Bluetooth devices and VoiceOver speech

By AliceP104, 21 May, 2020

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Hi everyone,
I hope I have posted this in the correct section of the forum - feel free to say so if not.
Yesterday I finally updated to iOS 13 on my iPhone 8 (so I have iOS 13.5).
I noticed that there are new settings which enable you to control the destination of VoiceOver speech when you have a Bluetooth device connected i.e. you can listen to music through a Bluetooth speaker while the VoiceOver speech continues to sound from the iPhone. Today I switched on my Bose Mini SoundLink Bluetooth speaker and I was very impressed with the fact that I could use that to listen to music but VoiceOver was still sounding from my phone.
However, I then switched on my Aftershokz Trekz Air Bluetooth headset and both VoiceOver and the music I was listening to came out of my headset (VoiceOver did not sound out of my iPhone speaker).
My questions are: does this feature only work with certain Bluetooth devices? Does it only work with Bluetooth speakers and not headsets? Does it depend on which version of Bluetooth the external device uses?
Furthermore, adjusting the settings is not as straightforward as I was hoping - if I wanted to adjust the setting to control the audio destination of VoiceOver, I have to restart both VoiceOver and my Bluetooth device to enable the changes to take effect. Are other people finding this is the case as well? Any tips on controlling the audio destination of VoiceOver would be much appreciated.
Thank you for all your help,
Alice

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Comments

By bonerobot on Sunday, November 22, 2020 - 09:39

Hi,

i also noticed this feature on my Bose Soundlink Mini II speakers suprisingly.
It's a nice handling, if you can set the audio content on your phone via VO, while you can hear the content on the speakers.
Unfortunatly this feature comes and goes how it wants, which is very anoying. Is there a way to regulate this in the VO settings

By Brennen on Sunday, November 22, 2020 - 09:39

This feature is definitely really cool I just wish that I could get it to work consistently across all devices that use Bluetooth some devices I can get it to play through the phone speaker and then some devices voiceover will only play through the Bluetooth speaker with some music but like I said I wish it would work consistently to where I can get it to consistently play through the phone speaker and then the music play through the Bluetooth speaker no matter what Bluetooth speaker you have

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, November 22, 2020 - 09:39

Was using sound blaster and vo cmae from the phone. However speeker was not working and connected to another. Now can not get vo to come to the phone. This is a pain. I like to have vo from the phone that way I can check text and news and listen to the music from the speeker. Not happy at all. Did I stated not happy with apple at all.