VoiceVista

- Alert distance setting for each marker individually
- Translation updates in Catalan, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish by Oriol Gómez, Sandra Pilz, Simone Dal Maso, Danil Kostenkov and Enrique Varela

Hi,
While I am in the process of entering markers using my Braille display, I often get interrupted by audio announcements of locations around me, which make my Braille display jump. Is there a way to temporarily silence such announcements in order for me to smoothly complete my task(s)?
Thanks.

VoiceVista provides several ways to control what you hear and when:

1. Immediately stop all audio: Double tap the screen with two fingers to immediately turn off all audio, including any callout that is currently playing and the beacon if it is on. Callouts will resume automatically when you approach the next intersection or point of interest, but the audible beacon will not. Select the "unmute beacon button" on the main screen to resume hearing the beacon.

2. Stop automatic callouts: You can select "Settings" from the tabs and choose to turn all callouts off in the "Callouts Settings" page.

3. Stop the beacon: There are several scenarios for which you might set a destination, but not need the audible beacon on. For example, you may know exactly how to get to your destination but want to get automatic updates about how far away you are from your destination. Or, you may know roughly how to get to your destination, and only need the audio beacon as you near your destination. Whatever the case, you can choose when to hear the beacon by toggling the "mute beacon"/"unmute beacon" button on the main screen.

Thank you very much for describing the options for temporarily silencing callouts. I will try them and hope that at least one of these options will also stop the Braille display from jumping when entering destinations to be saved. I am a bit unclear about "Markierungen" (a label given in the German version) and "beacons", however. Are they meant to be destinations?

I've not walked outside with it yet but it should have a bus timetable thing like Blindsquare, you shake the phone and it will tell you the nearest busstops times.

This is cool but I can't wait for a live feed AI thing like chat gpt but in real time.

Hi,
I very much enjoy using VoiceVista, and I would like to request changing the presentation of distances from letters (i.e., one point seven) to digits (1.7). This would the reading when using a Braille display for, e.g., inputting or modifying markers. Thanks.

- GPS information callouts
- Remove marker prefix accessibility label in Markers tab
- Double-tap on accuracy to hear GPS information
- Sound effects illustration
- Translation updates in Polish and Russian by Przemyslaw Rogalski and Danil Kostenkov

Love how feature rich this app has become! A great tool to use out on my journeys . Keep up the great job! I would definitely recommend this!!! It's very hard to impress me btw so bravo! I love using this app with my new AirPods I got for Christmas.

- Surrounding callouts triggering from Apple Watch
- Web and Telephone for Points of Interest
- Translation updates in German, Italian and Polish by Sandra Pilz, Simone Dal Maso and Przemyslaw Rogalski

- UI for reporting distance to monitoring location
- Additional rotor actions for a place or marker
- Stop beacon button on Apple Watch
- Translation updates in Italian, Polish, Russian and Spanish by Simone Dal Maso, Przemyslaw Rogalski, Danil Kostenkov and Enrique Varela

I was really excited to see Apple Watch support has been added. I didn't immediately find the app as it is called VVTWatch instead of Voice Vista, but anyway I know now. Just one question - would it be possible for the Watch app to open when the Voice Vista app on the phone starts? And then stay there? It's possible that it is supposed to do this anyway. Since WatchOS 10 I've noticed a few quirks with this - usually it works as long as I'm not air playing before I start media (which I wasn't when I tested voice vista). If not, then I guess I can maybe make another watch face that makes it easier to get to via a complication. But I think this feature will work best when it doesn't involving faffing about with the watch too much.

The only other feature I miss from the old SoundScape is the ability to use my Bose Frames for head tracking. I know Air Pods Pros can be used, but I feel a lot more confident going out in shades. I don't own the Pros, just the Air Pods 3 and there's no way I'd ever walk around outside with them. They would fall out and be gone for good within seconds I think! I know the Bose Frames are discontinued, so no point going there, but wonder if anything else in this form factor is doable. I have the Meta Ray-ban smart glasses, but I'm guessing that's too ring fenced to be used here?

Anyway, I don't use this app very often, but it is just so useful when I do - I absolutely love it. I also appreciate how unobtrusive, optional and affordable the subscription is. I normally turn my nose up at such things, but I was happy to contribute to the project. Please keep up the good work. I love seeing all the updates.

- Virtual Location Explorer by teleporting between intersections and places
- Intersections Nearby in the Surroundings tab
- Translation updates in German, Italian, Russian and Spanish by Sandra Pilz, Simone Dal Maso, Danil Kostenkov and Enrique Varela

Panais, please stop posting the release notes of every minor update to this topic. Every time I see VoiceVista at the top, I get excited thinking there's a meaningful discussion about the different use of an existing feature or there's a new feature, but each time it's you posting the release notes of updates which we can all read on AppStore. Please only post if there's a major change, or collect all the notes and make a single post once a month. Thanks.

Why does Voice Vista sometimes announce "YEs!" after a place? For example it might say "Such and such a cafe, Yes!". I'm wondering if it's some sort of thumbs-up rating type thing but not sure? I only notice it sometimes. Not a problem, just curious and it did make me laugh.

I appreciate the changelog here. I just purchased a secondary iPhone SE partially because this app isn't on android and I like being able to track its trajectory over time. Plus it's refreshing to see how many suggestions from the forum here got implemented in those little releases.

