Description
You will find on occasions that VoiceOver focus will spontaneously jump to another UI element.
This particular bug has presented challenges in checking and documenting due to its varying impact on different users. While some have been unaffected by this issue, others encounter occasional instances or, in more severe cases, frequent occurrences rendering their device nearly impossible to use at times. A further complication is that no consistent pattern has emerged regarding the circumstances under which this behavior manifests. For some people, the issue exclusively occurs within Safari, while for others, it can present itself across any application. Similarly, the focus might jump to the top of the current screen for some, whereas for others, it will jump anywhere within the same screen.
This behaviour can often result in the wrong UI element being activated, as there are times when focus jumps as you are in the process of performing a double tap.
Examples of where this has reported to have caused issues include:
- On the recents tab of the Phone app it can result in calls being made to the wrong number.
- In shopping apps it can cause the wrong product or quantity to be added to the shopping basket.
- It can cause the wrong music to be played.
- It can cause the wrong setting to be changed or an option to be set wrongly.
These are just examples. There are many more situations where the spontaneous movement of VoiceOver focus can cause problems or simply provide a poor user experience.
The following forum topic provides some further information and experiences: Here Is Apple Accessibility's Latest Statement On The iOS Focus Bug
Comments
Still present. Still frustrating
I can't believe how long this issue has been around.
It's incredibly frustrating, particularly when it occurs that split second before you double tap the screen, so has you do something different to what you wanted.
My bank's app and the app I use for my weekly grocery shop are examples of this behaviour at its worst.
This is definitely in my list of top 5 worst VoiceOver issues or behaviours.
It will definitely be a red letter day if this ever gets fixed, but I won't be holding my breath.
My Observations
I find it happens when the keyboard is auto hidden. If you type in to a text field or choose from a picker item then navigate away until the text field/picker item is off the screen the keyboard/picker is automatically hidden. This seems to be what causes VO focus to jump, often back to the text field/picker item in question.
A work around I have found is to always double tap on the done button on the top right of the keyboard/picker item after you have finished with it.
This behaviour seems to be pretty consistent for me.
Been that way since iOS 13 and for a while at one point before that. Apple didn't used to have the keyboard auto hide so this didn't use to happen. Auto hiding can be useful because it gets rid of the keyboard when you don't need it but if it is going to cause this focus jumping then i'd rather go back to the old behaviour even if the keyboard can be in the way sometimes.
Chris
Re: My observations
Unfortunately, this behaviour most typically occurs for me when I'm not using the onscreen keyboard. It's pretty much as described in the above post - it can happen anywhere and at any time.
What makes it particularly frustrating is that I typically know where on the screen the element is that I want to activate, so can generally locate it by touch very soon after navigating to a page, only for focus to immediately jump somewhere else.
As it is right now, this behaviour is a serious hit on my user experience of my iPhone.
Seems to be consistency happening on the Home screen
I did not noticed this behavior until iOS 15, but it seems like when I go back to the Home screen, VO focus first is at the top and then it jumps, consistently, to another app on my Home screen. I thought perhaps this would be something to do with the app's placement on the Home Screen, but even removing the app from that position causes VO focus to again jump to another app. I'm not sure what happens with speech, but this is what seems to happen often when using braille.
It's really bad in this latest version.
I ended up purchasing something I did not want and I doubt I'll get my money back. Fortunately it wasn't a large amount.
Xcode 13 is a headache
Thanks for reporting the bug. Can you please share Apple link for defect FB9975885 ?
It's even present in iOS 16 betas
With iOS 16 betas, I've encountered it several times in the Phone app. So it's still lurking there.
Heardle.app
This site is a good one to reproduce this bug.
1. Go to http://heardle.app
2. Hit play
3. Go to the combo box to type in the artist or title you think is correct.
4. After typing in a few characters, more often than not, you will notice that the keyboard disappears and you have no choices on the screen.
VO skipping focus
I most notice a behavior like this when reading an article in the Apple News app that has an embedded video, usually within a Tweet. If I swipe down with two fingers to read the entire article from the top, VO will read the article until it hits the video embedded within a Tweet. Then Vo seems to get lost and starts reading from the top of the article again. This loop continues until I stop VO from reading and flick past the video to continue reading the article. This behavior started occuring in the last release or two of iOS 15.
--Pete
Still present in iOS 16 Beta 4
And as irritating and frustrating as before. The Phone app demonstrates it quite reliably.
Still present in iOS 16.3
What I encounter is very similar to the description in this article. I encounter it mainly in messages apps, or any app and interface where the virtual keyboard is present. Often it would write rendom characters when I am switching to braille screen input. With the problem with BSI that is already mention, it is seriously ennoying and I often have to delete messages since it would send them, this is a huge problem in professional situation.