Talkback 16 is roling out

While VoiceOver appears to be slowing down in terms of introducing new features and capabilities for blind users, TalkBack is steadily catching up by delivering practical tools that offer real support and value.

Maldalain, you literally beat me to the post! I was thinking this very thing when I read the OP above. 🫣

Thinking of picking up another budget tablet to give this a test. Would I love an iPad? Yep! Do I wanna pay iPad prices? Nope! Especially for just a media consumption device, something I can use outdoors and not kill my phone battery.

Even though you buy $2000 worth android phone the latency is still there and the phone is hanging especially Samsung S2 four so and also pixel phones are not so great as the hype so if talkback want to catch up they have to reduce latency and better responsiveness

That's been fixed with Talkback 15 & later. Though it also depends on the voice used.

One thing to keep in mind, some talkback features (such as the spelling of words with the proof-reading rodor), only work with Google TTS voices (for some reason.)

Thanks to Talkback 15 (though more with Talkback 16), you don't necessarily need a pixel or Samsung phone to take good camera shots anymore. After ya take your picture, use the "Describe Images" function to view the result. FYI: The Describe Image feature also works great with printed tables & graphs. And even if you are not using a Pixel or Samsung device, you can still get auto focusing with the camera if using either LookOut from Google, or Seeing AI from Microsoft.

My friend recently upgraded her Pixel 8 Pro to a Pixel 9 Pro. I cannot wait to play around with it.
... and to think I was impressed with Android 14.

The peeps over at at Accessible Android & their sister spot Blind Android Users also have more details on said subject, if anyone is interested on diving deeper.

How well does it work with android since there are so many phones.Just asking. I listened to Flossy Carter review so many android phones and they sound nice but do not know about talkback. Just curious. Not planning to leave my 16 pro max or my iPad 9 or watch.

I'm surprised that Apple haven't added this image description to VoiceOver. I don't own an iPhone anymore as I ditched my 15 Pro Max for a Pixel 9 Pro XL because of this image description feature and the Gemini Live Video Assistant. If I was an Apple fan like many are in the applevis community, I would be screeming out for these features. I know it is possible to ask Siri to describe a photo or your screen in general as it would then get chat gpt to process the image but this is a bit long winded because Siri will ask you if you want to ask chat gpt to describe the image. Also the image descriptions are not as detailed which means you have to ask a few follow up questions in order to get further image results.

OMG. Seems that from android 15 to 16 we are being even more prioritized than ever in terms of accessibility from Google. I know what we got with 15, what about 14?
As for the latency, in their episode with double tap, accessible android and Carrie, both did agree that the latency is a real systemic issue with talkback with no real work around to make it as fast as VO, I am very impressed by their honesty and so was Steven I think.
Actually this latency see,ms to be the same with chromevox though I feel perfectly productive with it so I really wonder if it's as bad as it may seem? Like VO vs Talkback different certainly, but we seem to have more and more blind android users out there. On a side note I am curious and a bit anxious to see about this merger of android and chromeos and how accessibility will be... changed.

If Talkback can have an easy to use feature, similar to Braille Screen Input in Voice over, maybe, and maybe I might consider getting an android device.

The latency, especially when trying to type on the on screen keyboard remains the major show stopper for me.
There is some really nice stuff in TalkBack though, not least that image descriptions feature.
Dave

Latency is an absolute non-starter for me, no matter how many other bells and whistles the software may have otherwise. It's the reason I can't stick with macOS. I am used to instant performance with JAWS on Windows, and I measure everything to that very high bar.

Do you mean to tell me that there is a touch screen based interface that actually keeps focus within the UI?
Wow! I wonder what that's like…? 😮

This makes me wish I switched to the Pixel last year instead of upgrading to the iPhone 16. I upgraded to the 16 because I upgraded my Apple Watch. It's also really hard to switch when your friends/parents use iPhone (primarily Find My and iMessage), but Voice Vista is a great app too.

But, gosh, the Gemini image descriptions are so good. I played with a Pixel 8 Pro at JB HiFi and set it up, my bf helped me find a picture (sadly, no automatic alt-text) and I got it to describe. I turned to him and was like "holy ****." I just watched the Kerry On Accessibility video on Gemini live video description and it is awesome. I also love the Google Lookout app.

