Important: BrailleBack is no longer required to connect to a braille display.
With the TalkBack braille keyboard, you can use 6 fingers on your screen to enter 6-dot braille.
TalkBack braille keyboard is available in Ancient Greek, Arabic, Bulgarian 8-dot computer braille, Cantonese, Catalan, Central Kurdish, Chinese (Taiwan), Chinese common (China), Chinese current with tones (China), Chinese current without tones (China), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Kannada, Khmer, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Northern Sami, Norwegian 8-dot computer braille, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian 8-dot computer braille, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish 8-dot computer braille, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, and Welsh.Important: To use the TalkBack braille keyboard, turn on TalkBack and turn off magnification.
Contents
Step 1: Set up the TalkBack braille keyboard
Step 2: Choose a keyboard mode
Use gestures with the TalkBack braille keyboard
Manage your TalkBack braille keyboard
Step 1: Set up the TalkBack braille keyboard
- Open the TalkBack menu.
- On devices with multi-finger gestures support (Android 10 & up): Three-finger tap. Or, in one motion, swipe down then right.
- On devices without multi-finger support: In one motion, swipe down then right.
- To enable the braille keyboard:
- Select TalkBack Settings Braille keyboard Set up braille keyboard.
- Follow the instructions there.
- Open an app that you can type in, like Gmail or Google Keep.
- To find the keyboard, move focus to the text field and double-tap.
- Select Switch input method or Next language .
- If you don’t use Gboard, your options might be different. This option is usually at the bottom right.
- Select TalkBack braille keyboard.
Tip: When you open the braille keyboard for the first time, you can complete a tutorial for more information.
Step 2: Choose a keyboard mode
Important: By default, TalkBack braille keyboard switches between the modes based on the orientation of your device.
To turn off the default setting:
- On your device, go to Accessibility.
- Select TalkBack Settings.
- Select Braille keyboard Layout.
Screen-away mode
Screen-away mode lets you type with your device screen faced away from you.
To open the screen-away tutorial:
- Hold your phone so the screen faces away from you.
- Three-finger swipe up on your screen.
- In the list of braille keyboard options, select Open tutorial.
To use screen-away mode:
- Turn your phone so the screen faces away from you.
- Rotate the phone horizontally to landscape position.
- Your left hand holds the top of the phone. Your right hand holds the bottom of the phone, where the USB port is.
- Use your pinky and thumb to support the phone. On the screen, hover your 3 middle fingers.
- Hover your left index finger in the position of dot 1.
- Try these letters:
- A: With your left index finger, tap dot 1.
- B: With your left index and middle finger, tap dots 1 and 2.
- C: With your left index and right index finger, tap dots 1 and 4.
- D: With your left index, right index and right middle finger, tap dots 1, 4, and 5.
Tip: If the dot positions are off, you can adjust them. Hold 6 fingers on the screen for 3 seconds until you hear “Dot position updated.” Braille keyboard remembers the positions for screen-away mode and tabletop mode separately.
Tabletop mode
In tabletop mode, you can type on flat surfaces. When your device detects a flat surface, it transitions out of screen-away mode and into tabletop mode. This mode might be useful if you’re familiar with or prefer to type with a Perkins Braillewriter.
- Put your device on a flat surface until it says, “Tabletop mode.”
- Place your device so the charging port is on the left.
- From left to right, dots are placed as 3, 2, 1, 4, 5, 6. Put your hands near the device so your 3 middle fingers hover on the screen.
- Hover your left index finger over dot 1.
- Try these letters:
- A: With your left index finger, tap dot 1.
- B: With your left index and middle finger, tap dots 1 and 2.
- C: With your left index and right index finger, tap dots 1 and 4.
- D: With your left index, right index and right middle finger, tap dots 1, 4, and 5.
Tip: If the dot positions are off, you can adjust them. Hold 6 fingers on the screen for 3 seconds until you hear “Dot position updated.” Braille keyboard remembers the positions for screen-away mode and tabletop mode separately.
Use gestures with the TalkBack braille keyboard
Important: When you use the braille keyboard, other TalkBack gestures aren't available. To close the braille keyboard and use other TalkBack gestures, two-finger swipe down.
Try these gestures
- Delete a letter: Swipe left
- Delete a word: Two-finger swipe left
- Add a space: Swipe right
- Start a new line: Two-finger swipe right
- Submit text: Two-finger swipe up
To get a list of available gestures:
- On your screen, three-finger swipe up.
- Open the list of braille keyboard options.
- Select See all gestures.
Tip: On some devices, if you're on the Messages app and you close the TalkBack braille keyboard, the Back button won’t work. To continue, go back to the Home screen.
Manage your TalkBack braille keyboard
Hide the keyboard
- To hide the TalkBack braille keyboard: Two-finger swipe down.
- To switch to your original keyboard: Three-finger swipe down.
Add or remove languages
You can choose languages to use with the braille keyboard.
- Open the TalkBack menu.
