I would briefly like to discuss these three apps and give a few thoughts and tips on each.
My hope is to enccourage others to try and to enjoy these apps as I do.
Please note I have tried Swag IQ and Cash Show and found them to be inaccessible at this point in time.
Also. I will not be submitting apps anymore as for me I find it extremely more challenging than I can handle. However I can put up informative posts like this to help people struggling with said apps in hopes it might clear up some confusion and make the app easier to use.
Also. Please if you have issues with accessibility with an app. Contact the developer and be polite about it. Sadly I see far too often negative reviews on said apps (whatever it may be) that are generally totally wrong because whoever the reviewer was did not give a thorough review of the app in question. In any case said reviews may or may not ever be seen by the developer and they give a bad impression of the blindness community in general. So please. If you review an app be polite and professional about it. Also contact the developer directly if you can.
HQ Trivia
Yes this app has some accessibility issues. Which mostly are covered in its app directory listing here at applevis. I just want to give some thoughts and maybe a few tips on this app that I have found to be helpful.
When you open the app for the first time or after removing it from your device and reinstalling it it comes up with a dialog asking for your phone number that is can send a text too. It sends the text, you enter the code and then it asks if you want notifications. All straight forward and easy to maneuver through.
Where it gets a tad confusing is when a live game is on which happens on week days at 3 and 9 PM Eastern standrad time. And on weekends at 9 PM Eastern Standard time.
So here is how it works.
Scott reads the question. As soon as he reads the question three unlabeled buttons show up on the screen. There really is no reason why they have to be unlabeled. But they are. And how you deal with those three buttons can affect your success or failure.
If you ever get into the chat window simply do a three finger swipe to the right to get out of that and you will be back where you want to be.
Each question allows ten seconds to answer.
Here is what I do to answer the questions.
As soon as he r begins to read the question I find the first button which is usually just above middle of the screen of your phone. If I know that isn't the right one I simpley slide my finger down just a tad till it says button again. If that isn't the right one I slide again till it says button. Once I am on the one I want I quickly double tap..
I have not answered all twelve questions yet. But I got five right today. And that was pretty good.
The buttons are in sync with what he reads as the answers so no worries there.
I did not find the vertical navigation option to work for me and that is why I wanted to cover this and give another option.
In any case. My failure to get all twelve answers correct had to do with my personal knowledge and not with the unlabelled buttons.
HQ Trivia is a challenge and fun to play once you get the hang of it.
Second on the list is The question.
Generally I only suggest apps if they have a four plus star rating. But this one and the next do not. However. They do work well with voice over again if you know what your doing. A lot of times this simply means taking time with the app and figuring it out.
At first I thought the Question was inaccessible with voice over. I was going to remove it from my phone. But I thought hey let's go back in one more time and check before I do.
In set up this is similar to HQ Trivia. You simply go in and set things up. all works just fine there.
When I was actually set up I had a screen similar to the not live HQ Trivia game screen. By that I mean the screen that shows up when there is no game currently going on.
Most items on this screen are self explantory. I do note that in most of these apps depending on the situation flicking tends to be easier than exploring the screen by touch.
The games for The Question. There is a view schedule button. You need to double tap on that to open that up and then it will show you a list of games and at what time they are going on.
So I knew today's game was going to be at 7:30. But why on earth when I opened the app was the game not showing up. I tried several times. Closing the app and reopening it.
The key is to double tap on the view schedule button and then double tap on the game that is currently live.
So when you double click on the live game it will come up. The music starts playing. But your screen goes completely blank as far as Voice Over is concerned. You can't flick to anything. There is nothing showing by touch. And so I automatically thought with sadness here was another app I was going to have to toss.
Please don't toss the app. Wait till the first question is read.
When any question is read it shows up on the screen. You do have to find it by touch but once find the questions and the answers can be swept through by flicking and double tapping to select the right answer.
I want to say the question generally shows up near the middle of the screen. But sometimes it seems to be lower than that.. It also seems the Question gives you just a tad bit more time to answer a question than hq trivia does.
And again the question and answers all read with voice over just fine.
Once you tap an answer the screen goes blank again for a few seconds until everyone has answered then it comes up with the same question and whether or not you got it correct.
In this area you simply find the question and slide your finger up to see whether you got it correct or wrong. I slid my finger. But I might have flicked to the left too.
This is extremely encouraging to see this work so well.
Then the screen goes blank again awaiting the next question.
Generally it appears most days the Question is live around 8:30 Eastern Standard time. Except for Friday's when its on at 3:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Honestly. I like the question better than HQ Trivia. But Scott is amusing on HQ.
Fleet Wit is very accessible.
They generally have two free games per day it looks like. Everything is straight forward. Again the questions and the answers are all accessible The questions are in this case at the top of the screen where you would expect them to be.
I like fleet wit for a number of reasons. Its sort of almost at your own pace game. But the quicker you are and the more correct you are improves your chances of winning a small share of the pot being played for.
There really isn't much to say on fleet wit inaccessibility. It just works. I think it also has the lowest rating out of the three. But some people don't like how fleet wit pays out. Which is the next topic I want to discuss.
First off. I want to make it very clear that what I am about to say is speculation and assumption. I could be right. I could be wrong. But I have some personal experience in this area that gives me a bit more knowledge of what is going on here than some others might.
How are these games getting the money to give out?
