Helping You Tame Your Access Technology » Feed - Tuesday, January 28, 2020 at
7:51 AM
From iPhone to Android,: a Week of Interesting Experiences
First off, I am blind and have no light perception. Also, because each Android
phone is different, and even the same mottle of Android phone can be
configured differently, your experience, if you try this, will be different
from mine.
Why Try Android?
I’d like to give some reasons for trying Android in the first place. I’d have
to say that I wanted to try and push my phone experience a bit. I wanted to see
what it was really like to tinker away at my phone and customize it to my
liking. I also realized that in many cases now, you can, in fact, turn on
TalkBack by holding down the two volume buttons for about four seconds. In the
past, I would baulk that this process didn’t work well, or at all. Being able
to turn on TalkBack independently was a big factor for me. In the end, I was
just curious.
Getting Started
Once I turned on TalkBack, I was presented with a typical phone setup screen. I
was easily able to flick left/right, and even type on the keyboard to answer
questions and to get connected to Wi-Fi. For the record, I have a Pixel 3a, and
chose that phone because I thought it would be easier to get updates to Android
OS from Google.
Once setup was done, I was able to transfer contacts from my old iPhone using
the app that was suggested by my phone company. This option worked well, and it
was a simple process of installing the apps on both phones, scanning a barcode,
then choosing what I wanted to transfer. In less than five minutes I had my
contacts setup.
TalkBack Tutorial
This was one of the things I really liked about TalkBack. When you first start
TalkBack, you are asked if you want to start the tutorial. The tutorial will
walk you through the majority of the gestures you will need to memorize to
access parts of the settings for TalkBack, and for interacting with the phone
system. Like so many things with Android, some things I really like, and some
things really exasperate me. During the tutorial, I discovered that the
gestures were… finicky. Sometimes they worked in one shot, and sometimes I
needed to try them two or three times. After asking a couple of Android users,
it turns out that this is rather common.
Notifications, Action, and Context Menus
What I like here is that you get plenty of configuration options, but when it
comes to dismissing notifications, sometimes the gestures don’t work the first
time around. This has got to be one of my biggest frustrations. I get a lot of
notifications. I also like to do things like open context menus. I can easily
add my own gestures, but many times, as I have said, they don’t always work the
first time around. I hate to compare apples and Androids, but with the iPhone,
if I want to clear a notification, it’s a simple matter of flicking up, then
double tapping. On Android, I set up a gesture to go to the Context menu. Once
in the menu, I need to find Dismiss. Assuming that gesture works, it’s not too
bad. However, many times, the gesture didn’t work, so I had to get into the
Action menu by flicking up then right (one gesture), then flick to Action, then
finally double tap on Dismiss. Within the Notification shade, there are buttons
to clear all notifications, and to clear all silent notifications, which can
make this process less cumbersome.
Phone Calls
This next part also really frustrated me. Many times during a call, TalkBack
would begin chattering away. This is because the touch screen thought I was
using gestures, so I would end up in the Notification shade, or who knows where
else? Yes, you can disable the proximity sensor, but then it makes it more
difficult to stop TalkBack from speaking at times.
I also found it frustrating to navigate by headings on the web with TalkBack.
This is because TalkBack uses the flick left/right gesture to navigate by your
chosen element, such as headings. So, in this example, you would first need to
flick up/down to choose heading, then flick left/right to navigate to the
desired heading, then again flick up/down to switch back to default or
paragraph to begin reading through the text. It’s a lot of fiddling.
Apps
Apps are a mixed bag. The really cool thing is that you can set default
browsers, chat apps, assistant apps, and more. So if you wanted to set Firefox
as your default browser you could. If you wanted to use Google Voice as your
default phone app you could. There are also apps out there on Android that
aren’t on iPhone and vice versa. I personally love the Overcast podcast player,
but it’s not on the Play Store. Carrot weather, one of my favorite weather
apps, is on the Play Store, but I just didn’t like the way it felt to use on
the Android.
One other issue is that some phones don’t support the apps that you have. As
one example, I love the Lookout app by Google. Unfortunately, it is only
available on Android at the moment, and many of the phones out there cannot
install it, even if you share the link to someone else. Of course, you could
sideload it (install it from outside of the Play Store), and that can work, but
not always. Speaking of Lookout, this app shines on the android, and was, in
fact, one of the deciding factors for me to finally dive into the Android
world. I wrote an article on Lookout, so you should check that out for more
info. I was easily able to use this app to go through mail, read money,
barcodes, and even get an idea of what storefronts I was passing. The app even
informed of things like trashcans, tables, and people. You do have to take what
Lookout says with a few grains of salt, as the explore mode isn’t always
accurate.
I also really loved using Google’s recorder app. It is a simple app to use that
also transcribes audio to text. You can share the recording as an email
attachment, and you not only get an audio file, but also a text file with the
transcript. While you’re at it, you should check out my article about the
Recorder app, too.
Your Phone
Microsoft has an app called Your Phone. This allows you to sync notifications
and text messages to your PC from your Android phone. I found that the app
crashed on the PC on a regular basis. 😭 However, when it worked, it worked
well, and allowed me to reply back to text messages on my PC if I didn’t have
my Android at hand.
Other Things I Liked
Being able to easily load ringtones onto the Android was so much easier than on
the iPhone—no proprietary software required. I found that deleting an audio
book on the Android audible app was much easier. I also really liked the
ability to get a new launcher. iPhone users can think of a launcher as a home
screen. The ability to hang up calls via the power button was nice. Wish I
could have answered them the same way. Regarding buttons, there are apps that
will allow you to change the function of the buttons on your Android phone.
This of course is not aloud on the iPhone. The ability to stop and disable apps
that you don’t want is nice. Regarding TalkBack, I like the ability to export
labels for controls that I have set up.
I also like the ability to scan in Wi-Fi connection info via QR code. iPhones
have a similar process, but it requires the person to be in your contacts first.
I’m Going Back to iPhone
As you may have guessed, I’m going back to the iPhone. I do not regret getting
an Android phone. I actually enjoyed my experience, but at the end of the day,
I want my phone to just work without needing to fiddle with it all of the time.
One of Apple’s slogans is, “It just works”. I have to say that for the most
part, this is true. There will always be more that we think Apple should or
shouldn’t do, especially when it comes to accessibility. When all is said and
done, the Apple iPhone is what I will be staying with for a long time to come.
I will be keeping my Android phone, and experimenting with apps, launchers, and
who knows what else. For now though, the iPhone will remain my daily driver.
Qapla
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David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.info
