Talk Forward Screen Reader

By Trenton Matthews, 10 June, 2026

Forum
Android

Created by the same person who made AGram for the Mac:

https://applevis.com/forum/macos-mac-apps/launching-app-suiteeu-ascan-simplified-ocr-local-ai-agram-native-telegram

Talk Forward is Talkback (based off of AOSP), with a more VoiceOver native feeling to it.

Download and details, can be found at:

https://app-suite.eu/talkforward

But in short after playing with it for around 10 minutes, most things work well! Only thing that's missing is split tapping on the screen which native Talkback has.

I am guessing that Talk Forward could be on the play store at some point, since I did see a link to a 404 not found page to it under the advanced settings. With that being said though, my main concern, is that I hope it actually 'can' be added to it, given what's going to be happening with sideloading (installing unknown apps) in a few months' time.

I will definitely be supporting its development when I can.

PS. Unlike Samsung's version of Talkback (until OneUI 9 rolls around) or if not using Jiesuo premium, Talk Forward does allow you to use your free Google Gemini API key for describing Images/screens. Or support the project with a onetime payment like I'll be doing in the future, which also unlocks said feature.

Options

Comments

By Brian on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 11:44

It had split tap functionality. I use that so much on my iPhone, and I was happy to hear that it came to Android awhile back.
Still, I guess they're still Prudence, and I don't know about CSR... was there a reason that was taken off of the Google play store?

By Trenton Matthews on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 11:57

prudence did get an update, though it's mainly a bug fix. It's not up to Talkback 16 standards yet sadly.

As for Commentary, it was removed from the play store
because it uses Paypal for payments and not the Play Store directly. With that being said though, that should be changing hopefully, thanks to what Google's doing with Sideloading and that Advanced Flow thang.

By Justin Harris on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 12:11

I think this one has potential. I like that you can use the rotor, or you can use the normal Talkback way of doing things. It's a bit faster than regular Talkback too. And the dev is pretty active on the Blind Android Users telegram group and has been quick to make changes based on user feedback.

By Trenton Matthews on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 14:05

Honestly,

Once Talk Forward's text descriptions get cleaned up/replaced a bit more with their own specific ones throughout the interface, I could see myself ditch Google's own Talkback in the future! And keep Jieshuo as a backup.

Now this is a screen reader I would love a Voiceover sound pack for!

And unlike with Jieshuo & Prudence sound pack areas (if they ever come to Talk Forward), should not have
repetitive versions of sound packs! At least like, check for quality control please?

By TheBlindGuy07 on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 15:37

I 101% trust @kaillewaille with anything he comes up with so :) cool!!

By Maldalain on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 17:47

We are stuck with one screen reader on iOS and MacOS.

By Trenton Matthews on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 19:16

Okay!

It's there... I guess I'm still getting used to the concept of it being on Android still. But yes, it's there (even on Samsung's latest version using OneUI 8.5.)

Still not there for Jieshuo & prudence though...

By jim pickens on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 20:03

I don't know whether to laugh or repeatedly slam my head against the nearest available surface.

By Trenton Matthews on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 20:22

, considering that Braille back, Sound back, and Kickback were all separate products back in the day when Talkback was known as the Eyes-Free Shell.

And yeah... Talk Forward is a silly name. But for what it is meant to do, totally makes sense.

Easy to remember, that's for sure.