SiriusXM: Music, Sports & News

Category

Description of App

Hear the best SiriusXM has to offer, anywhere life takes you, with the ALL NEW SiriusXM app! Listen to exclusive sports, talk, comedy, entertainment and
commercial-free music programming. Access hundreds of On Demand shows and customize many of your favorite SiriusXM music and comedy channels – so you hear
more of what you want and less of what you don’t. With the world of SiriusXM right at your fingertips, what are you waiting for? Get started today! Qualified
SiriusXM subscription is required. For more information visit www.siriusxm.com/streaming

About This Application

• Stream SiriusXM channels live, including exclusive online-only channels
• Customize many of your favorite music and comedy channels
• Get On Demand access to our large catalog of content and listen on your schedule
• Store select talk and entertainment shows for a period of time so you can listen even while offline
• Easily find channels, shows, and episodes with enhanced search capability
• Receive personalized recommendations to help you find even more content you’ll love
• Let your friends in on what you’re hearing or shout it to the world with new social features

 

Version

3.0

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

8.2

Accessibility Comments

There are some issues when using the app with VoiceOver. The interface is not the most simple to use. As there are quite a bit of chatter and clutter one will have to contend with. Read below for more information about the latest version.

 

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

Most buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some minor accessibility issues with this app, but they are easy to deal with.

Developer's Twitter Username

@SIRIUSXM

Options

Comments

By Al puzzuoli on Monday, March 21, 2011 - 23:16

I've been playing some more with this app, and though it has major issues in terms of accessibility, it is still possible to make it work. The biggest problem is that after you initially select a channel, you are stuck. There is a button on the bottom of the screen to get back to the category view, but you can't press it while VO is running.  This is very inconvenient, but manageable if you have your triple click set to toggle VO. Turn off VO for a second, try to find and press the category button without speech. This is actually easier than it sounds. The category button is at the very bottom of the screen, slightly above and left of the home button. immediately turn Vo back on. If you managed to press the correct button, you will now be   on the categories screen. At this point, you can select a new category and channel. Once you do select a new channel, you'll be stuck again, and will have to repeat the process if you want a change.  Far from ideal, but until we get them to fix things, probably the best we've got.

By Scott Davert on Saturday, April 21, 2012 - 23:16

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Check out MusicDoc. This is an alternative to the native Sirius XM app, and works well with VO. I sent an email to them, but Sirius XM has yet to reply. For now,, sadly, that's my only advice on getting around this.

By Scott Davert on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 23:16

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
This new version still presents the same issues found in previous versions. I have not received any replies to my emails from them, so hopefully making this the campaign of the month will get more people to contact them and rectify the lack of accessibility.

By AnonyMouse on Monday, January 21, 2013 - 23:16

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

The new update has certainly improved in terms of being more accessible. There are still some unlabel buttons but they are easy to determine what they do. So be sure to relabel them using the new IOS 6 relabeling function. Some of the functionality are still a bit quirky so there will be some things you will need to learn. I highly suggest you in listening to the podcast that has been done for this app. It will show you in what to label and how to use some areas that you may not be aware of. It is a great podcast and I learned a great deal from it.
 
What's New in Version 2.2.0

• SiriusXM On Demand
• Store select shows for offline listening
• Many other enhancements and fixes

By Jim D on Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 23:16

Version 3.0 of this app was recently released. While I am finding many more buttons are labeled in the latest version, if you simply flick through the controls, you will miss a large amount of content. For example, when a list of channel categories is displayed, you must touch the center of the screen to find a category. Also, when you do manage to select a channel, the Tweets associated with that channel are now displayed. I'm not sure if this can be disabled in settings, but as it stands now, it makes the screen very cluttered. Why do companies insist on throwing there social media in my face? I just upgraded to this version and am wishing now I had not as I was planning on using this app to listen to several of the March Madness games. While it is probably possible to do this using the new version of the app, the user interface certainly isn't going to make this an enjoyable task.
Jim D

By carlos on Saturday, November 21, 2015 - 23:16

I just opened the Sirius xm app on my new iPhone 6s.
I found that I could swipe back and forth and voice over could read every thing.
Before I had to touch on diferent parts of the screen and it wasn't really accessible.
I am new with the iPhone so I
am not a voice over expert,
but I think the app is fully accessible now.
I would be interested what other people think and of any other accessibility issues I haven't discoveredthis app version 3.0.34.
Thanks
Carlos

By mike mcglashon on Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 23:16

hey guys:
i have xm app and i have question?
in the computer app, there are "tune up and tune down" butons to move channels up and down.
i cannot seem to find equivalents in the app for the phone.

