Official Website: https://app-suite.eu/talkforward
Get It On Google Playhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.appsuite.talkforward
Talk Forward is a free, high-performance Android screen reader designed from the ground up for speed and responsiveness. Built by the same developer behind AGram, it features an iOS-inspired gesture model that prioritizes simplicity and immediate feedback, making it an excellent choice for users looking for a more "native" experience on Android.
Core Features
- Simplified Gesture Model: Say goodbye to complex L-shaped angle gestures. Talk Forward uses a single-finger swipe model (left/right for navigation, up/down for the rotor), making interactions faster and less prone to errors.
- VoiceOver-Style Rotor: A two-finger rotation gesture allows you to quickly cycle through navigation granularity, speech rates, or custom voice profiles.
- Voice Rotor: Define and store multiple complete voice profiles (engine, rate, pitch, volume) and switch between them instantly—perfect for toggling between a fast voice for skimming and a clearer voice for reading.
- On-Screen Braille Keyboard: Supports 6 or 8-dot input directly on the screen, with both dedicated input modes for typing and command modes for system control.
- Hold-to-Dictate: A seamless way to dictate text—simply press and hold a finger on any text field to start. Talk Forward stays silent while recording to prevent misinterpretation, and you simply lift your finger to commit.
- Customizable Two-Finger Gestures: All four two-finger swipe gestures are fully reassignable, allowing you to map them to Home, Back, Notifications, Quick Settings, or whatever best fits your workflow.
- Edge Gestures: Slide in from the bottom for Home/Recents or from the top for Notifications/Quick Settings, complete with vibration and spoken cues for confirmation.
- Optimized Latency: Heavily optimized for speed, ensuring that gestures and speech respond in milliseconds for a smooth, fluid experience.
Getting Started & Support
Talk Forward is free to use and provides in-app updates directly from the settings menu.
- Support the Project: While the app is free, users can become "Supporters" to help fuel development. Supporters receive a "Talk Forward Gold" badge within the app.
- Community: The developer is highly active. For those looking to keep up with development or share feedback, keep an eye on this thread and the Blind Android Users Telegram group.
Quick Tips (Community Insights)
- Opening App Lists (Samsung): If the standard two-finger swipe up doesn't trigger the app list, you can remap this in Talk Forward Menu > Edit Gestures. Assign "Synthetic Swipe Up" to the gesture.
- Switching Screen Readers:
- Samsung: Use the accessibility shortcut (often Volume Up + Power or a long hold on volume keys) to toggle between screen readers.
- Pixel: Use the accessibility shortcut or a triple-finger tap on the screen.
- Braille/Emojis: There is no direct emoji insertion in the current Braille keyboard. To insert an emoji, hide the keyboard (two-finger swipe down) or switch back to your primary keyboard (three-finger swipe down).
Comments
@Zach M
Hey, good news on that front. With Talk Forward being a fork of Talkback, even though it is moving further and further from Talkback with each release, new features, different gestures, since it is originally based on Talkback, the Talkback Braille display stuff is still baked in. He could end up improving even more on it, but as it stands it already has good Braille support.
Play Store
So is this a risky politics question: it is not on the play store?
Re: PlayStore
Quoting kaillewaille on Thursday, June 11, 2026 - 15:05:
"It will definitely end on the play store at some point: the process towards play store distribution progresses very well, and as soon as the next release is published, it will be my top priority."
That above quote is quite a few posts back all the way on Page One, thus not surprised you missed it.
@Justin
I didn't see anything in talkForward's marketing about braille display suppport, even though there is a braille keyboard built in, which I will say is very nice.
Apple users
Wonder what that meant, pretty sure I saw a comment mentioning them. Makes me curious, because apple is so closed off 😂 😂
@Zach M
Guessing it just wasn't mentioned since it is originally a fork of Talkback, and Talkback already has it. He hasn't done anything else with Braille displays to differentiate it from Talkback. I know he will be improving upon the default Talkback key map at some point for external keyboards, but no idea when that will actually happen. And no idea of any other features, but I've asked for the work on the keymap and he said it would happen at some point.
double-tap issues
I find that I have to tripple-tap to activate something, instead of the intended double-tap. I've tried varying the speed of my taps, tapping harder, tapping more gently with no luck. Any suggestions?
Double tap
Hmmm, that's odd. I've never experienced this, but read a similar report in the Blind Android Users telegram just this morning where a person could not open certain apps via double tap no matter what, but with talkback it would work. No idea what's up there, but this last release was a bit buggy. Just one dev, and he's doing a lot. But I hope we either 1 get a bug fix update today, or 2 can get the older apk and be able to downgrade since some of the issues introduced with the Braille keyboard are driving me nuts.
Same issue with double tap
This is phone wide though. I'm on a Moto G84, I think it is. I don't know if the refresh for touch is just too slow on the cheaper screens, or there is a layer from motorolla which is getting in the way.
Motorola
Hmmm, my phone is a Pixel 10 Pro, but I have the MotoPad which was just released this year, and I find the touch screen to be plenty responsive, and very little bloat on it, so don't know about anything they could've done to the OS, though that is a tablet, not a phone, so guess they could've done other stuff on their phones. Do you have the same issues with regular Talkback?
Hello moto
Yes, same with talkback. What I'm saying is, I don't know if it's either talkback or talk forward related. Mine is what one might charitably call, inexpensive. I did think I found a fix a couple of years back, but it's one of those things that, like windows, non-intergrated systems make difficult to pin down.
