Talkback

Talkback, or Voice assistant on some software versions can be helpful for the visually impaired. TalkBack will allow your phone to read aloud whatever you click on your phone so you can navigate through your device without looking at it.

To enable the TalkBack feature, go to settings > accessibility > TalkBack and Turn on the switch.

How to use TalkBack

• Swipe right or left to move between items
• Double-tap to activate an item
• Drag two fingers to scroll

How to turn off TalkBack

To turn off TalkBack you can either navigate back to settings > accessibility > TalkBack and Turn off the switch or you can hold the volume up and volume down keys for a few seconds. 

TalkBack Shortcut

This will allow TalkBack to have full control of your phone which is good for some apps to help with your accessibility needs. This will allow your phone to:

• View and control screen: Used to read all content on the screen and display content over other apps.
• View and perform actions: Used to track your interactions with apps and hardware sensors and to interact on your behalf

TalkBack Audio Settings

Text-to-speech

Preferred Engine

You have two options from this setting:

• Samsung text-to-speech engine
• Speech Services by Google

You can also choose the language, the speech rate, and the pitch of the text-to-speech voice.

If you click the gear icon next to the preferred engine setting you can install new voice data and choose the dialect and gender of the text-to-speech setting.

Verbosity

These settings will enable extra wording options like Punctuation and Capital letters. You can also have your voice assistant read other details such as the number of items on a shopping list.

At the top of the screen you can choose a preset. If you choose High all of the Verbosity details will be switched on. If you choose Low, all of the Verbosity details will be switched off. If you choose Custom, you will have the option to customized the Verbosity details which include:

• Speak usage hints:

  Usage hints are spoken during navigation after a brief delay

• Speak list and grid information:

  List and grid information will be spoken when this is on

• Speak the number of list items on the screen:

  Lists will always be spoken and if this is off the voice assistant will speak only when scrolling gesture

• Speak element type:

  Element type is spoken for focused items

• Speak when screen is off:

  Notifications are spoken when the screen is off

• Use pitch changes:

  The speak keyboard will delete text in a higher pitched voice

• Speak phonetic letters:

  Phonetic letters will be spoken when you long press on the keyboard keys and navigating by character

• Keyboard echo for on-screen keyboard:

  You can have an echo effect with your choice of characters, words, both, or neither

• Keyboard echo for physical keyboard:

  You can have an echo effect with your choice of characters, words, both, or neither

• Capital letters:

  With capital letters you can choose whether your phone says “capital” when you hover over a capital letter, change pitch, or play a sound

Miscellaneous

• Speak element IDs:

  Element IDs will be spoken for unlabeled buttons

• Punctuation:

  Punctuation symbols will be spoken

Speak Passwords

You may not want to keep this on at all times because it’s not the best idea for your phone to scream your passwords out but if this setting is off you can still have passwords spoken with headphones or bluetooth hearing aids in.

Sound and Vibration

These settings will provide you with a few helpful audio options such as:

• Vibration feedback:

  This will make your phone vibrate while it’s speaking

• Audio ducking:

  This will decrease other audio volume while speaking

• Sound feedback:

  This will turn sound feedback on and off

• Sound feedback volume:

  Sound feedback volume is defaulted at 50% but you can also choose between 25% or 75%

Controls