About VoiceOver behavior When a Bluetooth speaker is connected and some media is playing

By Ricardo Brandão, 8 October, 2023

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hello team, how are you?

Previously, if I'm not mistaken since iOS 14, we had an issue, which I believe was an expected and programmed behavior of VoiceOver, which consisted of the following: When a Bluetooth speaker was connected and some type of media was playing, VoiceOver spoke at maximum volume. This could be a way to make the reader understandable, even if the speaker volume was high, but not all users, including me, wanted this behavior.

Now, with the release of iOS 17, everything is back to how it was until iOS 13, with VoiceOver maintaining the chosen volume even if media playback via Bluetooth is taking place. However, I suggest that this becomes a user option, not an imposition, as some users like this behavior and others hate it, as mentioned above.

I hope this information helps make VoiceOver better.

Thank you for your attention and your efforts.

Sincerely,

Ricardo Brandão

Sent from my iPhone

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Comments

By hittsjunk on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:51

Hi. In my experience, the issue of voiceover volume going extremely high was a bug and not intended behavior. It was usually triggered by another sound being played. I’m personally glad they finally fixed it because I enjoy the ability to keep my screen reader, on my phone while playing media on my Bluetooth speaker.

By Mlth on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:51

Hi
That was definitely a bug, and I'm very glad it's fixed. If you find VoiceOver is sometimes too quiet while a bluetooth speaker is connected, what you can do is switch your audio output back to the iPhone, turning up it's device volume, then using the VoiceOver rotor's volume option to turn up and down your VO volume as needed when connected to the speaker. That way the physical volume keys regulate your speaker, while the rotor option regulates VoiceOver.

By Andy Lane on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:51

It’s been a problem for somewhere around 6 years or more. Thats one of th reasons people get so emotional when discussing apples track record on fixing bugs. This bug made everyone’s expensive Bluetooth speakers basically useless over night as who wants their VO volume randomly blasting their ears out. I used to use a Bluetooth speaker literally 75% of the time I was using my phone, that way all YouTube and music was played by the Bose speakers and voiceover was left on the phone. All that ended with the introduction of that bug. I haven’t yet got back into the habit of using a Bluetooth speaker. Hopefully I’ll start to trust the bug has gone and slowly go back to my preferred setup before Apple broke it all those long years ago. Text editing being broken is the other longest standing bug for me. I think this one goes all the way back to the beginning of iOS and is one of the main reasons I left Mac OS although not the only reason.

By Adrian Wyka on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:51

I agree that VO volume behavior in iOS 17 is correct.

Somehow I can't imagine that someone likes such a waving of screen reader sound.