By Deborah Armstrong on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 - 23:16

Running with iOS 15.1 on an iPHONE SE 2020 generation. The Sirius XM app appears to be completely accessible. I have found no unlabeled buttons and I can swipe through everything onscreen. Took a few screen shots and ran them through Seeing AI on the iPHONE, plus K1000 on my PC and could not find any elements on these screens that Voiceover had not identified.

The app however is confusing, whether or not you are using vision. It has cattegories for Sports, music, comedy, News/Talk ... but to go to a particular channel is a challenge. You can however assign a channel to your favorites, making it a snap to locate once you found it.

It does allow you to download content from various channels, E.G. rock and roll interview shows and previous sporting events. Testing in Airplane mode, I found I could play the downloaded content without needing to be connected.

The audio quality under "normal" is superb and it has two levels above normal for fidelity-oriented folk.

The app offers many channels you cannot actually receive with a sattelite radio. I currently have a platinum subscription which gives me everything but there are other subscriptions that give you packages so you can focus on the genre that interests you most.

Note that many new cars offer a three-month free trial, which is how I got mine; if you take control of the account assigned to your family car, you have improved access with the app -- both access in the sense that you can read the screen on your phone and access in the sense that you can get about 100 extra channels.

The website now also offers a 24-hour free trial to anyone without the need to supply a credit card. Not sure if it's a holiday deal or permanent.

Channel 1 is free and offers "commercials" for the other channels.

I see about twenty forum posts here on Applevis claiming the app is not accessible. That appears to no longer be true.

By Jimmy V on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 - 23:16

I use it every day for sports and music. Got it last year, I have the plan for 11 bucks with everything. It's sooo amazing and accessable

By Daniel Angus M… on Sunday, May 21, 2023 - 23:16

SiriusXM is amazing! got it last year, and it is something I use dailey.

By Deborah Armstrong on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 23:16

Version 6.6.0. Most of the previously published complaints here have been fixed. You still need to do a lot of flicking, but that's not an access issue; the service has a lot of content.
If you also have an XM subscription in a car, you'll be happy to know this current version does display the channel numbers. So if you were listening to say channel 110 and want to continue in your car, driven say by your spouse, you can now easily continue. The previous versions of the app didn't have the channel numbers, which was annoying.
It's easy to filter by cattegories: news, music, sports, commedy or your favorite stations which you previously marked as favorites. Using filters, or simply searching, you can find the station you want. The search feature is a little tricky to locate but you can search by title, channel number, cattegory or some part of the content. The location of search keeps changing in different versions.
The bottom of the screen has three tabs, Discover, favorites, and recently played ... and they disappear if you are viewing a show schedule which takes up the whole screen. Above that is the play bar with what you were listening to last, even if it was several months ago, with play pause rewind and forward.
You can also download content from many channels for listening in airplane mode. It also has a sleep timer.
The magic tap stops and starts playback. You can easily rewind back, though typically if you start a program it begins with what started live at the top of the current hour.
The app has lots of un-numbered "extra" channels which you can also access from the XM website but not from a stand-alone or car radio. The audio quality is much better than the radios that rely on sattellites, as the app and the website use the internet.
The app also gives access to podcasts, most of which are available outside the app for free, but easier to find within the XM app. It's also worth noting that many news sources, CNN audio for example and NPR are free also outside the app, as it simply makes many much easier to access. I didn't think I would use this subscription; my sighted husband wanted it for his car, but I signed us up and I actually use it more now than he does. It's worth the money and I have no accessibility issues using it.

By sockhopsinger on Thursday, December 14, 2023 - 23:16

Sadly, the "minds" at SiriusXM have decided that since they had everything working just fine, it was time to break everything. The accessibility of the app is a joke in this latest version. If that was the end of it, that would be frustrating enough, but now even trying to use the website is almost impossible. Not only does it auto scroll, but you also cannot browse by categories. If anyone else has noticed the non-functionality of the app and website, please comment here and suggest any workarounds. Really have to question the intelligence level of some developers as to why you need to "fix" things.

By Just Another B… on Sunday, January 7, 2024 - 23:16

I wish I could tell you which version of the app I am using but sadly this app is seriously degraded and I have no idea where to find the app version. While it seems like there are some accessible controls, it just feels like VoiceOver is unable to find content. Try to search for specific content other than a channel is impossible. I used to think super highly of the app but now am beginning to re-consider my subscription.

Has anybody ever found a way to communicate with the company?

By Brian on Sunday, January 7, 2024 - 23:16

I remember back in 2016, when I flew to New Jersey for guide dog school. We had a Sirius FM device mounted to the headboard in each of our dorm rooms. Because it was an actual device, it was accessible enough. You just had to memorize which button did what.

Did not take much training.

Sadly though, a good portion of Sirius's revenue comes from automobile subscriptions. And as far as I know, not many blind folks own an automobile. 🫤