalkBack 14. Over USB. No Bluetooth. You don't believe me? Just wait. It's pretty sad.
@Devin Prater
I completely agree with you.
State of android accessibility
by friends and ATI instructors alike. One of the first questions out of the gate I’m going to ask readers will be the following regarding the time frame reader has used and owned an android device. Lastly, a challenge to those who read my article showing by proof a task can be done on android and IOS.
So, let’s begin with rumors and myths.
I can not edit text via text message as easily on android as I can IOS. I mean, with IOS I can twist my finger to word, character, and sentence flip down. Android takes 3 fingers two swipe down, does not always work. There is this menu when everything needed to edit text under actions accessing these brakes my productivity. Just a quick twist to characters flick down back space quickly edit text. The above statement predicated from falsities could not be further from the truth. So, to edit text on android one simply swipes left or right with three fingers or up or down. Once the chosen selection is made swipe up or down with one finger to character needs to be deleted press backspace. It me be a different method but still gets the job done. It’s harder to select text on android but IOS easier to select text. False, method of navigating to select text with android can be found in actions menu it called start and select text. In this menu select all can be found as well. Just swipe up or down, left, or right depending on your set-up of jesters. Once you hear actions swipe up or down with one finger double tap which task is going to be performed. It’s hard to text with an android with no split tapping, cannot double tap letters when typing. False, Talkback now has ability to set typing to double tapping letters, lift to activate and a few other keyboard settings. Apps are easier on IOS to use than android, while each operating system has different basic navigation methods tapping, double tapping, exploring, and swiping are the same. While Motorola, Samsung and Google may have a different vision of android talkback’s gestures remain the same across board.
Challenge time
Name 3 day to day tasks visually impaired users can do on IOS but the tasks cannot be done on Android. When receiving my answers, I’ll answer in same likeness.
My experience
Hello!
I'm going to share my experience in a more detailed and practical way to show my point of view regarding Android and how the iPhone has brought me more benefits.
First of all, as I mentioned in my previous comment, my Android phone was a Samsung Galaxy A10 with 32 GB of storage, 2 GB of RAM, and Android 11.
Currently, I have the iPhone SE 2022 with 128 GB of storage and I believe it has 3 GB of RAM.
As I also mentioned in my previous comment, my TalkBack was very slow and it affected the performance of the device, especially when unlocking and opening apps.
But to be more specific, using social media on Android was a headache for me, as the user interface has a lot of buttons, for example, on Twitter. On Twitter, I go to the home page, find a tweet, go through 3 or 4 icons to save, like, and share, probably suggestions to follow and the next tweet, with the same icons, and the next tweet, and so on.
On the iPhone, I open Twitter, find the tweets, and navigate through them in a list, having the actions of the rotor in case I want to share, like, and so on, without those elements being presented to me on the screen, which, in my opinion, becomes annoying and disrupts the workflow.
Another aspect is reading long texts, like a large text message, which TalkBack takes time to read as if it has some processing time to process the text and read it, whereas on the iPhone, it happens instantly.
And the most critical aspect in my experience is web browsing because Android is in a battle between Chrome and TalkBack, who consumes more resources from the device? Chrome wins because TalkBack restarts without reason, and if it's a page with a lot of dynamic content, it becomes a challenge for it to process everything and navigate the page efficiently. On the iPhone, Safari works wonderfully well, at least for my needs.
But one of the reasons I prefer the iPhone is undoubtedly the Braille keyboard in Portuguese because on Android, I only had it in English or Spanish, and there were letters with special characters like tilde, acute accent, grave accent, etc. that I couldn't write, so I used voice typing to write a word.
In general, I think each one has its advantages and disadvantages, and we should make our choice based on our preference and usage.
Best regards.
Two phones merchants
This thread would appear to have degenerated into an argument between this person and that person, so I hesitate before adding what I hope is a constructive comment as I imagine most readers won't get this far down, but here goes: I'm fed up of hearing observations to the effect that the best thing is to have two phones. I'm happy for you if you can afford two phones. So could I, in fact, if I chose to. but I do think we should be a little more conscious of the fact that many can't. For a start, not everyone lives in an advanced and developed economy. that's not meant as patronizing - it's just a fact. It's therefore perfectly legitimate to ask which is most accessible, if you could only have one. For me, it's IOS all the way. If I explain why I'll just have the Droids back on the earhole telling me what a bleeder I am, so I shall depart from the rules of natural justice and decline to give reasons.
There we go, folks. Constructive right up until the last couple of sentences when I reverted to the mischievous.