With this accessibility feature on, the phone “talks back” to you, reading aloud whatever is on your screen. You just tap the screen, and it’ll read whatever’s currently in focus. That way, you can read web pages or click on buttons and links without ever looking at your screen. It can even describe images to you.

When you’re setting up your Android for the first time, it lets you enable Talkback and walks you through the tutorial. You can also enable it later on using any of these three options. Pick whichever you find the easiest for you.

• Use Google Assistant

This is the easy way to do it. The Google Assistant can turn Talkback on and off for you (it’s built into every Android phone). Just say “Hey Google,” and ask it to “Turn on Talkback”.

• Use Device Settings

If that doesn’t work, you can try the device settings. Open the settings app and scroll down to the Accessibility menu. Find Talkback and toggle “Use Talkback”.

• Set Up a Talkback Shortcut

For easy access, you can enable the shortcut to turn Talkback on and off. One shortcut is a floating button on the right side of the screen that can be toggled with a double tap.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Talkback > Talkback Shortcut.

Tap the Talkback shortcut menu and select your preferred shortcut type. I’m enabling the floating button and the volume key shortcut. You can tweak how the button appears and behaves by tapping “More Options” next to its toggle.

You can also decide where to stick the button. You can keep it on the navigation bar. But if you use gestures for navigation, you can place it as an overlay.

The other shortcut uses hardware triggers. You can toggle Talkback by holding down both volume keys. To use the volume key shortcut, press and hold down both volume keys for three seconds and release. You should get a confirmation dialog to enable or disable Talkback. If you can’t make out anything on the screen at all, then it’s best to stick to the volume keys shortcut.