[BRLTTY] [Android] Going native BRLTTY and away from TalkBack?

[Dave Mielke]

[quoted lines by Vincent LE GOFF on 2025/06/10 at 12:53 +0200]

Hi:

>From previous conversations, I've gathered that the main screen reader on
>Android, TalkBack, doesn't directly use BRLTTY to provide Braille, although
>it uses some bindings. 

A more accurate statement would be that TalkBack uses parts of brltty - primarily its device drivers - to directly provide braille.

>My question, then, is whether it is possible to
>completely switch to BRLTTY and turn off TalkBack entirely. 

Those are two independent questions. Yes, you can completely switch to brltty but - for an entirely unrelated reason - you should NOT disable TalkBack.

TalkBack and brltty can happily run together. I do it that way in case you're wanting some kind of proof. All you need to avoid is that both are trying to access the same braille device. So, if you're wanting your braille device to be managed by brltty then simply ensure that TalkBack doesn't know about it. The same, of course, is true in reverse, i.e. if you want your braille device to be managed by TalkBack then simply ensure that brltty doesn't know about it.

So why am I so very strongly saying that you should NOT disable TalkBack? It's because Android's accessibility gestures - a feature that it calls Explore By Touch - are, unfortunately, built into TalkBack. In other words, if you disable TalkBck then you'll lose the ability to navigate the screen via Android's accessibility gestures.

Brltty's cursor tracking is implemented so that it'll follow TalkBack focus changes. In other words, even if you're only using brltty to read the screen, Android's accessibility gestures will automatically move your braille display to the newly focused item (unless you've turned cursor tracking off). And, it's equally true that changing the focus from brltty will cause TalkBck to move to the newly foused item.

>- Can BRLTTY run without TalkBack at all, or does it need it?

No, brltty doesn't need TalkBack. Please note, however, my remarks, above, about why you should still NOT disable TalkBack.

>- Can BRLTTY read the Android interface or just the console? 

Tehre's no such thing as an Android console. Brltty presents you the whole screen as best it can. Of course, it'll have problems with things such as images with no descriptive text. TalkBack, these days, has ways to use AI to present descritpions of images but brltty doesn't. It'll still show you those descriptions, however, if you use the TalkBack gestures that present them.

>Traditionally,
>BRLTTY was for the console, but I understand it became closer to a screen
>reader. Still, it's not its primary purpose and is often completed by a
>"real" screen reader. So this question overlaps the first one a bit I guess;

This kind of reasoning simply doesn't apply to brltty on Android.

>- Would BRLTTY support the same feature (read bluetooth, Braille API so same
>Braille displays) as TalkBack? 

Of course. It's the very same program. It also, by the way, supports USB devices (although charging your braille device's battery can be kind of brutal on your phone's battery).

>The one I have (Brilliant) now uses a more standard Braille interface, so I guess it won't make a difference.

That depends on which Brailliant model you have. They'll all work via USB but only the older ones will work via Bluetooth. For examle, while a BI40 will work, a BI40X won't. We do intend to address this, but haven't yet done so.

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