Apple really botched Apple Intelligence... they haven't announced anything promising for VoiceOver users with Apple Intelligence, it is so frustrating.

I'm really impressed with the table navigation, it just seams logical.

Heard many nice things about it but like my iPhone. However my birthday is coming so if anyone wants to send one my way. Feel free. How secure is the Android OS?

I've sticked with Android for years, possibly I directly switched from something like E72 (Symbian, QWERTY, Mobile Speak) to Android with Talkback and had almost nothing experience with Apple. And latency is something which always there, always right around the korner. It's almost the same on NoName phone with MediaTeck and on Fresh Galaxy S25 with latest Snapdragon. Looks like problem is somewhere deeper and related to how Screenreader gets Accessibility Events from OS, which obviously wouldn't change in the near future.
First time I tried iOS in 2020 with iPhone SE (first gen) and was really impressed how fast it works. But Screenreader probably is the only thing, that I liked on iOS: after Android it has so much restrictions and constraints. And what actually bothered me as a Screenreader user is inability to install custom TTS, cause I used eSpeak on all my devices for the long time, and only on Phone should stay with voices from Vocalizer. So finally I turned back to Android and meet my latency again.
Actually starting with Android 11 Talkback began making really good progress in almost every aspect, except of latency -- it still stays unbeleavably slower... As a conclusion Android users have very strange reality, when screenreader's
functionality is quite solid, and even has cool exclusive features (E.G. image description), but overall user experience stays so poor, cause of every your action takes some time to perform...
And recently I decided switch to iOS for the second time. As for now first impressions is even better: VO finally allows to change TTS, so I can consistently use eSpeak everywhere. Of cause the major gamechanger is a speed and general solidness of the screenreader, it offers almost the same Experience as Windows with NVDA, where every my action instantly gets appropriate response from the system.
It's obvious that things aren't always perfect, and VO has some cons: E.G. I should use Telegram quite actively as my main messenger (education and work chats are all there), but iOS has no ability to do it with any level of Convenience. Also I can't find the way to get text from image reliably: I already turned all recognition related settings (except of Screen Recognition) on and even assign touch gesture on VO+Shift+L command, but it works strangely -- on some images it Automatically detects text and reads it without any additional commands, but there a lot of images (E.G. in WA chats or on the WEB) that VO doesn't detect as containing some content, so it has no description, no explore option in the rotor, but I sure that these images also contain text and should be recognizable.

I am now a proud owner of a Moto Edge 50 Neo as well as a very solid sounding Lenovo Tab plus, both fairly mid-range devices. Yes, the tablet has woofers throwing air from sides. Blows any Apple device out of the water accept may be those smart speakers in terms of sound.
On both devices, first thing I've changed is TTS. I use Vocalizer voices, not Google TTS. It's responcive, not as much as iPhone, but, more responcive than what we have with Google TTS for sure.
Regarding slowness while using keyboards, try matching the TTS voice with the keyboard language or vice versa. I know, most of you would be on English US, just make sure both TTS and GBoard are set to use English US. If you prefer a specific TTS voice which is some English UK or India voice, then change your keyboard language to that language. This makes a difference.

In reply to Latest version Of ESpeak NG by Trenton Matthews

Thanks! When I was on Android I used exactly this build. Previously I compiled it from sources, but, starting from 1.51 (or similar) they provides android builds as well.

Unfortunately it looks like the developer of iOS port has no time to maintain it further, and users have no other way to update this app. Besides of older version, it has some bug with pauses, speed and sometimes with intonations, but it's still rather better than default VO voices. I'd like to make new build on my own, but it seams impossible to publish something in the AppStore without paid Apple Developer Account, and also I don't know whether it possible to build and debug iOS apps without mac device.

Yes,

What you said above is sadly correct.

The only way you could publish it otherwise would be through

https://altstore.io/

, if you were to take on that challenge.

Unfortunately alternative app markets is unavailable in my country. And I already used 3 app installs with tools like AltStore for some custom Apps like modded YT client and so on.