I also quite like the release notes being posted here. I use VoiceVista on an almost daily basis for my commute to work, and only check the App Store for release notes of my apps every now and again, so it's really useful to have updates posted to this thread so I know if there are any new features and changes.

I too would appreciate it if you keep posting the updates here. And it’s great too see you engage regularly with users. Keep up the good work.
Dave

I'm glad to have been voted out in favor of posting the release notes here because it seems many people find it useful. So apologies for raising the issue, I wasn't aware it's helpful.

Yes I was the one asking about android, I would really like to use this app but I’m on android so can’t

It doesn’t seem like the dev is willing to bring it to android, really sad

My understanding is that the original Soundscape app was written in Swift, which is an Apple-specific programming language for iOS and other Apple platforms. Turning the open sourced components of Soundscape into what is now VoiceVista would've obviously required some work, but would've been reasonably straight forward for a developer who has the right knowledge, skill and is willing to find alternatives to the parts that Microsoft didn’t give us.

On the other hand, bringing the app to Android would require a complete rewrite from scratch. I don’t think it's that the developer is not willing to do it, more that it's a hugely significant piece of work that is unreasonable to expect someone to do on their own, while still working on the existing iOS app to fix bugs, add new features, provide support etc. It would also mean maintaining two separate apps, they might require different infrastructure at the backend to host them, and there are probably other issues and considerations that I haven’t thought of.

In short, bringing this app to Android would be amazing, but making that happen is no easy task unfortunately.

Hi,
Can anybody explain to me, please, how listening with Airpods Pro works as compared to none? I am using MFI hearing aids, which I have paired with my iPhone SE 2022. I can hear the "shoutouts" from their respective direction, which is great. So, how would listening to Airpod Pro or with MFI hearing aids differ? And might you, Dr. Wu, please consider adding an option for MFI hearing aids?
Thanks for reading, explaining, and/or considering.

This is a bit of a guess as I don't have air pods pros and there's no way I'm going outside with my air pods 3.

However, I believe the difference is that you get head tracking. I used to have this with my Bose Frames in Soundscape but support was dropped before Voice Vista came along. So this means if you turn your head left or right, the directional sound would follow. Whereas with the phone in your pocket normally, Voice Vista can't tell exactly where you are facing only what direction you are travelling in.

I would love to see head tracking support for the Meta Ray-bans but I've no idea if that sort of thing is even possible. For the MFI hearing aids, do they have motion tracking type stuff built in?

As @Mr Grieves said above, the only difference when using VoiceVista with AirPods Pro is that the AirPods will allow support for head tracking. This basically means VoiceVista has more accurate information about which way your head is facing and can give more accurate call-outs and beacon direction information.

I use MfI hearing aids as well, but prefer to use my AirPods as I find the head tracking does make quite a bit of difference. I also find it easier to hear the call-outs from my AirPods especially in noisy environments, but your experience with that would depend on how your hearing aids have been setup.

I highly doubt most hearing aids would have the technology required for head tracking built in, so it wouldn't be possible for this kind of support to be added. It enhances the experience in my oppinion, but it's by no means an essential feature.

I didn’t know the app was written in swift, that sucks

Thanks for letting me know

This app and the soundscape community version were like half the reason I sprang for an SE, I've only used voice vista a little bit so far but I'm not regretting my decision. Carrying two phones around, one hotspotted to the other is a bit janky but it works well enough for my purposes.

I just looked for this app in the store, and the entry specifically states "free with in-app purchases". I'm therefore wondering if this entry on here could be updated? I'm thinking of getting this app and comparing/contrasting it with Soundscape, and eventually might not have enough on my card to do so.

I like this app but it can use a bit more refining, particularly when in vehicular mode. When I'm travelling in a vehicle, I'd like the "where am I" to announce the county I'm in, in addition to the street, city and neighborhood. I'd like to have all this information when in a large city with different neighborhoods. Nearby explore use to have this and it was very handy.
Moreover, when I'm on a street, I can get the name of the street and even the block number when I manually select "where am I". However, when my vehicle turns onto another street, I'd like the name of the new street announced automatically. I think manually selecting the "where M I" is just a bit silly when other apps I know offer this.
Finally when travelling on freeways, selecting "where am I" tells me the name of the freeway, direction I'm travelling in. However, when announcing up coming intersections, it keeps saying highway ramp. I'm often commuting on a very busy freeway with many exit ramps. In the USA, each exit ramp is number for instance, exit 25, exit 30 etc. I'd like voice vista to announce the exit number that's coming up, not just say highway ramp every single time.

I notice that even when I set VoiceVista to Sleep and lock the phone the audio connection to mFI hearing aids is being maintained which causes the aids to stay in streaming mode instead of switching to other programs they need too. I have to kill VoiceVista from the app swithcer to get it to release. Has anyone else noticed this? Any other workarounds?

I do the same. This way I know that it, or any other app, is not interfering with another task I'm doing.

How does this work? Can you simply launch the app, start walking and receive callouts from the watch? I didn’t think WatchOS apps had the ability to run in that way.

The option can be found at Shortcuts Settings.

If users enabled this option, to support wake up from sleep by tap play button on headphone, VoiceVista doesn't free audio session mode even on sleeping mode.

Apple doesn't allow apps use built-in speaker to call out loudly. Then the VoiceVista supports users to tap buttons on watch to browse What's Around me, Intersections around results.