An Overview of TalkBack Screen Reader Settings

TalkBack, developed by Google, is the built-in screen reader on Android phones and tablets. While it is possible to install third-party screen readers after setting up the device, such as Prudence or Jieshuo, TalkBack remains the choice of many blind users. Customizing the screen reader to the user’s liking is crucial for making the experience more tailored to one’s needs and more enjoyable. This overview introduces beginners and interested users to the available TalkBack settings and is intended as a quick overview rather than a detailed guide. Note that this overview is based on Google’s version of TalkBack. Although most settings are the same in Samsung’s version, there are omissions in that version.

How To Open TalkBack Settings

If TalkBack is running, TalkBack settings can be found among the TalkBack menu items. Alternatively, it is possible to navigate to installed services in Accessibility settings, select TalkBack, and then open its settings from there. This works whether TalkBack is on or off. Until TalkBack 16.2, assigning a gesture to open TalkBack settings directly is still not possible.

New features in TalkBack

This first settings section opens a walkthrough of new features introduced in the version currently in use. This walkthrough consists of an interactive overview of the newly introduced features and options.

Audio

Text-to-speech

This item is a shortcut that takes the user to the system text-to-speech settings, where the system text-to-speech engine can be changed, along with settings related to the selected engine.

Verbosity

The verbosity section is related to the amount of information TalkBack reads. It determines how verbose TalkBack should be.

There are three levels found when pressing “Choose a preset,” which also shows the name of the current preset: High, Custom, and Low. If High or Low is selected, all other settings in this section are disabled. Choosing Custom allows the user to adjust the following options.

• Speak usage hints: Provides hints related to interacting with the focused item, such as “double tap to activate” or “swipe up or down to adjust the slider value.”
• Speak container info: Announces when entering or exiting lists, grids, or containers. For example, when enabled, “in list” is spoken when entering a list, and “out of list” is spoken when leaving it, such as when moving focus to the screen title.
• Always speak number of list items: Announces visible items and remaining item count when scrolling, e.g., “items 10 to 15 of 25 items.”
• Speak element type for focused items: Announces the type of element, such as button or link.
• Speak window names: Announces the title of the window when switching between on-screen windows, such as the status bar, on-screen keyboard, navigation buttons, or the name of the app window.
• Speak notifications when screen is off: Determines whether notifications are read aloud when the screen is off. Note that it is still not possible to disable automatic reading of incoming notifications when the screen is on.
• Use pitch changes: Announces deleted letters at a higher pitch. The selected text-to-speech engine must support pitch changes.
• Speak letters with examples: Speaks phonetic examples after letters when navigating by characters or typing, with a slight pause between the letter and the corresponding example.
• Keyboard echo: Onscreen keyboard Controls what is announced when typing on the on-screen keyboard. Options include None, Characters, Words, or Characters and Words.
• Keyboard echo: Physical keyboard Controls what is announced when typing on a connected hardware keyboard. Options include None, Characters, Words, or Characters and Words.
• Capital letters: Determines how capital letters are reported. Options include doing nothing, saying “capital,” changing pitch, or playing a sound.
• Text formatting options: Specifies which formatting changes are announced and whether announcements use speech only, sound only, or both. The types of formatting changes that can be toggled include Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Text color name, Text color hex value, Text size, and Font family.
• Speak element IDs: Reads the button ID when a button does not have a content description, which may provide a hint about its function depending on how the ID is named.
• Speak punctuation and symbols: Controls how punctuation and symbols are read aloud. Options include Some, Most, or All. This option works properly only when Google Text-to-Speech is set as the system TTS. There is no way to customize which punctuation belongs to each level, and there is no option to turn punctuation reading off completely.
• Count repeated symbols: Groups every four or more repeated symbols and announces them with a count instead of repeating each symbol. This option works only when Google Text-to-Speech is set as the system TTS.

Automatic descriptions

This section contains options related to text recognition, label descriptions, and Gemini-based image descriptions.

• Detailed image descriptions: Determines whether the focused item or screen can be described using Gemini. The “Describe Image” and “Describe Screen” options can be accessed from the TalkBack menu or via gestures if assigned.
• Automatic image descriptions: Controls whether images are described automatically. Options include all images, unlabeled images only, or not describing images. Automatic descriptions work offline and are less detailed and accurate than Gemini descriptions. Downloaded data can be deleted by using the delete download button.
• Automatic icon descriptions: Attempts to recognize icons and button functions. Options include all icons, unlabeled icons only, or not describing icons. Descriptions are generated on device and may take a few seconds to appear.
• Automatic descriptions for text in images: Determines whether TalkBack attempts to recognize text in images using OCR. Options include all images, unlabeled images only, or not describing images. Supported languages are very limited at the moment.

