TapType is out. It's a keyboard for blind Android users.
There are no visible keys. You tap where QWERTY keys would be from muscle memory, and a spatial prediction algorithm figures out what you meant. It scores nearby keys using a Gaussian proximity model and runs a beam search against an 80,000 word dictionary. You don't need to be precise. That's the whole point.
Swipe right to commit a word. Swipe down or up to cycle through suggestions. Swipe left to delete. It learns what words you use most and ranks them higher over time, and you can add your own words to a personal dictionary.
Every letter has its own unique sound, from Andre Louis's keyboard sound recordings, so you can learn to identify keys by ear without relying on speech. Each swipe direction has a distinct sound too. TTS is there when you want it, adjustable speed, and you can turn it off entirely if you prefer sounds only.
It has emoji search with skin tone selection and favourites, a number pad mode, an upper case mode, and full punctuation support with a customizable quick list. Two-finger gestures handle things like send, close keyboard, switch keyboard, and voice input.
Everything works with TalkBack. I built this because FlickType was a fantastic keyboard for blind iOS users and then it was gone. Nothing like it existed on Android, so I made one.
It's free, no ads, no tracking, no metrics. I'm not evil.
Download: https://github.com/aaron-gh/taptype-releases/releases/latest
#TapType #Accessibility #A11y #Android #Blind #VisuallyImpaired #TalkBack #Keyboard #AssistiveTech
Release TapType 1.0.1 Β· aaron-gh/taptype-releases

Bug fixes Fixed touch passthrough breaking other keyboards when TalkBack is active. Passthrough now only activates when TapType is the current keyboard, and clears immediately on keyboard switch, ...

GitHub
@fireborn Sounds like Flicktype, which I miss on iOS. It was lovely.
@DavidGoldfield That's exactly what it is :)
@fireborn Yep, I was so excited about it that I sent off that reply before I finished reading it and so I missed your Flicktype reference. Thanks for developing it.
@DavidGoldfield @fireborn For iPhone, there was another similar called Fleksi (or nearly that), around 2011 when I had an iPhone.
@clv1 @fireborn Yep, I think Flicktype was the successor to that program. I wish someone would develop something like it today.
@DavidGoldfield Though I think it's slightly better, supporting emoji search and more customizability.
@fireborn How come you're not making the code open source but just using Github for the releases? Something like this honestly would make sense being open sourced.
@alexchapman I likely will at some point, it's just kind of messy right now.
@fireborn Oh right.
@alexchapman It was originally going to be a Sandfly feature that I pulled out and made its own thing.
@fireborn Oh OK, what's Sandfly? Sounds interesting.
@alexchapman Android screen reader in development.
@fireborn Oh interesting. I guess that's also gonna be open sourced eventually?
@alexchapman No. That will have paid features.
@fireborn Um OK, paid features in a screen reader? Jisuo or however its spelled has a paid thing going on, I'm surprised you wanna monitise an accessibility tool.
@alexchapman Do keep in mind I don't work full time any more. This is what I do now, as well as teach.
@fireborn Yeah, although I do think there's other stuff you could do paid features on, a screen reader just seems kinda... Idk how to describe it, I've seen it all over, Jisuo, Jaws and Supernova on Windows, it just feels off.
@alexchapman The core functionality will be free. The only things that will be paid are anything that cost me money to maintain.
@fireborn Right, so things like anything that requires some sort of server to function, that sort of thing. I've thought about doing stuff like that, but I've always said to myself if there's ever gonna be monitisation in any software that I do, I'm gonna do it where its completely optional, where the software is open source, and the only thing that's a paid thing is certain features running on my infrastructure. If people don't wanna pay, they can selfhost the full stack. That's the only way I'd ever do stuff like that.
@fireborn I love this. Very well done. One thing though, it says there is no voice input method available, I should have one though. Do I need to set that somewhere? Also the Talkback passthrough thing seems to be a bit buggy yet, or at least for me, I just turn TB off for now.
@jonathan859 Talkback passthrough should work fine. Can you explain what issues you're facing?
@fireborn Aha, when I turn off https://github.com/aryanchoudharypro/NVGTBridge it works fine, but when it's enabled in the accessibility settings TalkBack won't focus the keyboard. No idea why, I haven't added the keyboard to NVGT Bridge or anything.
GitHub - aryanchoudharypro/NVGTBridge: allows games written in nvgt to have functionality like ios direct touch by using an accessibility service to remove the game from the explore by touch zone"

allows games written in nvgt to have functionality like ios direct touch by using an accessibility service to remove the game from the explore by touch zone" - aryanchoudharypro/NVGTBridge

