How to check if Talkback is active in JellyBean

Question

This question asked how to know if Android Talkback is active; that worked until Jelly Bean. Starting from Android 4.1, that steps no longer work, because the mentioned curs

Answer 1

While looking at TalkBackService.java, I found these code segments. These segments should provide some insight on how to query the status.

Code

/**
     * {@link Intent} broadcast action for querying the state of TalkBack. 

     * Note: Sending intent broadcast commands to TalkBack must be performed
     * through {@link Context#sendBroadcast(Intent, String)}
     */
    @Deprecated
    // TODO(caseyburkhardt): Remove when we decide to no longer support intent broadcasts for
    // querying the current state of TalkBack.
    public static final String ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND = "com.google.android.marvin.talkback.ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND";

    /**
     * Result that TalkBack is enabled.
     *
     * @see #ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND
     */
    public static final int RESULT_TALKBACK_ENABLED = 0x00000001;

    /**
     * Result that TalkBack is disabled.
     *
     * @see #ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND
     */
    public static final int RESULT_TALKBACK_DISABLED = 0x00000002;

    /**
     * Permission to send {@link Intent} broadcast commands to TalkBack.
     */
    public static final String PERMISSION_SEND_INTENT_BROADCAST_COMMANDS_TO_TALKBACK = "com.google.android.marvin.talkback.PERMISSION_SEND_INTENT_BROADCAST_COMMANDS_TO_TALKBACK";

    /**
     * Tag for logging.
     */
    private static final String LOG_TAG = "TalkBackService";

public static final String ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND = "com.google.android.marvin.talkback.ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND";
..

            } else if (ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND.equals(intentAction)) {
            // TODO(caseyburkhardt): Remove this block when we decide to no
            // longer support
            // intent broadcasts for determining the state of TalkBack in
            // favor of the content
            // provider method.
            if (sInfrastructureInitialized) {
                setResultCode(RESULT_TALKBACK_ENABLED);
            } else {
                setResultCode(RESULT_TALKBACK_DISABLED);
            }
        }
            ...
    }

Explanation

You must send an Intent broadcast to the TalkBackService using the action of:

public static final String ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND = "com.google.android.marvin.talkback.ACTION_QUERY_TALKBACK_ENABLED_COMMAND";

Then examine the contents of the Extras and process it accordingly.

ALSO insure that you have the right permission:

public static final String PERMISSION_SEND_INTENT_BROADCAST_COMMANDS_TO_TALKBACK = "com.google.android.marvin.talkback.PERMISSION_SEND_INTENT_BROADCAST_COMMANDS_TO_TALKBACK";