Sound And Vibration

• Accessibility volume: A slider is available to adjust accessibility volume using one-finger up or down swipes, with each change announced automatically. A separate slider controls TalkBack speech rate.
• Sound feedback: Determines whether earcons are used to signal events such as activating items, navigating, or scrolling. This is an on/off toggle only, with no option to change the sounds or customize which events trigger sounds.
• Sound feedback volume: Allows selection of preset sound feedback levels, including matching speech volume or fixed percentages of 25%, 50%, or 75% of speech volume. The volume cannot be customized beyond these presets.
• Audio ducking: Lowers other audio while TalkBack is speaking. In some apps, audio may stop instead of being reduced.
• Vibration feedback: Determines whether vibrations are used to signal certain events. Vibration patterns and strength are not customizable.

Visual

The visual heading includes:

• Change focus indicator: The focus indicator visually shows where TalkBack focus is on the screen. It follows the TalkBack cursor, allowing a sighted user to see exactly what is focused. Users can choose whether the indicator has thick borders and select one of the available colors.
• Display speech output: When enabled, all speech spoken by TalkBack is also displayed on the screen.

Controls

This heading includes settings related to customizing the TalkBack menu, gesture assignments, and keyboard layouts and shortcuts.

Gestures

The Gestures section is where users can assign gestures according to their preference. The list contains all available gestures. Double-tapping a gesture shows all actions that can be assigned to it. Selecting an action assigns it to that gesture. Both gesture types and actions can be navigated using headings reading control.

To practice gestures, users can activate Practice gestures to enter gestures practice mode. In this mode, any gesture can be performed to learn what it is and what it is assigned to. Right and left swipes, which are used by default to navigate to the next and previous on-screen item, move within the window so the user can press the finish button when done practicing. Alternatively, users can locate the finish button through touch exploration; it is at the bottom of the screen near the left edge.

To reset gestures to their defaults, users must activate Reset gesture settings.

Edit menus

This section allows users to customize both the TalkBack menu and the reading controls.

Customize TalkBack menu

The TalkBack menu includes useful actions and options, including TalkBack settings. It can be accessed by swiping down then right with one finger, swiping up then right with one finger, or tapping the screen once with three fingers.

Users can add and remove items from the menu by entering the Customize TalkBack menu screen, where items can be checked or unchecked. For certain options, such as navigation options, users can specify which granularities appear in the menu by pressing Edit navigation options (e.g., words, characters, headings).

Customize reading controls

Reading controls are granularities that a user can select to navigate focused content, such as characters, words, lines, or headings. Reading controls also allow users to adjust specific options and values, including settings like verbosity level and speech rate.

By default, users switch between reading controls by swiping left or right, or up or down, with three fingers. Additionally, users can switch between reading controls using a one-finger swipe up then down or down then up. To navigate within the selected reading control or to change the value of an option, one-finger up and down swipes are used.

Upon opening Customize reading controls, users see a list of all available reading controls. Double-tapping any control toggles its checked state. Some web-related controls, such as visited links or heading numbers, are also included.

Note: When Actions is enabled as a reading control (it is checked by default), TalkBack switches the reading control to Actions whenever a focused element has actions.

Keyboard shortcuts

This section is for external keyboards. It includes the following options:

Choose a keymap: There are two keymaps available: Default and Enhanced. To take advantage of the single-letter web navigation introduced in TalkBack 16.2, select Enhanced.

Choose modifier key: Select the modifier key used in the current keymap. Currently, only the Action key can be selected when using the Enhanced keymap.

Reset the Keymap: Resets shortcuts in the selected keymap to their default settings.

View System Keyboard Shortcuts: Displays a list of system keyboard shortcuts.

Below these options, a list of all actions that can be assigned to shortcuts is shown along with their assigned shortcuts. Selecting any action allows the user to modify its shortcut. A hardware keyboard must be connected to assign a new shortcut. Instructions for valid key combinations and how to set the shortcut are displayed when assigning a new one.

