Repository navigation
Conversation
trypsynth
requested changes
Oct 11, 2026
trypsynth
left a comment
Owner
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Thanks for this, it's in the right place under Screen on and off, and off by default is right. The problem is how wide the silence is.
Must fix
- It isn't limited to the lock screen, and it never times out. Suppression starts when the screen turns on and lasts until the first touch, gesture, key or navigation. So anything that turns the screen on by itself loses its window title and focus speech: the incoming call screen, alarms, timers and emergency alerts. After face unlock or Smart Lock, the home screen or app that appears is silent too. Please end suppression when the device unlocks, and after a short timeout as well.
- Emergency alerts. The change in
FocusManagerInternalremoves Google's comment that cell broadcast is an emergency announcement and must not be muted, and the new earlyreturn truenow mutes it. Please keep cell broadcast (and calls and alarms) out of this, and keep that comment. - Scope. Muting all window-change speech and focus events from every app is much wider than the S23 items you describe (carrier name, "Extend Unlock", "System UI", the last focused item). Limiting it to System UI and the lock screen would cover those without touching other apps.
Should fix
- It edits 7 of Google's files, including a signature change to
shouldMuteFeedbackForFocusedNodethat ripples into its callers. The focus check could live in one Backtalk-owned place, such as the focus listener inTalkBackService, which keeps future TalkBack merges easier. - "Suppress extra speech" is hard to understand on its own. Something like "Say only the items above" is clearer, and the switch fits better at the end of the category than the top.
- Please add Czech translations of the two strings to
values-cs/strings_backtalk.xml, like the other screen-on strings. - It was tested on one Samsung phone, and the System UI checks are aimed at Samsung's behaviour, so a test on a Pixel or another phone would help.
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
On my Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, turning the screen on could produce a very verbose announcement: my carrier name, Extend Unlock, System UI, and then the last focused item. This PR adds an optional way to make screen-on speech simpler and less verbose.
Adds Suppress extra speech under Verbosity > Screen on and off > When the screen turns on, off by default. When enabled, automatic wake speech is limited to the selected time and status items. Focus still restores, and normal speech resumes with the first user interaction. If no screen-on items are selected, waking is silent. Notifications continue normally, and Say "Device unlocked" keeps its separate control.
This option is phone-only: it is hidden and inactive on Wear OS, including if an enabled preference is imported. The suppression uses wake state and accessibility event types rather than a carrier-name or device-model check. It also handles delayed System UI selection events that can bypass the usual event filter.
Device testing has only been performed on my Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, where I confirmed that the extra wake speech is now suppressed. No devices other than Samsung have been tested, including Pixel devices; behavior there is unknown. Wear OS device interaction was not tested.
Validation on the isolated PR branch:
testPhoneDebugUnitTest: 602 tests passed.:talkback:testWearDebugUnitTest: 356 tests passed, including checks that the option is hidden and inactive on Wear.assemblePhoneDebugandassembleWearDebug: passed.:lintPhoneDebug: ran; fails with the same 153 existingMissingTranslationerrors. Only the two new UI strings were added to the translation baseline; no other lint findings were baselined.git diff --check: passed.