Personally. I think quite a bit of it is coming from in app purchases. People like the games. They purchase lives. Sure they can only use one live per game. But even at apple's take away money. The company makes approximatly 60 cents per game purchase per one life.
You get even one hundred thousand people per month getting extra lives that is about 30000 dollars. I did that via calculator.
That is almost enough for weekly amount to pay out.
Granted I want to say they are getting it from somewhere else too of course. But I think a good chunk probably does come from in app purchases.
HQ Trivia and The question work about the same I think in this regard.
Fleet Wit works the same but it takes a slightly different approach.
In the one of one player games for example. You can earn one dollar and 60 cents if you win the game. The other person loses in case of credits one dollar. So you could say your betting against your knowledge. But I am guessing most people don't play one on one games unless they are sure they can win.
The credits are a little expensive on here. However. If you click on the credits tab at the bottom of the screen then click on other amount you can pay a lot less which makes it more compatible.
Alot of negative reviews on all three of these games and others like this is in regards to how they pay out.
My guess is people don't understand how that money gets funded and thus they come to faulty assumptions.
My view is play the free games and try to win if you can in Fleet Wit. And all the games on HQ Trivia and The question are free anyway.
Only invest in lives/credits if you want to support the platform. And use those lives/credits wisely and you will be fine.
Now to very briefly cover two apps I tested that were inaccessible.
Swagbucks and Cash Show.
Could they be made accessible. Yes.
However my experience with Swagbucks has been 50 50 or 72 25. Swagbucks is so into advertising things I almost get so annoyed that I just am not interested.
However if they made their trivia app accessible I would probably play there each day too. The setup on Swagbucks IQ is accessible. But when the questions come up unless I am missing something I found no way at all to click on an answer.
Cash show comes up with that standard text area inaccessible screen. I thought maybe if sighted help helped me set things up maybe after that the screen would turn accessible. But nope no go at all.
In closing.
As I stating above. All of these are free to play. You can invest money if you want. I know I will when I can. I like the platform. But you don't have to. There are two free games a day on two of them most of the time. And one free game a day on all of them except for maybe an exception here and there.
My favorite right now is fleet wit. It is the most accessible. And its fun.
Second place is the question. Accessible. Although it could be better. But it does work and I haven't had issues with it once I found out how it worked.
HQ Trivia for me comes in third place. Mainly because of the unlabelled buttons. However I keep it on my phone because it is challenging and who knows maybe one day or several I may get all twelve questions right and win a little cash.
Please note however. If you play any of these games and win enough where you are responsible for taxes and such. You are responsible for that.
So if you should ever win an amount you have to report just please be aware of that.
I really hope this post cleared up some areas on games of this type. And I really hope many of you try the three I mentioned here out. Your thoughts may be different than mine and that is totally ok.
I can't see a podcast being done on any of these except maybe fleet wit. Because HQ trivia and the question are very fast. There wouldn't be enough time to explain what is going on. Unless you do a recording of you playing a game and then edit that recording inserting your comments into what is going on and how you did it.
Have a great day.
Comments
Also, if you speak Spanish
Also, if you speak Spanish you can try Q12 Trivia, is the Spanish version of HQ. in this case the question and answer are labeled.
You can also try the arina.
You can also try the arina. Pretty accessible
HQ Trivia
I'm pretty sure that they have major sponsors that help with the payouts. Just like how they do when they occasionally do shows sponsored by this movie, or that game, or whatever people decide to sponsor a game for whatever reason. For example, a couple of weeks ago, there was a game that was sponsored by Nat-Geo, all about national parks. I doubt those sponsors just give out the amount that the game is going to pay out; they probably give a bit extra so that the show can stay afloat and continue to make its payouts.
Yep that too.
Yep I am sure some of it does come from sponsors. But I was just putting out a calculation.
I worked in a business with a similar platform. Although that was a different area covered. It wasn’t trivia.
I had to stop working there because I could not agree with the company’s not being totally honest with their buyers. Oh they were honest enough but they hid some very important facts. And they hid them because if their customers knew those facts they wouldn’t continue to purchase said products.
In this case if the player community helps pay for the trivia pot that doesn’t bother me so much because its challenging knowledge. And you can play for free.
All I was pointing out is HQ Trivia averages about 300k people sometimes 600k each game. Even half of those just purchased one extra life the company running the games is getting a bit of cash from that even taking apple’s 30 percent of the sale off.
In this case unlike the business I was in I like the way these trivia games run.
But some may not so that is why I brought up the possibility of where they get the cash from.
Having said that however yes they most likely have sponsors who help as well.
That is an excellent tip.
I am currently learning Spanish on duo lingo. And always am thinking of ways to practice it more once I learn it. So thanks for the idea.
To stress further. When learning any language take any opportunity you may have to increase your knowledge. This one you mentioned Raul is an excellent choice.
And yes. Exactly. HQ trivia,
And yes. Exactly. HQ trivia, the question and fleet wit aren’t the only games out of there.
So far I have tested five and three came out almost completely accessible. That is a pretty good track record in my opinion. And just with this post alone people brought out two others. Excellent.
When your looking at an app for accessibility for whatever reason. And the app turns out to be accessible. Try looking at the section on the app page that says something like you may like and see if some of those are accessible.
I am hooked on these trivia games. I love trivia. And I love the challenge. And so far they are all free to play.
Have a great weekend.
The q12 shows are at 22
The q12 shows are at 22 European time. Questions vary between general knowledge and spanish culture