Typing

Under this heading, you will find an item called Onscreen Keyboard, which includes the Speak Letters with examples option and the Onscreen Keyboard Typing Echo. Both of these are available in the verbosity settings.

Braille

This settings heading includes options related to the TalkBack onscreen braille keyboard and connected braille displays.

Braille Keyboard

Set up braille keyboard: This option guides users through the steps required to enable the TalkBack braille keyboard and set it as the default input method.

Gestures: This screen allows users to view the braille keyboard gestures and change gesture assignments. Gestures are organized into categories, and activating any category shows the actions associated with it. Selecting an action lets the user change the assigned gesture by activating the Change Gesture button and performing a new gesture. If the gesture cannot be used, or if it is already assigned to another function, the user is informed. Gestures can also be reset to their defaults, or any assigned function can be removed using the available buttons.

The gestures that can be modified are related to cursor movement while editing, proofreading, and text editing operations such as selecting, copying, cutting, and pasting text.

Other options available in the braille keyboard settings include:

• Language: Displays the added languages and provides a button to add more.
• Preferred typing language: Allows users to select the preferred typing language from the added languages.
• Preferred braille grade: Used to specify the braille grade.
• Layout: Includes three options: Adapt to how you hold the device (where the layout changes based on how the device is held), Screen away mode, and Tabletop mode.
• Include all pressed dots: Considers all dots pressed, even if fingers are not lifted simultaneously.
• Reverse dots: Swaps the positions of dots 1 and 4.

Braille Display

Settings related to hardware braille displays are found in this section. To use a braille display, the Use Braille Display option must be enabled. Connected devices are shown under the Devices heading, and a Look for a new device button is available to start the pairing process with a supported braille display.

Under Languages and Commands, users can set the available languages, preferred reading language, preferred typing language, and preferred braille grade.

Braille display section also provides access to the available braille display commands and how elements are shown on the connected braille display. Currently, both are read-only and cannot be customized.

General

• Auto-connect: Enables or disables automatic connection to the braille display when it is in range.
• Auto-scroll: Sets the duration of automatic scrolling when reading on the braille display. The duration ranges from 0.5 seconds to 20 seconds and can be adjusted by swiping up or down with one finger. An option to automatically adjust the duration based on text length is also available, along with instructions for toggling auto-scroll on the braille display and increasing or decreasing the default value.

Advanced

• Reverse pan up and pan down buttons
• Show braille output on screen
• Message duration: Sets how long messages are shown on the braille display, with options for Short, Medium, and Long.
• Cursor blinks every: Controls the cursor blink rate, ranging from 0.25 seconds to 2 seconds. There is currently no option to disable cursor blinking entirely.
• Show device messages: Determines whether device messages such as incoming calls and app notifications are shown on the braille display.
• Save device messages: When enabled, pressing Space with dots 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 displays a list of recent messages and announcements, allowing users to review missed information.

Advanced

The Advanced heading includes the Advanced settings section, which, when opened, reveals multiple options and subsections related to TalkBack behavior.

Controls

Under this section, the following subsections and options are available:

Reduce delay

The Reduce delay subsection controls how quickly TalkBack starts reporting what is under the finger when exploring the screen by touch or when typing. A button is available to reset all delay-related settings to their default values.

• Focus delay: Controls the time required for TalkBack to begin speaking when the screen is touched. Shorter values make TalkBack respond faster, though very short delays may interfere with gesture performance for some users. Available values are 0.15 seconds, 0.2 seconds, 0.25 seconds, and 0.3 seconds, which is the default.
• Typing focus delay: Applies only to keyboard elements while typing and is intended to make typing more responsive. The same delay values available in the Focus Delay setting are also available here.
• Announce keyboard keys faster: Works only when Google TTS is set as the system engine. It is off by default. The exact behavior is unclear, but according to the option description, it is intended to make typing more responsive.
• Typing preference: Allows users to choose how keys are activated while typing. Split typing remains available regardless of the selected method.
  • Hold a finger to select any key, then double tap to activate it.
  • Hold a finger to select a letter key, then lift to type it; double tap is used for other keys.
  • Hold a finger to select any key, then lift to activate it.
• Touch and hold delay while typing: Controls how long a key must be held before it is recognized as a long press while typing. Available values are 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 5 seconds. When TalkBack is enabled, this setting takes precedence over the Gboard long-press duration for accessibility option.

