Let Talkback announce start & end of episode downloads & feed refreshes

[keunes]

Checklist

• I have used the search function for OPEN issues to see if someone else has already submitted the same feature request.
• I have also used the search function for CLOSED issues to see if the feature was already implemented and is just waiting to be released, or if the feature was rejected.
• I will describe the problem with as much detail as possible.
• This request contains only one single feature, not a list of multiple (related) features.

App version

3.3

Where did you get the app from

Google Play

Problem you may be having, or feature you want

From the forum

Currently, there is no way for a TalkBack user to know if an episode has been downloaded or not. The same goes for refreshing a podcast

Suggested solution

AP could inform the user via custom TalkBack notifications about the refresh process and episode download.
For example, the custom notification could be something like this “refresh started” “refresh completed” “Downloading episodes” “Episodes downloaded”.

Screenshots / Drawings / Technical details

No response

[ByteHamster]

It already does that on my device (if notifications are enabled)

[antennapod-bot]

This issue has been mentioned on AntennaPod Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://forum.antennapod.org/t/mark-all-newer-older-episodes-as-played-after-selected-one-talkback-feedback/4236/19

[VoidCrater]

@ByteHamster

It already does that on my device (if notifications are enabled)

TalkBack does inform the user when the podcast refresh or episode download starts, however, it doesn't inform the user when the refresh process has been completed or when an episode download has finished. Custom notifications is useful in cases where the file being downloaded is large and is taking a long time to complete.
Also, when the phone is set on DND or notifications have been disabled, there is no way for a TalkBack user to know if the podcast refresh or episode download has started or not. That's where implementing these custom TalkBack notifications would be very helpful.

[keunes]

We discusssed this one at the Needs: Decision meeting.

We checked and the 'Downloading' notification category currently actually covers both episode downloads & feed refreshes. We should probably split that up.

TalkBack does inform the user when the podcast refresh or episode download starts

We contemplated if maybe we should not have custom, in-app announcements about the download/feed refresh. Because if we do implement custom announcements for start, you would get it announced twice (once through Android notification and once directly from AntennaPod via Talkback).

However, we decided that both start & end should be implemented as Talkback announcement:

• affected users (those using Talkback) can disable the Android notification for Downloads category to avoid double notifications
• there's no difference for visually able users, while it improves the situation for visually impaired and blind folks
• while it's possible to override Do Not Disturb, this is cumbersome to do and doesn't help when notifications at system level are disabled/silenced

it doesn't inform the user when the refresh process has been completed or when an episode download has finished

Visually, the refresh notification disappears. So from your comment we conclude that Android doesn't announce when notifications disappear (?). This reaffirms the above decision.

[VoidCrater]

This sounds like a really good proposal to me! :)