Same with mine.

Well.. Maybe one day Apple will play nice with the US market... one day....
On the Android side of things, I use either UP To Down, or Arorah Store.
If ya just want an an installer for APKs and not an entire app store, check the stand-alone APK Installer from
https://uptodown-apk-installer.en.uptodown.com/android

How responsive are the Acapella voices for Android, and are they worth their pricing?

Very responsive they are.

In the US, they around 4 dollars and 50 cents for adults, and 12 dollars for children.

The only issue with them, is that newer emojis don't speak.

Android does have a BSI that works great for text editing. It's not on the level of Apple's only because there is no command mode. Braille display access on android is solid but except for writing long things it's a little behind, mostly suits my needs and I'm a pretty heavy Braille user. As far as the screen reader latency yeah, there are things you can do in developer options and such to help but it doesn't match voiceover, even with different tts. For me it's good enough but I pull out my little SE a couple times a month and notice, yeah, apple does that part better.

Just curious can you setup talkback to behave the same way as VO? Never used it but I am curious. So if you get a android phone how you turn talkback? With iPhone you press side button 3 times and VO comes up or ask siri to turn VO on. Thanks.

It will never be a 1 to 1 match.
Rather than making 1 behave like the other, how about establishing a working proficiancy in the less familiar one?
For example, on Android, you start talkback not by tripple clicking power button, but, by pressing and holding both of the volume keys for 3 seconds. It gets the job done.
I've matched basic gestures what I use on my iPhone to my Android phone as well. But soon realized that sometimes taking advantage of what you are given, such as those angled gestures works much better rather than putting time and energy in figuring out how to match each and every gesture and functionality.
Yes, sometimes I end up doing an angled gesture on iPhone and vice versa, but, for the most part, I've gotten use to carrying 2 phones and their individual control schemes.

Was asking a simple question. Like I stated never used it and just curious. Would thought that letting someone who came from iPhone to android use same gestures will help until they feel good with it and take advantage of talkback features.

I do know you can customize gestures, just like you can on iOS. So, in theory, you can reassign gestures to be more iOS-like. Some things won't exist however, such as the Rotor gesture, there is no two finger twist on Android, that I am aware of. Also, they do not have a scrub gesture to my knowledge. But most, if not all of the other gestures are pretty much there. They also have a few that iOS does not have, such as customizable two finger double tap and hold, customizable three finger double tap and hold, etc. And as stated above, angle gestures, which are (in my opinion) the bread and butter of TalkBack accessibility.

Thankks.

They don't have the scrub gesture but the angled back gesture is the exact equivalent and probably much more accurate because back button on android is like the menu bar on the mac, it works all the time and is always there at least from my limited experience. The rotor, they have the reading controls? Or whatever they are called. Not exactly the same thing but similar in spirit. Even narrator does have that :)

I am aware. Thank you, all the same. 😎✌🏻

I have a Pixel Tablet with Android 15 on it, and I must say, TalkBack has definitely improved over the years. I remember trying to use it about almost a decade ago and and it was horrendous.
I think it is safe to say that TalkBack is actually getting pretty advanced. If VoiceOver keeps slowing down, TalkBack may actually take the lead. The chances of this are slim, but it is still something that can be shed under some light now, where as a few years ago it would be laughable.

As far as media consumption goes, how well does the Pixel tablet hold up?

It's a pretty good device. It can handle a large workload (having multiple tabs open in a browser, streaming movies / shows in high quality, that sort). It comes in two storage sizes, 128GB and 256GB (fixed, if I might add, so no expanding). It can handle most intensive things, but nothing extremely heavy. That's where Apple has the advantage with it's M chips. But if you are planning to use it for streaming, editing documents and whatnot, it's pretty smooth.

Honestly thinking about getting a pixel tablet. Any affordable ones out there? I looked at the latest but I don't think I need the latest and greatest if I can run 16 no? I got an old tablet that is still running android 5 and I doubt I can get that thing up to 16, older hardware and I'd have to flash / root the thing. Sure I might be able to do that but updating it though, I doubt that can even happen.