Yeah, from what I could see it does, but not by default.
If you go into Play protect settings and turn on improve detection, then it seems to send unknown apps for scanning.
Source: https://support.google.com/googleplay/a … 2853?hl=en
in particular, the heading send unknown apps to  Google.

from analising the apk, one sees straight away that a big part of csr is actually native code, written in c++ if I'm not mistaken, I'm not only talking about the lua libraries either. I DK how to direct the investigation further, as I don't have the tools to disassemble and attempt to decompile arm code, plus I don't have much knowledge of the native android API's.
So yeah, here's another thing where language matters, especially in phones that are not really powerful enough to run garbage collected java at a fast enough speed so that a speed sensitive process like a screenreader doesn't lag as hell.
This is yet again one of those things where it's good for 90% of apps, but not for anything speed-critical like fast pased games or, yes, screenreaders. This is also why I chose to write odilia in something that's not interpreted or garbage collected, as well as write it in such a way I take every speed improvement opportunity that arrises. Another thing that causes csr to be fast as hell may be usage of faster and more efficient algorithms and better memory management since it goes lower than java, but if we can't see the code, that's just speculation anyway.
Speed aside though, it offers so many functions and features for which you would probably need many separate apps, including the clipboard manager, nice to copy text from any controll on the screen at all, plus it copyes selectively. Then, we have things that read subtitles, monitor parts of an application and tell us when they changed, translations, I heard there is an assistant, ocr and object recognition on items with focus(perhaps an icon inside an app), csr camera whatever that is, and many other good utilities like those. I haven't even touched on community made tools and extensions, as csr is scriptable enough it allows you to perform clicks on items and such with simple lua scripts, really powerful as hell. Because of that however, there are extenssions that enable features which should have been hidden by the paywall, I don't know any specifics, I know they are in the extension store though, so go digg if you want. Honestly though, if you want those features, just buy the product, the dev deserves it.
About payment, I also don't like how I would have to actually wait for an answer from customer service or whatever, the key should be generated and sent instantly without any kind of human intervention, hope he'll add it in some future release. I mean, it's kinda a winn winn situation for both the dev and the customer, extra work and frustration would be eliminated from the equation. Plus, bonus packages and stuff like that where you could buy something and it comes with a commentary key could also be easily implemented in that case, it would be just a matter of ingenuity and time till something like that could exist. However, other legal issues may be at play here, but then how does huawei manage to not be bound by those restrictions I DK...though I think we aren't getting the full picture regarding this issue.

TalkBack is perfectly usable, and it's use doesn't involve sideloading an app, sending money via PayPal and waiting for manual activation, or rooting my device. Plus, I don't have to worry about the screen reader's security, and I don't have to teach myself how to use a new screen reader without a well-written manual. Also, I don't appreciate this community's insistence that NVDA is better than JAWS in every conceivable way, because it simply isn't. NVDA and JAWS are both tools which empower users, however one is not better than the other as both have their strengths and weaknesses.

@32, do I see some anti-Chinese bias here?

@32 Perfect example of why misinformation needs to be avoided.
For god's sake, who ever said that you need to root your device? You get one additional feature if you  do and if you even grant access, but that is never required to use the product.
Who ever said that you need to send money and wait for activation before you can even use the product? The free version is more than  usable, it never expires and it allows you to try out about 70 percent of the screen reader.
I mean, if you don't want to even give it a try, it's absolutely your choice being that it's your device in the firstplace, but quit screaming no without informing yourself properly.
As for sideloading, as soon as you get all restrictions lifted from China related to Google play, I'm sure the developer will be eternally grateful.

Hey. I'm all for open source, but not with screen readers. Let me explane. Not counting NVDA that's actually getting some kind of love, screen readers like TB and Orca aren't really getting much contribution aside from some people. For me, I think it's better to have screen readers that are not open source, but are open to source. If that made any kind of sence to you all. I personally, always wanted to watch chinese shows on netflix, and have the subtitles read out. And you know what, I got it! But not from Talkback, but from a screenreader that is apparently the under dog of accessibility, while the top SR is slowley starting to move along. BGT lover told me, that Talkback is open source, but the people don't accept pull requests but you can fork it and update it. Now that would be fine, but accessibility in screenreaders should be on par with everything, and not because you have a specific phone from a specific manufacturer.

The only major complain I have is the payment. Paypal and manual activation are just iffy for me, maybe I'm simply overcautious about trusting random people on the internet to follow through as there's no guarantee of getting back the money I send. And if I remember right, customizing multifinger gestures requires you to pay for the full version, which is just bonkers to me since multifinger gestures are allowed in the free version if I believe, you just can't customize them.

