I've had my iPhone 11 for about 2 weeks now. I'm experiencing a very frustrating issue with VoiceOver where the speech will be extremely quiet for a few seconds or more before suddenly returning to normal volume. This especially happens when there has been no activity on the device for a short while. Also, sometimes the beginning part of the speech will be cut off. For instance, instead of saying "Downloads", VO will say "...ownloads". Or instead of "Skype", it will say "...kype". I did some digging in Sounds & Haptics, but couldn't seem to find anything relevant to my issue. I also tried disabling audio ducking in VoiceOver, but to no avail.
The device originally came with iOS 13.6, on which I experienced the exact same problem. Upgrading to iOS 14.0.1 clearly didn't resolve it either. I had no such problems with my iPhone 5s, and no blind or low vision friends of mine seem to have had this problem before, which leads me to believe this is a device specific thing.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue, or has anyone experienced it before? If so, how did you go about resolving it?
By Seedy, 12 October, 2020
Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Comments
Bluetooth
Are you using Bluetooth?
I have had this problem when trying to use some bluetooth headphones on my Iphone 8 which is one reason why I refuse to use bluetooth for any length of time.
I would be worried if this was happening with just the Iphone speaker though.
No Bluetooth
No, I'm not using any bluetooth audio output devices, just the iPhone speaker.
Same Experience with My iPhone 11
I have an iPhone 11 and have also experienced the same since iOS13.6 but a friend of mine has been having the same issue on his iPhone 8 since iOS13.6. We both do not enable audio ducking. I've often seen this behaviour on bluetooth devices, but have only recently experienced this on my iPhone itself.
Crazy
Crazy. I don't know what could be causing that then. I won't be upgrading to the 11 though if this is an issue.
Something similar on my 2020 SE
On my 2020 iPhone SE, currently running IOS 14.1, I have basically the same problem but, for me, it is at the end of speech in stead of at the beginning. Even using the internal speaker, VO will sometimes cut off the ends of words, usually right before VO stops speaking, like at the end of a block of text like a sentence or paragraph. It will occasionally do it in the middle of a block of text, when a link is encountered. This happens mostly in web based content, like in the news app or FaceBook app. My iPhone 6s, also running IOS 14.1, does not do this.
Observations and Work Around
I did a little experimenting. I use Alex as my normal voice, usually set to either 75 or 80 percent. I found that, when I encounter a block of text that exhibits this problem, if I slow Alex to below 75 percent, the problem stops. Usually going down to 70 will stop it but I sometimes have to go down to 65. I also found that switching to Samantha will solve the problem, even if I don't slow her down. I don't know about other voices. Alex and Samantha are the only ones I have set up on my phone. I suspect that, if Samantha doesn't exhibit the problem, then other Nuance voices wouldn't either. I'm not sure of that though.
I wish the same could be said for me
The problem seems to persist for me regardless of what voice I use or the speaking rate. I have my speaking rate set way down to 60%; I just cannot deal with high speech rates. They give me head aches, make me feel tired and generally kill my brain.