Research Talkback¶
How to turn it on / off¶
It’s possible to turn it on or off in the accessibility settings of your phone. On Samsung (and maybe Apple) it is also possisble to turn it on / off by clicking the volume up and down buttons at the same time for three seconds.
Control with gestures¶
When you click on an item like a button, Talkback will focus that button and you will hear Talkback say what you have pressed. It is also possible to make left and right swipe gestures. Talkback will then automatically select items one by one and you can hear what is selected. When you swipe to the left, the selection will go back. When you swipe right, the selection will go forward. You have to double click if you want to press on a button and perform an action. It is also possible to drag one finger on the screen to focus the elements where your finger is on faster.
I have found a list of all kinds of gestures for android on this link:
For a quick video for accessibility on Apple:
Gesture table¶
| Android Gesture | Apple Gesture | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Swipe Left | Swipe left | The selection will go back |
| Swipe right | Swipe right | The selection will go forward |
| Tap | Tap | Select the item where you tapped on |
| Tap, hold and drag | Tap, hold and drag | Fast select an item |
| Down then left | Swipe with 2 fingers like a Z | Go back to previous screen |
| One-finger swipe right, then up | Activate voice control |
Keyboard device using talkback¶
It’s also possible to connect a keyboard onto your phone, but it is not very handy when you’re outside for a walk. However we could make a device that acts like it’s a keyboard. By pressing buttons on the device we could let the device communicate keyboard keys to control TalkBack.
I have found a list on internet for keyboard key combinations to control Talkback:
Key combinations for voice over (Apple):
https://www.apple.com/voiceover/info/guide/_1131.html
Using voice commands on Talkback¶
In TalkBack version 9.1 and up it’s possbile to control many things by voice. So when we decide to make a device to control the phone with voice, then it’s possible. I don’t recommend to use voice commands, because after trying out, it didn’t work.
How to active voice control?¶
Android¶
On Android the gesture to trigger voice control is One-finger swipe right, then up. I coudn’t find any keyboard shortcut to activate voice control on talkback.
You can find more on:
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/10449331?hl=en#
Apple¶
You have to activate voice controle in acessibility settings or via siri. Siri will coniniously listen to commands. To stop this listening say go sleep and to let it listen again, say wake up.
For a quick explanation you can watch the video from Apple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg22JaZWAgs