@38, I don't quite understand the open to source thing, perhaps it's like open to user feedback?
about your point, I don't think it makes much difference if a program is open source or not in the bigger picture of things, though obviously the best thing would be that as many programs become open source as possible. There is not a significant difference, not in the development workflow, distribution, or feedback reporting by the users. So then, it would only be logical to assume that, even if tb was closed source, it won't have faired better than its open source self from now, google doesn't care that much about it honestly.
@39, the situation is kinda complicated. I don't understand how would that be possible, but you could go in legal trubble if you use even open source code with a specific license. For example, an android rom maker, perhaps lineage, wanted to add tb and make the accessibility shortcut work with it, as in manufacturer provided android distributions. What happened though, is that they said they can't do it because of legal reasons or some license issues, they didn't go in much detail though as far as I remember. I don't know how could that be honestly, however someone told me once that facebook, even though it has some tools open sourced, could sue you if you used their code or something. Those memories are vague, but it's kinda concerning tbh.
However, there is indeed a community maintained version of talkback, called talkback fos. I think it could begin to gain more features, now that it has been degoogled and all that, perhaps we can point rom devs at this one?
See, here's another thing about this. While csr requires you to do that complex setup to configure gestures, permissions, tts settings and whatnot, not even this version of talkback requires much of a setup at all, just turn it on in accessibility settings or via adb and start blasting. Now people can't say that this is googles screenreader and it's made to integrate with android since it has been baked in the system, since this thing is so degoogled now it could be kinda another screenreader entirely...maybe? I mean, why couldn't csr start with a default config and only ask for permissions when required, starting in a very basic and restricted mode, but enough to be able to do the setup wizard with csr in stead of needing to use tb? Again, the setup is not really hard to do, one gets used to it farely quickly, plus one can backup ones setup in the cloud as to do much less next time you have to update. Still though, does anyone know why the dev didn't go with that rout of start in a restricted mode, with a default configuration and asking for permissions only when needed?

hi.
the problem is I can not use Commentary
I try to use it, but I could not
can you give me any Written explanations how I can link it with smart voice?
because I need move to nvda Lol

Regarding root, you can feel free to disregard that. I just rooted my device and apparently  that feature is now removed for some reason.
A year ago or so when I tried it, it was possible to just open Commentary, and if your device was rooted it would take care of everything for you, that being disable Talkback and enable itself. So now, it's practically the same, rooted or non rooted.
Regarding setup wizard, actually it was done to satisfy users, but what you should understand is that it is impossible to satisfy everyone.
Back when it was just starting out, Commentary had no setup wizard. You'd enable it, you would be able to grant basic permissions, and that's it. Whether you configure anything or not is now your own choice.
However, frequent questions started coming up, such as how to invert swiping gestures, how to turn off usage hints, where is this, where is that, so the developer decided to implement a setup wizard allowing to configure and explain some basics. Who knows, in the future it might be an interactive tutorial just like what you get when turning Talkback on for the first time. A screen reader only requires a dedicated developer/s and time for progress to  be seen.
See, people being afraid to send money / purchase is absolutely legitimate, and I have no problem with that. As I said in another topic, I didn't buy the premium version until recently, using the free one for about half a year. Until then, I never heard about anyone getting scammed / not getting what they paid for, so it was an easy decision to make.
Nevertheless, as I said, if you aren't comfortable, that's perfectly understandable.

However, one thing that should be pointed out, customising multi finger gestures is not a premium feature.
The only requirement is Android 11 or above, honestly not sure if 12 is needed, Google made a mess when giving accessibility services this feature.
To customise them, do the following:
Go to CSR's settings, operation settings, at the bottom find other settings.
Make sure that use multy finger gestures is checked.
Now, back on the operation settings screen, go to gesture scheme and pick custom. Right next to that, you should now have a custom gesture scheme settings option, which will allow you to customize every gesture.
Near the bottom should be multy finger gestures. For example, double tap with 2 fingers. Activate that and you can assign any function you wish to it. I just tried on a device where I never activated premium and I was able to reassign double tap with 2 fingers, I assume every other gesture works too.
Hope that helps.

I gave it a shot. I'm interested in learning a bit more about it, but are there any text gesture lists anywhere? Not a manual/tutorial, just a list of standard gestures?

I know there are some in Commentary itself, but they're giant walls of text that it'd be easier to review...if I knew the gestures to review them, which is kind of what I'm trying to do. Reading a list on my desktop while I tried them out on my phone would be helpful...but this is all so ungoogleable. Or, at least, I'm having terrible luck.