Screen Reader floating widget / bubble is gone after updates

[KennD]

Software Phone type: Samsung Note 10+
OS: Android version 12
One UI version: 4.1
Baseband version: N975FXXS8HWF3
Kernel version: 4.14.113-24230781

Pleco version: 3.2.93

I used the pleco's screen reader floating widget quite a lot to scan texts in my phone screen by first "activating it". The widget's usual activation process is as follows:
Opening pleco app > Menu (logo : 4 horizontal lines) > Reader tab > Screen reader. Usually after that, a notification pops up saying "Screen reader notification enabled" and then a smaller floating widget pops up. This widget can be dragged around the screen and if you click it then it will start the screen reader function.

But then after I updated pleco and the phone's OS (not sure which one is updated first), the floating widget is no longer showing. The only way I can use this feature is to look it up at the "toolbar" section of my phone (alongside flight mode, wifi, NFC, etc) to activate the screen reader. This is very time consuming compared to how I originally used this feature just by clicking on the floating widget.

I hope someone in this forum is able to help me find a solution or provide me with a previous version of the app so that I can utilize the floating widget again.

P.S : I also posted an app review at google playstore on 2024-01-17 regarding this and someone from the pleco team replied to this. Sadly it seems like I can't reply back to them, thus is why I am creating this thread.

Thanks a lot!

 

[mikelove]

First off, the question from our response there: if you tap on the 'boat' icon in the toolbar, does that get the floating button to reappear?

 

[KennD]

Hello Mikelove, thanks for your very quick reply.

I've attached some pictures just so we can be clear as to what you meant by the 'boat icon'.
I believe what you meant by the 'boat icon' is the circled feature from the image "boat icon.jpg" that I sent, correct?

And if it is correct, then as shown in the image "translation1.jpg", that is the effect after the 'boat icon' is pressed. During that phase, I can tap the screen to translate the page from english to chinese. But as you can see, no floating button appeared.

 

[mikelove]

No, it's a different icon that would normally appear in the notification section.

Try this: go into the Pleco settings screen, External Access, and turn off 'show notification only' - does that help?

 

[KennD]

In that case, can you show me what the boat icon looks like? And what do you mean by the notification section?
I've tried turning off 'show notification only', and it doesn't seem like there is any effect; I can still use the screen reader function normally as shown in my previous message.

 

[mikelove]

Could you also try tapping on the screen reader command in the sidebar menu? (Perhaps it’s currently off)

The “boat” icon literally looks like a boat, but if there’s no “Pleco Screen Reader” notification then you wouldn’t see it.

 

[KennD]

Dear Mikelove,

Thanks to your help, I've managed to solve the issue.

So what I did was:
1. Settings > External Access > Turn off the "show notification only" feature.
2. At the same section, I also turn on the "Enable screen reader + OCR" feature. I believe this can also be done by tapping on the screen reader command in the sidebar menu.
3. Then I was able to find the "boat" icon that you mentioned in the notifications section alongside the "screen reader" and "X" icons.

Afterwards, the screen reader floating button can now be fully used as I did before.

Thanks again Mike! You've been really helpful!

 

[mikelove]

Great! I'm sorry this turned out to be so involved.