A random thought here
Is it possible that those who are having an issue with double tap, are running more than one screen reader at a time?
Just a thought. 😇
Not here
this was the case before installing Talk Forward where, as I believe, only talk back was running, unless motorolla has its own screen reader like samsung does... Though I doubt it.
The
The trouble in this case with android is that not all android phones are made equal and they have their own overlays and gestures. It may well be that there is a double tap gesture already active for non-screen reader use.
Moto Phones
Motorola's 'Moto Hello UI' is the Culprit in this case. Be sure to disable all gestures via the moto Actions app.
And make sure that the display scrolling smoothness is set to 90/120 under Display Settings.
Setting up a shortcut for talk forward to use along with talkbac
HI, i looked at the items to set up a shortcut for both screen readers so I can switch back and forth and find either the volume buttons or the accessibility button. I have a Pixel 5 and have no idea where the accessibility button if there even is one. How do you switch back and forth between screen readers? I want to try Talk Forward but do not want to commit to it as my screen reader when the phone starts at least not yet. Thanks.
@JohnyTheHess
Since you're using a Pixel, you'll need to use the 'Talkback On/Off' hot word with the 'Hey/Okay Google' command.
As for that accessibility shortcut? see here:
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/7650693?hl=en
Double tap continued
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I am running only 1 screen-reader at a time. I am using a pixel 9 pro. I had this issue with TalkBack; toggling off "Let TalkBack Handle Gestures" under TalkBack's Developer Settings, helped a lot. I still have trouble double-tapping sometimes, but it's not at least every time i perform the jesture. But I don't see this option in TalkForward.
Other than that, TalkForward is a delight to use so far.
Multi-tap timeout
, is the option I believe you're looking for.
It's on the main Talk Forward Settings screen.
Decrease/increase the Multi-tap timeout Milliseconds at will.
Multi-tap timeout
Appreciate the suggestion. I tried decreasing the timeout to a few different settings, and am still having the same issue. I'll try increasing it to see if it helps. I should mention that I use an iPhone and after changing double-tap timeout to 0.6s, double-tap works as expected, so this is something I'm oddly only experiencing on androide...
@Umbreon
'Handle gestures in Talk Forward', can be found via Advanced Settings>Developer Settings' (if that's the feature you are looking for.
And yes, depending on the device used, it definitely helps having that toggle turned off.
Have you reported this issue as a bug via the support section while using Talk Forward yet?
@Umbreon, Again
So, if you toggle the handling of Talk Forward Gestures to Off, they go back to the standard Talkback defaults.
I have a feeling that's not a bug however.
Not sure how to deal with this one...
Emailing the developer with ideas on how to fix the lag with different devices may not be a bad idea. Unless said dev already knows about that... Not sure.
New TF version
A new version dropped today, squashing a lot of bugs, and making some much needed fixes. Super impressed with how fast stuff gets fixed and new features added.
Speaking Of What's New
, two days ago, I did add the Talk Forward Play store link to the intro post.
It's currently after the web site URL for Talk Forward itself. I'll switch them around if necessary.
Rotor sensitivity with back gesture
Hi all
Does anyone find that when moving through the rotor clockwise the gesture works as expected. However anticlockwise more often triggers the back gesture.
Other than that I have no complaints.
Google Pixel 7a Android 17
Want to know if I'm the only one having this issue.
Re: Rotor sensitivity with back gesture
You're definitely not the only one. For me, it's the other way around on my S23 Plus running Android 16 (OneUI 8.5.)
In my case, it works better going from right to left.
NB. Turning off/assigning the scrub gesture to a different command doesn't help by the way.
Best way to solve this problem for now, is to reassign said gestures temporarily to either the 'One-Finger Back & Forth' gesture sets or if you aren't using the rotor groups feature (which is something not even Apple's own Rotor has and I actually think it is quite genious), you can swipe with two-fingers left or right as the rotor.
NB. Rotor Group gestures can also be reassigned to other ones, if you find said feature useful.
Not sure if a
Accidental back
Can't say I've experienced that. Running on a Pixel 10 Pro, Android 17. Before I was having issues with it skipping items as I moved too fast, but now it's working as expected.
@Justin
Hmmm...
I wonder then if it is because my S23 Plus isn't on Android 17 (OneUI 9) yet and it's just being slow. I also wonder if I am needing to remove/replace the screen protector on it.
Bought said S23+ on the day it officially came out in the US on February 17th (or whatever that Friday date was that week.)
I am also using Google TTS at the moment too, so there's that... I'll switch to a different voice.
I Think I figured Out How to Effectively Use the Rotor
When turning your fingers (and to not get the back gesture involved), always twist your hand near the home button (Or the bar if you're using the native sipe gesture interface which makes the 3 buttons at the bottom disappear)
swipe vs gesture nav
I've not used the three button nav in years. I like the gesture navigation so much better, though I will say, the back gesture with normal talkback wouldn't always trigger for me. To the point where when I was on the S22 Ultra, I had a back tap assigned to back. On the Pixel it's worked a bit better, but I like the scrubbing gesture even better. For me, the rotor seems to work no matter where I am on the screen.
Not having that issue
I am using the same phone as Trenton and going backward through the roader works fine
Re: Not having that issue
In That case, it's definitely my screen protector then.