It works!! Rout Voiceover through your iOS device speaker, and other audio through any Blue Tooth Speaker

By DrewWeber, 7 January, 2022

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Tested with IPhone 13, iOS 15.2.
Hey everyone. I and others have posted on the Applevis forums previously, wondering how this may be done. It seams there is a way.
I used to think that it was a cirtain Blue Tooth codec that would allow Voiceover to stay on the iOS devices speaker, and other audio through a Bluetooth audio device, but it seams that some devices may be showing themselves to the iOS device, as a speaker, and some not. When devices are recognised as speakers, Voiceover stays routed to the iOS devices speaker.
Here is how to show your audio device to iOS as a speaker:
Audio demo at:
https://drewsound.com/2022/01/06/route-voiceover-speech-through-your-ios-device-and-have-music-routed-to-any-bluetooth-speaker/
Text instructions below:
On the iOS device, open settings,
Bluetooth,
and scrol down to the Blue Tooth device you are wanting to customise.
Flick down and double tap on more info.
Once the More Info dialogue appears, find the
device type, button and Double tap.
You will be presented with several options. Swipe until you find, Speaker, and doubletap.
Voiceovers speach should then be routed to your iOS devices internal speaker.
I will note here before others do, that yes, there are bugs currently with Voiceover routed through the iOS device when connected to a Blue tooth device. Voiceovers volume randomly may spike to full volume, when, there is a pause in music or another audio, or, when increasing the volume of other audio. I do though, still believe this information is valuable, as some may choose a Blue tooth speaker, bassed upon others testing, that Voiceover may be routed to the iOS device.
Thanks.

Options

Comments

By Samanthia Farthing on Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - 10:30

Thanks so much for posting about this. I have made use of this feature a couple times and it definitely comes in handy, especially when there’s a significant lag with whatever bluetooth speaker you’re using. I was under the impression the ability to do this was tied to the bluetooth codec of the speaker, so to find out you can have this work with anything is a game changer. Thanks again!

By Keith on Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - 10:30

I have found that disabling all of VOICEOVER's sound effects makes for way less volume spikes. With sound effects turned off I think I only get a volume spike if VoiceOver is speaking when a new song begins, or while I press the volume buttons on the side of the phone.

By Lee on Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - 10:30

Hi All,

Yes turning off sounds stops the volume spiking. However, I have discovered that volume still spikes if you get notifications. So assuming you don't want to customise you're phone to stop notifications whilst playing music/audio then use the mute button on the side of the phone. If muted notifications don't come through loud. Found out by accident. It seems to work. You just need to remember to flip the button back once you have finished with you're audio session.

hth.

By Joe on Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - 10:30

I’ve been reporting this issue as a bug since I believe iOS 13 or 12. I don’t think Apple sees this as a bug unfortunately! It’s so easy to reproduce and I’ve even done videos showing it spiking but sadly they don’t seem to care.

By Mister Kayne on Saturday, February 5, 2022 - 10:30

So wanted this functionality 3 years back. Thank you anyhow at least I now know that this is possible. I was planning a house party and thought I could show off my DJ skills by doing something like this. As of today I sold my sound system and am enjoying my music on a bluethooth headset. Have a good one!

By Kerby on Saturday, February 5, 2022 - 10:30

I love this feature. The only issue I have is when listening to audio, I can't seem to raise or lower the volume of voiceover. I guess it's because it thinks I want to raise or lower the volume of the audio.

By gailisaiah on Saturday, February 5, 2022 - 10:30

Thank you, Drew. I changed all my speakers and headphones. I will like this.

By Charlie on Saturday, February 5, 2022 - 10:30

I find the above setting very good, when playing music or YouTube content, however, when I join a Zoom call, Voiceover still speaks through my Bluetooth speaker, when I would prefer it to speak through my phone, with the content of the Zoom call going through the speaker. Does anyone have any idea why this happens and if I can use a workaround? I have followed all above steps and suggestions. Many thanks.

By Kerie on Thursday, May 5, 2022 - 10:30

in reference to someone's comment above, about not being able to higher and lower voiceover volume while connected to bluetooth, if you put voice over's volume into the roter then you can adjust it's volume independently of the volume of the audio coming through your speakers
Hope this helps