GitHub
@jonathan859 Interesting. I'll look into this, I have nvgt bridge on.
@fireborn @jonathan859 yep, talkback passthrough doesn't work here either. no other accessibility services on, pixel 8 pro, latest android, latest talkback.
@freya @jonathan859 Interesting. Tap once and then keep tapping? you have to tap once to focus it.
@fireborn @jonathan859 yeah, that just makes the talkback "nothing here" boop
@freya @jonathan859 interesting, looking into it. I don't have a pixel, so I got it to work on a samsung and figured that would be fine. haha.
@fireborn @jonathan859 I just got an 8 pro and um. wow android has come a long way., talkback is still not as fast as voiceover but.... I presume there's reasons for that?
@freya @jonathan859 Reasons for that can quite simply be boiled down to talkback sucks.
@fireborn @jonathan859 will it generate a custom voice? yes. will that work with talkback? no. will it slow my entire phone down to where it takesd a solid 2.5 seconds to recognise a talkback gesture? also yes
@freya @fireborn Lol yup, tried it. Heck na.
@freya @fireborn RH Voice and E-Speak are the fastest you get atm. We need more and better TTS for Android. And a proper SR, but hey Aaron is working on that. I still have some faith in Android.
@jonathan859 @fireborn I have a lot more faith in android than I used to, this pixel is remarkably usable. the linux terminal option is a lot more, um, broken than I was expecting, aaron love, is termux any less jank?
@freya @jonathan859 There's a modified Termux floating around that is way better, but it's quite old now and isn't perfect. Maybe I should for kTermux haha.
@fireborn @freya Yup, TB pass through works here, thx.
@jonathan859 @freya Yup as in it worked, or something else?
@fireborn @jonathan859 nope, still doesn't work here. if I use two fingers and swipe left on the keyboard area I get "nothing to delete", and it inserted a 'g' when I tapped on the "TapType keyboard" object.
@freya @jonathan859 what the fuck? You did turn on the pass through in the settings, right? The keyboard won't block you from trying to use it with it off.
@fireborn @freya The fuck? Now it did break for me as well though. Let me make a recording real quick.
@fireborn @jonathan859 ok that works now. unfortunately two more issues: 1) it's very, very low down, like it's using like 1/3rd the space on the screen meaning the keyboard is tiny, and also there's issues there if I tap-tap-tap-tap-tap at full speed, even at full 'iPhone direct touch typing" speed, it's in the middle of reading one letter when I tap another, and the new one gets ignored
@freya @jonathan859 If you open the app you can change the keyboard height.
@fireborn @jonathan859 ok that works now, but it's still quite.......... glitchy? inaccurate? I'm not sure how to describe that
@freya @jonathan859 Yup, it's very slow right now. Apparently it's being worked on though. Interestingly I have less issues than most with it.
@fireborn @jonathan859 also do you know if there's a workable eloquence or vocaliser that won't shit the bed due to licensing and/or direct boot? and/or is there a prebuilt copy of the GrapheneOS TTS? I'm using google right now
@freya @jonathan859 eloquence is on the play store, that's the only way to get that. SmartVoice has a method of installing vocalizer voices, but I've not looked into how to do it.
@fireborn @freya Yeah Vocaliser with Smart Voice would work, is slower though. I can give you the Ava data if you want. Can't remember all the steps on getting others though.
@freya @fireborn No idea about the GOS TTS, would like to know as well. Eloquence is oficially on the play store, it works, is a bit battery intense and laggy though. Oh and the price is, meh. But well, if you love it like me.
@freya @fireborn Lol, typical TalkBack. Maybe it has to do with the Pixel part? I think Aaron is on Samsung while we're on Pixels.
@jonathan859 As for the voice input method, do you have a default IM voice input set?
@fireborn Apparently I hadn't. Thought wisper worked but switched on Googles thing and that works now.
@jonathan859 Yeah, I was going to suggest turning on google voice typing and try that.
@fireborn Also added it to the list at androida11y.com/apps.
@fireborn Wow! Sounds like Fleksy for Android, so now this functionality is on Android but no longer available on iOS.
@darrell73 That pretty much what it is, though flexy does exist for android just not accessibly
@fireborn cool, i am gonna need to practis a lot with this but i downloaded it and it's cool, even though i suck at using it lol
@fireborn how do you keep making all these apps so quickly sent with tap type
@pixelate Haha nothing about this is quick. I just don't announce what I'm working on until it's close to ready.