How to disable Accessibility "TalkBack" in your application?

Question

My application uses TTS (text-to-speech) Engine, and the conflict I am running into is that Accessibility Talkback settings override anything TTS tries to say. I would like to disable the phone's talkback option if using my application.

Is there some sort of permission to handle this? I have not been able to find anything.

Answer 1

That is not allowed unless the phone is rooted. The accessibility functions on the phone are not to be changed by a developer, as a blind person may need them to use the phone.

Answer 2

I know it's late, but I had the same problem few days ago. If you want to "ovverride" the TalkBack with your own TTS engine you can simply add:

android:importantForAccessibility = "no"

to each view inside your Layout. Now you can call your TtsSpeak() method inside your Activity.

IMPORTANT: This does not turn off the TalkBack App, but it will allow you to have a little bit more control over your App.

Answer 3

Lg P875: having tried out Accessibility mode, the phone locked me out from scrolling - thus unable access Availability facility to reverse process. Nothing in User manual. By accident I found selecting Settings icon, tap twice followed by long push on same icon. The screen released and I was able to terminate Talkback key. All back to normal, no thanks to LG user manual