The New BSI is Nothing Short of Game Changing...

This is as much fun as my Humanware Brailliant and requires half the hardware.

I have a question about using the find feature. I'm unsure how to select an item from the list of search results.

For example, let's say I want to quickly find the Messages app. I do a 3-finger swipe until I'm in BSI mode. Then I enter M plus E, which gives me a list of everything with that pair of letters in it. Next, I 1-finger swipe up and down through the list until I find Messages. But how, then, do I select it?

I don't press dots 3, 6, because I'm not in BSC mode. I tried a 2-finger swipe right for Enter, and that opens the app, but it also turns off BSI.

Any ideas?

Two-finger-swipe right for enter in Braille entry mode.

Honestly this feature really makes it hard for me to avoid buying an ipad :)

I don't understand what you're trying to do. You say you go into Braille Screen Input then start typing the letters of the app you're looking for - I'll use Messages as an example. As you type out the name of the app, with each letter, the list narrows down until you eventually get to the app you want. If you do a two-finger swipe right, you're going to open the app. That's how it works. Swiping up and down cycles through a list of apps, and the more you type, that list gets smaller. I don't know about iOS 18, since I'm not using the beta. I'll wait for the official release before I jump onto that bandwagon. That's how normal BSI works; Commander is different, based on an audio demo I heard - it lets you do way more.

I think we're all on the same page. I go to text entry mode, I type a few letters, I swipe down to the app I want. Then I do the 2-finger swipe right. That does open the app. That part all works.

I would expect it to also switch me out of text entry and into command mode. If it did that, I would be happy.

What it's actually doing is turning off BSI entirely, and I need to perform the 2-finger double tap on either side of the screen to turn it back on. That seems wrong

I'll try to play with that setting later, thanks Ollie. Got some chores to take care of first, though.

This feature is amazing. It's like having a Braille Display right on your screen. My only suggestion is is it possible to assign our own commands to Braille Screen Input? For example, if I want to perform a long press is there a way to do this using the new Braille Screen feature using command mode?

The more I read about this, the more I start to question my switch to Android. Some of this sounds super cool! I don't know how much I would or would not use Braille command mode, because I am very comfortable swiping and flicking, especially on a small screen, but man, having it auto switch to BSI when in a text field, that's pretty nice. Android already does it, but in Android, switching back and forth between languages and grade levels takes a few more steps.

Justin,
I just got the beta on my SE today and this is indeed a useful new feature. I wouldn't call it game changing for me though, it's another way to do the things I'm already doing on the screen. I don't know if there is a way to turn on single letter quick nav for BSI, that would elevate this from useful to game changing for me maybe but I don't see any way to emulate dots 7 and 8. I need to test it out more but for me this makes BSI on iOS a little more useful than android assuming it's stable and such. It's not a dealbreaker for me in its current form though, we need the full eight dots.

Gotcha. I don't know how much I would really use the command stuff, but between these innovations, plus some apps just being better on iOS, (looking at you facebook, youtube, Goodmaps Outdoors and Chime mobile banking) I am kinda thinking about seeing what I can do next month. Any idea what phones are compatible with iOS 18? I don't want to get locked in to a payment plan, and the SE is a bit small for my liking, but I could make it work if that's all I can afford. I also have the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro which is not technically compatible, but with an app called Merge, it can be made to kinda work with iOS, which is good because I like the look of the galaxy watch better, and don't use it for much more than just a talking watch and stopwatch. It does fitness tracking too, but pretty sure that won't sync up. Oh well. But iOS 18 sounds like it's gunna be super awesome.

Yeah facebook on android just took a massive accessibility nose dive, I think I get it. I’ve decided for myself I really need a foot in both camps to minimize inaccessible apps, it feels like a crap shoot . As far as immediate workarounds for android facebook I’ve found talkback’s image recognition works a lot better with the screen shown and brightness turned up a bit. It's annoying but it helps. Also another issue with the new iOS BSI is you can't do the space + f command for searching long things and on the web you can't do the BSI item search because it just wants h to move by heading etc. .

Hello folks,
After hearing about the new BSI improvements in iOS 18, I decided to try them out. Although I'm not very familiar with Braille screen input, I've known Braille since I was 6, so I figured I could pick it up quickly.
And, oh my gosh, this new feature is a game-changer for me, just like for many of you. I really appreciate what Apple does with VoiceOver on iOS, but I want to point out a potential bug to make this feature even better.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

1: Open any app where you can navigate in Braille command mode. We'll use the native Notes app for this demonstration, but it could be anything.
2: Activate a text field and start typing using Braille screen input.
3: Type a word, like an email address or your first name, but do not add a space after typing.
4: Activate command mode with the swiping gesture.
5: What you will notice is nothing appears in the text field. If you add a space or deactivate Braille screen input with the pinching gesture, the text will appear.

I believe that after adding a space or exiting Braille input by pinching the screen, the typed text converts to plain text and appears on the screen. But if you don't add a space, the text disappears.
Adding and deleting a space takes just a fraction of a second, but in some fields like phone numbers or emails, you can't add or delete spaces. This workaround saves the day. I think Apple should make the conversion happen not only after adding a space or new line or exiting BSI but also after switching to the command mode. This would prevent issues when editing text in command mode.
Do you guys have the same issue? If so, why not create feedback and send it to Apple?

Hi.

The reason this is happening is because the braille you type doesn't get translated to text until you either hit space or exit braille screen input. If you're switching to command mode, you should do a two finger swipe down to force translation of whatever you just typed.

I've submitted feedback suggesting that translation should always be forced when switching to command mode, but as of now it hasn't been added yet.

If I'm sending a text message or other messages in chat apps, and I swipe up with three fingers in Braille Entry mode, the text is translated.

I may have been too dismissive earlier, this is a lot faster than your standard flicky swipe left right dance. I sort of wish they used the left and right swipes for enter and backspace instead of rotor navigation, it's redundant with existing braille commands..but I see the other side there too. More than that though I want the F-chord text search command to work, either that or make the existing item search work better in large documents. Still it works on the Braille display, it should work here and would elevate this from useful to game changer level for me easy.

I lmrc tfis. It is fantastic. I have been using it all day and it is just.. wow! I love it. It took a while but was easy to learn. There are a lot of adjustable things in the settings and that has things I find really useful. And we finally have keyboard clicks now which is great because now I have turned off typing feedback altogether as I only had it to know I was writing.

I actually have tried it with google docs and I think it is great. This did not work before but now that I can move ,ehind lines it is breeze.