Talkback Android Accessibility for Multilingual Apps

Android Accessibility Features Include:

Android has several accessibility features and services under its Settings, most notably the TalkBack screen reader.
The accessibility features offered through Android allow users to customize their devices based on their needs and preferences.
Text-to-speech (TTS) technology can read text on the screen in various languages.
Gesture controls let users swipe left or right on the screen to move between apps. Gestures can also be used as shortcuts, such as opening an app by swiping up from its icon.Voice recognition software reads aloud whatever’s on the screen at any time — no matter how much text there is!

Android 14+ also supports multimodal accessibility — combining voice, touch, and haptics for users with multiple impairments, ensuring interaction remains intuitive regardless of ability. Additionally, features like Colour Inversion, Font Size Scaling, and Colour Correction (for colour blindness) are now more customisable, enabling better visual clarity and user comfort.

Navigating a Screen With Talkback

Talkback is an accessibility feature that allows users to navigate apps on their smartphones and tablets by speaking aloud and listening for an associated action. Talkback is not a replacement for keyboard input but can be used in conjunction with speech recognition software.

Users browse a mobile app screen by swiping from left to right. Following each swipe, Talkback announces the items on the screen. When the user swipes from top to bottom, Talkback stays focused on that element and suggests related actions. Talkback also supports right-to-left (RTL) layouts, making touch gestures easier for users who read from right-to-left languages or have difficulty using touch screens with one hand due to disability or other affliction.

Here are the steps to use this feature:

• Select the Talkback icon in the Menu bar.
• If you are navigating with Talkback, select the TalkBack navigation mode. This will turn on TalkBack and make it easier for you to use TalkBack to navigate your screen.
• Open an application or program and then move your cursor to any point on the screen that you would like to navigate with Talkback.
• When you have found what you are looking for, press the Spacebar or click an object or button on your screen (like a button) and then speak your command for that item (e.g., “Move Up” or “Print”).
• When you have finished speaking, press Stop, Return or Esc to end talking and return to normal navigation mode (no longer using talkback).

Internationalising Numbers

Talkback reads out numbers using various units depending on the locale and formatting of the number.

Internationalising Date Formats

Talkback can also announce dates according to the phone’s locality. However, it’s key not to use hard-coded strings for this to happen. Use the DateTimeFormatter class to take advantage of Talkback’s localised dates.
Here are the steps involved:
The Talkback feature is a great way to have an instant conversation with your users. It’s also a great way to internationalise your product:

• Internationalise the date format. The first step to do is to change the app’s date format. This can be done by adding a new feature to your current app or by creating a separate app that contains only the feature and its calls (i.e., the Talkback feature).
• Add a message for each call. For each of these calls, add a message for the user in their native language or dialect (e.g., “The date is %s”).
• Test! After you’ve added all of these messages, test them using different languages and dialects and see how they work together with your other features (e.g., chat).

Supporting Multiple Languages

Imagine you had a piece of text in your app, for example, an address or a name, which is fixed and should be shown in a specific locale, irrespective of the phone’s set locale.

The latest version of Talkback can automatically switch languages. For example, it can identify the language of the text, English (“Hello”) and Hindi (“??????”), and is also able to announce the text accurately.

To support multiple languages with your Talkback installation, follow these steps:

Content Descriptors

Talkback can recognise view items on Android and announce their kind and description using accessibility APIs. For every image or button that doesn’t have text for the screen reader to read, you should add a content description. You can set the content description to @null if the element is not required to understand what is displayed on the screen. This will enable TalkBack and other screen readers to completely skip the element and move on to the next item in the view.

Supporting Design

Some languages, including Urdu, Hebrew, and others, are read left to right. Talkback can recognise these languages automatically and announce the view elements in RTL rather than LTR.

However, the layout must support RTL or Talkback won’t work. The TextViews are currently fixed to the left and right sides of the parent view.

1. TalkBack 15.1+ Improvements (2025)

2. Voice Access 2025 Enhancements

3. AI-Powered Image Descriptions

Android now uses Google’s Gemini multimodal AI to generate alt-text for unlabeled images. This ensures screen readers can describe visual content even when developers miss adding content descriptions.
Activation:
Users can enable this feature by navigating to Settings > Accessibility > Image Content Descriptions for automatic descriptions of images across apps.

4. Accessibility Scanner 3.0

The updated Accessibility Scanner includes live TalkBack test previews, voice-enabled bug reporting, and multi-language simulations, making it easier for developers to validate accessibility in real time.

5. Material You Accessibility Extensions

Material Design 3 now supports accessibility-first components with features like auto-contrast detection, responsive font resizing, and safe colour palettes for users with various types of colour blindness.

6. Android App Bundles with Locale-Specific Downloads

You can now bundle accessibility-specific resources such as Braille files, TTS prompts, and localised UI layouts for each locale, ensuring faster app installs and a lightweight user experience.

7. Accessibility in Jetpack Compose

Jetpack Compose now includes Modifier.semantics{} for tagging UI elements, tools for managing focus order, and LiveRegion support to announce real-time updates like error messages or incoming messages.

8. AI-Assisted Testing for Accessibility (Manual + Automated)

New tools like Accessibility Insights integrate with Espresso to simulate TalkBack usage, detect real-time accessibility issues, and suggest quick fixes for common problems like missing labels or poor contrast.

9. Multi-Language TTS Enhancements

Android’s text-to-speech now detects and reads out multilingual text smoothly within a sentence, automatically switching between languages like English, Hindi, and Arabic with accurate pronunciation and tone.

10. Accessibility in Foldable Devices

Foldable support includes dual-pane TalkBack reading, hinge-sensitive haptic gestures, and adaptive screen focus, allowing users with impairments to navigate flexible layouts more intuitively.