TalkBack now gives audio hints for fingerprint unlocks in Android 15

Damien Wilde | Apr 15 2024 - 7:34 am PT

Google’s efforts to increase Android accessibility have been impressive in recent years. The latest accessibility change in Android 15 Beta 1 includes audio hints for during fingerprint unlocks when using the TalkBack service.

In older Android builds, you only receive audio feedback when registering your fingerprint data. The process only offers on-screen text hints for positioning, placement, and progress. With the recent Android 15 Beta 1 update, those with visual impairments should be better catered for with accurate audio hints when trying to unlock their device while the TalkBack service is active. TalkBack is part of the Android Accessibility Suite, which helps you use your phone even if you can’t see what is on screen with narration and context-aware feedback.

Steven Clark (@blindandroid) noticed this change on Threads and claims to have submitted a feature request for TalkBack audio prompts when using the fingerprint scanner to be added in Android 15:

Post by @blindandroid

View on Threads

As noted, if you have TalkBack enabled, when enrolling a fingerprint or updating the biometric data, you’re prompted to slide your finger over the screen and you’ll get vibration-based feedback along with spoken prompts on where to move your finger to find the in-display scanner. During the process, you will get updates on the percentage of the process that has been completed to help aid the enrollment procedure. Clark also notes in their original Thread post that you will also get audio prompts to “press more firmly” alongside the “move left,” “move right,” and “move up” advice.

This wasn’t available though when actually unlocking your phone after completing enrollment. Luckily, Clark’s wish appears to have been granted as you will get those same prompts at the lockscreen. You can watch a brief example of this from our testing of the function below:

With the prominence of in-display scanners on modern Android phones, this feels like it was something that should have been added back in Android 12 on the Pixel 6 series – the first Google devices with an in-display scanner.

Have you seen any other accessibility features like this TalkBack improvement added or overlooked in Android 15 Beta 1 that we might not have noticed? Let us know down in the comments section below.