Soundscape Community

Category

Description of App

Soundscape: explore, discover, and have fun with your personalized 3D sound map of the world!

Welcome to Soundscape Community.

We are a diverse consortium of organizations and individuals committed to improving access and inclusion for everyone, in partnership with a global community of users and open source developers.

We are delighted to make Soundscape available for its existing users, and new ones around the world. With Soundscape, you are able to immerse yourself in your surroundings and navigate effortlessly with it’s innovative spatial audio. The app calls out points of interest, your own markers, businesses and more using audio placed in the environment around you as you walk or drive.

Key features of Soundscape:

Audio cues in 3D space that sound like they are coming from the direction of points of interests, parks, roads and other features in your surroundings.

Track a specific point using an Audio Beacon on it to hear updates about where it is relative to you.

Soundscape Street Preview helps you build a picture of a place virtually. You can "walk" down streets and roads and hear what is around each location as you explore.

Buttons on the Home Screen can be used to explore further about what's around you, whether in the real world or in Street Preview.

To get the most out of the experience you will need a pair of stereo headphones that you feel comfortable wearing outdoors. For example, bone conduction headsets, Apple AirPods and in-ear open headphones have proven to work well. Soundscape is designed to live in the background and provide you with effortless ambient awareness; feel free to use it in conjunction with other apps such as podcasts, audio books, email and even GPS navigation.

We hope you enjoy the experience. We believe that this kind of technology offers a new way to relate to the environment around you and we can’t wait to hear what you make of it. If at any time you have any questions about Soundscape, please refer to the Help & Tutorials section available on the main menu.

Version

1.0

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

17

Accessibility Comments

Very similar layout and feel of the original Microsoft Soundscape and is very accessible to use.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Recommendations

3 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Ekaj 1 year 2 months ago

Options

Comments

By Theo H on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 16:28

I have downloaded this and it feels exactly like Soundscape. It's so exciting to have Soundscape back, and it's come just in time before the end of the month when Microsoft Soundscape will disappear.

By Theo H on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 16:28

Update: It looks like after Microsoft Soundscape was killed I can still export markers and even share markers with other Soundscape users, it just won't load any map data.
I have found that I can copy all my markers that were created using the `mark current location` feature in Microsoft Soundscape. Here's how I did it.
1. Open Microsoft Soundscape.
2. Select the Markers and routes button
3. Select the routes tab at the bottom of the screen
4. Select new route and enter a name such as "Export"
5. Click Add waypoints and select every single marker. If you've got any that were created using Search or Places nearby its better not to copy them, as this can cause errors and you can find those again anyway using the Apple Maps powered search in the new app.
6. Select done.
7. Find the title of your new route, and swipe up/down through the actions to find Share and double-tap on this.
8. Select Soundscape
9. Click Save route on the pop-up
Now, fingers crossed, all your markers will copy. If not just save the route file somewhere so you can still copy them later if Microsoft Soundscape totally breaks tonight.

By Ekaj on Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 16:28

I recently re-downloaded Soundscape, and noticed a slightly different interface so I'm wondering if I perhaps got a bit ahead of the game here lol. In any case, it's so nice to see this app making a quick comeback and being added to. I just checked out their dedicated website and am going to join the email listserv when that becomes available.

Update April 1: Well...no email list to speak of yet, but I just checked this out on my new iPhone. Very cool surround sound from my iPhone speaker. If the weather ever warms up for good again I'm taking my headset out and trying this out. We really have some great choices these days!