- On devices with multi-finger gestures support: Three-finger tap. Or, in one motion, swipe down then right.
- On devices without multi-finger support (prior to updated Android R with TalkBack 9.1): In one motion, swipe down then right.
- Select TalkBack settings Braille keyboard Typing languages.
- Check the languages that you want.
Switch languages
If you choose more than one language, you can switch back and forth in the braille keyboard menu.
- While the TalkBack braille keyboard is on, three-finger swipe up.
- Select Change typing language.
- You only get this option if you check multiple languages.
- Choose a language.
Switch between grade 1 & grade 2 braille
Grade 1 braille can be useful if you're new to braille. Grade 2 can be useful for more advanced typing of contracted Braille.
- While the TalkBack braille keyboard is on, three-finger swipe up.
- Choose a grade:
- For grade 1: Select Switch to uncontracted braille.
- For grade 2: Select Switch to contracted braille.
Update dot positions
If your dot positions aren't where you want them, you can update them in 2 ways:
Update one hand position at a time:
- While the TalkBack braille keyboard is on, 3-finger swipe up.
- Choose Update dot positions.
- Follow the instructions to update the positions for the left hand, followed by the right hand.
Update both hand dot positions:
- While the TalkBack Braille keyboard is on, hold dots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for about 3 seconds.
- Your phone will play a sound as the dots are updated.
- Continue to hold all 6 dots until you receive confirmation that the dot positions have been updated.
List of Braille keyboard gestures
Basic controls
Action | Gesture |
Add space | Swipe right with one finger |
Backspace | Swipe left with one finger |
Delete word | Swipe left with two fingers |
New line | Swipe right with two fingers |
Move backward by selected granularity | Swipe up with one finger |
Move forward by selected granularity | Swipe down with one finger |
Hide keyboard | Swipe down with two fingers |
Switch to next keyboard | Swipe down with three fingers |
Submit text | Swipe up with two fingers |
Help and other options | Swipe up with three fingers |
Cursor movement
Action | First gesture | Second gesture |
Previous character | Hold dot 3, then swipe up with another finger | Hold dot 6, then swipe up with another finger |
Next character | Hold dot 3, then swipe down with another finger | Hold dot 6, then swipe down with another finger |
Previous word | Hold dot 2, then swipe up with another finger | Hold dot 5, then swipe up with another finger |
Next word | Hold dot 2, then swipe down with another finger | Hold dot 5, then swipe down with another finger |
Previous line | Hold dot 1, then swipe up with another finger | Hold dot 4, then swipe up with another finger |
Next line | Hold dot 1, then swipe down with another finger | Hold dot 4, then swipe down with another finger |
Move to beginning of text | Hold dots 1 and 2, then swipe up with another finger | Hold dots 4 and 5, then swipe up with another finger |
Move to end of text | Hold dots 1 and 2, then swipe down with another finger | Hold dots 4 and 5, then swipe down with another finger |
Previous granularity | Swipe left with three fingers | |
Next granularity | Swipe right with three fingers |
Text selection
Action | First gesture | Second gesture |
Select previous character | Hold dot 3, then swipe up with two fingers | Hold dot 6, then swipe up with two fingers |
Select next character | Hold dot 3, then swipe down with two fingers | Hold dot 6, then swipe down with two fingers |
Select previous word | Hold dot 2, then swipe up with two fingers | Hold dot 5, then swipe up with two fingers |
Select next word | Hold dot 2, then swipe down with two fingers | Hold dot 5, then swipe down with two fingers |
Select all |
Hold dot 1, then swipe left with three fingers | Hold dot 4, then swipe left with three fingers |
Select from the current cursor to the start |
Hold dots 1 and 2, then swipe up with 2 fingers | Hold dots 4 and 5, then swipe up with 2 fingers |
Select from the current cursor to the end |
Hold dots 1 and 2, then swipe down with 2 fingers | Hold dots 4 and 5, then swipe down with 2 fingers |
Copy | Hold dot 1, then swipe down with three fingers | Hold dot 4, then swipe down with three fingers |
Cut | Hold dot 1, then swipe up with three fingers | Hold dot 4, then swipe up with three fingers |
Paste | Hold dot 1, then swipe right with three fingers | Hold dot 4, then swipe right with three fingers |
Proofread text
Action | Gesture |
Move to the next proofreading suggestion | Swipe down with one finger |
Move to the previous proofreading suggestion | Swipe up with one finger |
Move to the next suggested correction | Swipe right with one finger |
Move to the previous suggested correction | Swipe left with one finger |
Insert suggestion | Swipe right with two fingers |
Undo suggestion | Swipe left with two fingers |
Tip: To enter or exit proofread mode, use three-finger swipe left or right to switch to the proofread option.
For more help with Talkback, contact the Google Disability Support team.
Related resources
- Connect to a braille display
- Use braille keystrokes
- Input text with your braille display
- Search on-screen with a braille display
- Change braille display settings