Next to the “Reduce delay settings”, there is an option called Cover proximity sensor to stop speech. This interrupts spoken feedback when the proximity sensor near the earpiece is approached. This option does not work on devices without a hardware proximity sensor.

Custom labels

This subsection includes options related to custom labels created by the user.

• Import custom labels: Allows users to import a previously saved TalkBack labels file created by themselves or shared by other users. When importing a labels file, the user is asked whether existing labels should be overwritten.
• Export custom labels: Creates a .tbl file containing the user’s custom labels and opens the system share menu, allowing the file to be saved or shared using a file manager or other supported apps.
• Revert imported labels: Undoes the most recent label import.

If custom labels exist, a list of apps with labels is shown. Selecting an app displays all of its custom labels. Double tapping a label allows it to be edited or removed. Currently, there is no way to select multiple labels at once or delete all labels for a specific app in a single step.

Additional Options

• Single tap to activate: Allows a focused element to be activated with a single tap instead of the standard double tap. The element must first be focused by touching its location, and the activation tap must occur on the same position. Swiping between elements and double tapping anywhere on the screen to activate them remains available.
• Element description order: Sets the order in which element information is announced. The options are: Name → State → Type, State → Name → Type, or Type → Name → State. “Name” is the element’s label, “State” is its current state (like checked or disabled), and “Type” is the type of element (like button or checkbox).
• Time format: Controls how time is announced when unlocking the screen. Options are:
  • Use device time format
  • 12 hour format
  • 24 hour format
• Reduce window announcement delay: Likely reduces the delay before TalkBack starts speaking when switching between windows or opening new ones. The exact behavior is not fully confirmed.
• Automatically switch to table navigation reading control when entering a table: Determines whether TalkBack switches to table navigation automatically when a table is encountered. To exit table navigation, the user must manually switch to another reading control.
• Smart browse mode: Turns browse mode off automatically when an edit field inside a web view gains focus and turns it back on when the field loses focus.
• Show instructions for turning off TalkBack: Displays on-screen instructions explaining how to turn off TalkBack, which helps avoid confusion if it is enabled accidentally by a sighted user.

Others

This heading includes options such as Open TalkBack at the Play Store, which opens the Android Accessibility Suite’s details page on the Play Store, Developer Settings, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

Developer settings

Most users do not need to enter this subsection of TalkBack settings, as it is primarily intended for app developers and QA testers to ensure their apps work well for screen reader users. Among the available options are the version code, which shows the exact version of TalkBack installed; diagnosis mode, which helps capture internal logs for problem and crash diagnosis; echo speech, which reads recognized speech when using voice commands if the speech has no matching TalkBack command; the handle gestures toggle, which resolves certain issues on older Android versions (on newer versions it is recommended to keep it on, as it is necessary for features such as split typing); and the explore by touch toggle, which should remain on, as it is essential for using accessibility focus to explore, focus, and interact with onscreen elements. Unlike Jieshuo Screen Reader, which allows suspension and resumption of browse by touch, TalkBack does not have a similar mechanism. If Explore by Touch is disabled, a sighted helper or another screen reader is required to re-enable it.

Tutorial & help

Under this heading, you will find:

• TalkBack tutorial: Contains interactive lessons that introduce how TalkBack works and explain some of its features.
• Help and feedback: Opens the Help page with links to popular resources that are not specific to TalkBack. A search button is also available. To report issues or provide TalkBack-specific feedback, use the Send feedback button near the bottom right of the screen.
• Contact Google Disability Support: Opens the Google Disability Support page in the default web browser.

Final Remarks

As mentioned in the introduction, this article provides an overview of TalkBack settings and is not intended as a detailed guide or a comprehensive explanation of each option. Many settings can be added to the TalkBack menu, assigned to gestures, or included in reading controls, allowing adjustments without opening the relevant sections.

It is noticeable that the newly introduced features in recent releases come with more customization options, which is a welcome improvement for enhancing the screen reader experience. While it is still less customizable than the third-party screen reader Jieshuo, TalkBack’s settings are easier to navigate, making it simple to explore each section and adjust the screen reader to your preferences.

See Also

• 
  A Beginner’s Guide to Text Editing with TalkBack
  
• 
  A Detailed Overview of TalkBack Voice Commands
  
• 
  A Complete List of TalkBack Gestures
  
• 
  A Beginner’s Guide to the Types of Screen Reader Gestures on Android