iOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, watchOS 11.4, tvOS 18.4, visionOS 2.4 and other associated betas are now out!

After upgrading to iOS 18.4, a bug that I had in the first betas of iOS 18.0 was fixed and it was when deleting text in Computer Braille, VoiceOver wouldn't delete almost any character.

Good to see Braille is getting some fixes.

In the beta in the now playing app, the digital crown adjusts the watch volume as per the new volume control change in watchos 11 instead of the media being played on the iphone.

Not sure if this is a bug or it's intentional, but as of WatchOS 11.4 beta, performing a two-finger double-tap, hold, and drag changes the master volume, not Voiceover's volume, yet the speech volume item in the rotor still controls VO's volume. This allows for some very inconsistent behavior, such as the speech volume in the rotor being 100 % while media volume, now controlled by that two-finger gesture, is at a different value.

I've been using the Google AIStudio tool for live voice chats and video/camera descriptions.

This was working fine, but now that I have the 18.4 beta installed, I can no longer get the AI to view through my camera and still interact with the voice. I wonder if others see this issue with iOS 18.4 beta or other versions.

The web site tool does work on my Windows PC using Chrome.

I am using an iPhone 15 Pro and Saffari with Voiceover.

Would be interested to know others' experiences with this.

Thanks.

--Pete

I actually like that change on watchos, it's so perfect! We have the official rotor for speech and this gesture for the master. I loove that change so much.

No way. I really love this change. I had planned on requesting it to apple but wasn't confident on how to describe my desire appropriately and yet they've already done it. I get that for people with motor disabilities the volume gesture on the watch could be very hard to do if not impossible, and I understand that the rotor is easier. They could have found a better way so that both do the same thing, but personally as far as I am concerned I just got back the watch os <=10 volume controls back. I can have a real 5% volume, and at 60-70% it's high enough for me to hear, and with proper base so I don't have to adjust both sliders myself. The new way was creating weird thing with dsp (or probably more high level) as to the base of voiceover voices and sounds when adjusting the voiceover volume and the system's independently. I have (very poorly) described this to apple and here and back then they responded with working as designed which is technically true. TLDR, for those who love the old way of controling the volume on watchos prior to 11.0, and are able to perform the watch 2 finger hold and flick up/down volume gesture, forget the advice of system volume at 80% and adjusting Voiceover's, just use this gesture with the volume rotor set at 100%. Incredible fine control, good base even when high, and system and vo volumes are synced like they previously were. 11/10 apple for this one.

How do I delete downloaded voices in macOS 15.4? I've looked in all the places where you can download voice data, but I can't find the button to delete a downloaded voice such as Alex. I want to change my region, delete the United States Siri voices, and change it back to find out if a fresh download will give me the Apple Intelligence voices with VoiceOver.

I've changed a setting in the auto launch or the live activities to have nowplaying launch as an app whenever there's media playing on the iphone like before watchos11 and now turning the digital crown adjust media volume as normal, at least when listening to youtube on iphone with airpods connected.

Hey guys!

I’m planning to test the beta for iOS and watchOS, but before that, I want to ask—what bugs are you guys finding? Apparently, the back tap thing isn’t a bug; it’s a feature (one that I’ll probably find really annoying), and I’m already aware of that.

But what other bugs are you guys finding that could be a big issue for VoiceOver users? Anything?

Thanks in advance!

Hope not in your primary device. I will wait until is more stable. Maybe when it gets to letter B or A or RC.

For me watch os and ios are stable enough honestly. Especially at this point I haven't noticed any major annoyance.

It is nice to see your willing to test the beta's have fun.

Some bugs. After a while on ios after you press lock screen the element of the app on screen stays as gost so you have to explore by touch once for vo to reload the new element. Also sometimes bsi and rotor won't output anything in textfields. Some of this can be tamporarily fixed with iphone reboot.

I'm on the release iOS 18.3, not the beta. But, sometimes, Hey SIRI fails to get SIRI's attention and I must resort to holding the side button. When it happens, it's very repeatable, even after clearly repeating my request. It's not background noise either, as it happens in a quiet environment. I wondered if anyone was seeing this on the beta.

If you turn it off and restarted, it will take time to set it up.

More likely you need to wait for the next beta update. Maybe on Friday or next Monday or 2 weeks from Friday.

Again, I need to stress that I've literally only gotten one person who said they have access to these, and I don't have the beta installed at this time, but maybe try downloading a few voices through Siri settings and then see if that forces the voiceover list to update. The issue with iOS updates like this as they tend to mess up the voice list for a period of time, I remember when 12 came out and they released the new Irish voices for Siri, they didn't show up for me at all, and I had to perform erase all content and settings to get them to come up. Obviously not suggesting going that far, but perhaps leave it plugged in overnight if you don't do this already and see if maybe that makes a difference.

Ok since the update on my iPhone 15 pro notifications on the locked screen are being cut short. When one comes in the phone starts to read for about 5 seconds I think then immediately locks itself. So have to manually press the side button again and swipe to hear the full notification. Checked to see if this was some odd new setting but if it is it is well hidden. On the upside they are no longer being stacked even after 4 days since I did the update. Oh and yes did a hard reset just to be sure.

Hi all,
I've been hearing about Siri's onscreen awareness. I'm pretty sure I read it was coming in 18.4. For those who don't know, Siri is supposed to be able to describe things on your screen and take actions for you. Is this available yet? If so, has anybody managed to get this to work? How good or bad is it?

Is delate. It might come on iOS 18.5.

It was in beta one. they were running into issues according to Mark Gurman. It may be delayed. This is not for certain yet. Stay tuned.

I'm back again for all of us! Yay.
So the bug where single key quick nav alone or combined with arrow key quick nav would make it very difficult to get out of help mode with the user having to use the 2 fingers scrub gesture on the trackpad or force a context change (e.g. touch id triple click to invoke the accessibility menu) has been fixed in macos 15.4 beta 1. I haven't noticed anything else so far, and unfortunately the dock bug is still there.

The web site AIStudio.Google.com was working well to describe what was seen through the camera and enabling the user to have a live voice chat with the AI with iOS 18.3. Unfortunately the function seems to have been broken with the first three versions of the iOS 18.4 beta.

I am pleased to report that, with the release of the 4th iOS.4 beta, this feature now seems to be working.

Don't know if this is because of the feedback I gave to the beta forum, but it is great that this feature now works again.

Hopefully this feature will be built into the Gemini app in the near future to make it easier for other blind people to use.

--Pete

In the latest macos 15.4.3 update, the dock bug is fixed.

Heavy edit.
Already reported :)