I was in the Philippines recently, and gave away a Nokia phone that was purchased in Canada. When I reset it, it somehow remembered my region and changed the language. I had to call Aira, figure out how to close the Talkback tutorial (with non-english text), figure out how to change the language back to English and then set up the phone. It is so discouraging that Google has allowed such a showstopper of a bug to persist for this long. Even having Talkback default to an English voice when it can't speak the language would be better than having no Tts at all. Yes, people would still complain and for good reason, but at least they'd be able to navigate their phone. I did not try putting a SIM card with mobile data in the phone; I wasn't aware that was a solution. This article touches on a lot of good points—particularly, the lack of testing outside the US is a very big problem. Android is much more popular in other countries, so I imagine Google is only hearing from a tiny fraction of blind Android users, and at least 90% of them are probably native English speakers. At this point, it feels like there is a lot of good work happening with Google accessibility—talkback itself is nothing to sneeze at—but some really significant areas feel very neglected. I would love to be able to pick up an Android phone and say "Yes, this is perfect, I'm going to switch to this full time. Screw Apple." And I'd love to be able to recommend Android to everyone I know, as a friend or as a tech trainer/advisor. But I can't do that yet, and things like this are a really good example of why. I hope this gets better and I sincerely hope my country of residence won't stop me from being able to provide valuable feedback for much longer. Google has a history of regional gatekeeping for no apparent reason. If this is present in the accessibility space, I feel like I have no choice but to see that as a major strike against them.

I remember when setting up my Pixel 6, 6 Pro and 7 Pro the language I needed (not English) was preinstalled. So it seems like with Google Pixel Phones from the 6 Series you should be good. Other brands will drop the ball till the world ends.

@WestphalDenn If you're referring to the German language, it comes pre-installed on both the Pixel and Samsung devices.