iOS/iPadOS

This started in iOS 15.3, as reported by several AppleVis users. I have now experienced this with a few displays randomly.

In some apps, the screen will auto-lock whilst VoiceOver is in the process of reading text (generally when reading a long block of text).

When using a braille display, pressing space with F prompts the user to "enter text to find". After 3 seconds of waiting, the user is simply returned to the web page, and the function itself appears not to work.

When running a shortcut that prompts you to make a selection from a menu, VoiceOver does not read the menu options.

Note that issue is not present if the menu contains only a small number of options.

It is possible that the threshold that triggers this behavior might vary between devices depending upon screen size, as the way that the menu options are displayed on screen changes once you reach a certain number, and this is possibly what introduces this issue.

Siri may not respond if you invoke it whilst VoiceOver focus is in a text field and Direct Touch Typing is selected. Typically, the ‘listening’ tone will be play, but followed immediately by the ‘stopped listening’ tone. If you then try again, Siri may or may not behave correctly, In some instances, it will display the response to what you have said, but not automatically speak it.

With the introduction of native Dark Mode support in iOS 13, the behaviour of Smart Invert and Classic Invert has become less consistent and reliable; particularly for those who want to use a color combination that results in a light on dark display.

Specifically, there are some apps which do not appear to consistently switch to a light on dark display; and on occasion webpages in Safari and Safari views may not switch to light on dark.

After transferring audio playback to an external Airplay-based system, apps and features which use the microphone on your iOS device may not work properly.

This problem has been encountered with Siri, voice dictation, audio messages in the native Message app, and in some 3rd party apps.

Typically, the listening tone will be heard, but immediately followed by the stopped tone.

There are some inconsistencies of behavior when switching voices in VoiceOver settings > Speech which can result in VoiceOver not automatically switching to your new selection. You may need to use the language rotor to force the switch or select a different voice and then reselect your first choice.

When VoiceOver speaks a notification when it initially arrives, you may find that on occasions part of that announcement will be "in 1 minute," rather than "now."

Some users may experience inconsistent and less descriptive labelling of Control Center toggles. For example, the toggle for locking device screen orientation may simply be announced as “Locked” or “Unlocked” rather than using the more descriptive label “Lock Rotation” that was present in previous iOS versions.

This degraded labelling does not appear isolated to any specific VoiceOver voice. Users of the Alex voice have reported experiencing the unclear labels, while others using Alex still hear the expected descriptive labels.

In Braille screen input, when deleting or entering text, a sound sometimes plays, the same sound made if you try to flick past the end or start of a screen. The character is usually deleted/entered, as far as we can tell, but the sound precludes any speech feedback so users will have no idea what is going on.

In Braille screen input, the space (one-finger flick right) does not register roughly half the time. It is not misinterpreted as a dot, since no dot is entered, it is simply ignored. The new line command (two-finger flick right) does the same thing on occasion.

This is more of a problem than it first seems. It drastically slows down typing, since the user must pause after every word to be sure the gesture worked and must often retry it. It is a big hit to what is otherwise a very efficient typing method.

When browsing the Still Photo Wallpapers available in Settings > Wallpaper > Choose, VoiceOver reads what appears to be the internal file name for the picture rather than something meaningful.

When browsing the list of subscription options available in Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive, VoiceOver announces only the price, not the amount of storage space that you get with the package. For reference, as of the time of this writing, the $0.99 per month is 20GB, $3.99 is 200GB, $9.99 is 500GB, and $19.99 is 1TB.

When using a braille display or braille keyboard for text input, if you type quickly, the translator will not recognize all text typed. We have observed this behavior occurring both with US and UEB braille, and with both uncontracted and contracted 6-dot input. The longer the string of text entered, the more characters the translator will miss.

When you first go to the Apps; Games; or Updates tab in the App Store, you should find a "My Account" button near the top of this page. However, if you swipe some way through the list of apps shown on this page, you will find that this button can no longer be located (either by swiping or touch). To temporarily resolve this issue, we recommend that you double-tap with 1 finger on the Status Bar.

After opening a book in Apple Books or Kindle, the user can read until the page is turned. When this happens, the user is placed somewhere a few lines down on the next page.

When focusing on a note in Notes, there is a rotor action labeled “Share” and another labeled “share button.” The “Share button” action serves the same purpose as the “share” action, making it redundant.

As of iOS 16 it is possible to customise the Lock Screen. This includes being able to add widgets to the screen in a number of available slots.

If you place the Activity widget in the top slot (the one shared with the date), VoiceOver will speak what is mostly meaningless information for the data displayed by this widget.

Specifically, if you do not currently subscribe to Apple One and go to your Subscriptions screen through the App Store or Settings app, and then select the button to view the Apple One bundle options, the text on the page is not read by VoiceOver and most of the UI elements are either unlabelled or have meaningless labels.