iOS 18 Beta Comprehensive Bugs/Accessibility Issues Thread

The subject says it all. Notifications set to show on lock screen will show up but they are not read as you would expect.
fb14424578

Already reported them not being read out on the locked screen last week. No update from Apple.

Hi there.
@bryan
So, I couldn’t find the search setting that you told me about. I went into voiceover‘s touch gestures and I couldn’t find anything about App library either.

I’ve sent them feedback about that so we’ll see what happen

I'm still finding in beta 3 that VoiceOver speech cuts out from time to time, and I need to stop and start it. The funny thing is, I have to press the power button three times, stop that three times again to stop, then three times again to get it on and off. Usually, you just tap it three times to turn it off and three times to turn it back on, but it seems that it takes three cycles of this. I can't really figure it out, but I thought I'd just mention it in case anyone else has had the same experience.

I was going to report this issue today. Just tried to reproduce it, and can't make it happen. I'll keep you posted.

On my iPhone 15 (A16 bionic), but not on my iPad Pro 3rd gen (M1), I'm experiencing VoiceOver focus jumping to the status bar a lot. Open an app, VO focus is in the status bar. Workaround: Touch anywhere in the app area of the screen to bring focus to the app.

This issue has been around for a few previous releases, and it has been mentioned in this forum before. In some extreme situations, one would need to toggle VoiceOver to return focus to the app. While it's not that bad in iOS 18, it's odd that the issue has been present for so long.

I just encountered this issue, immediately after telling SIRI, "Open Clock." Focus landed in the Status Bar. FB14454069.

I have also experienced this. Not the end of the world, but yes it is odd that it doesn't toggle right back on after turning it off. As stated, should be gthree presses to turn off, three to turn back on, and bingo. Not the case though. iPhone SE3.

I've been experiencing the same issue with VoiceOver on Beta 3. It seems like the speech cuts out repeatedly, and it's incredibly frustrating. I've tried to figure out when this happens most often, and I've noticed that copying large portions of text to the clipboard usually triggers it. However, it also occurs at other times, and I haven't been able to pin down a specific reason.

For me, so far as I can tell, it happens when I get to swiping to fast. I am on Public beta 1. Dev beta 4 is now out, expecting Public beta soon, will see if it continues.

The voiceover speech cutting out is an old bug by now that really started bothering me at some random moments around ios 16 or so, maybe later or earlier than that, and yes the most regular behaviour when restarting vo is having to do triple click side button more than twice. The speech for me on either iphone xs and 14 is especially when I am writing quickly in BSI or reading quickly through a message for example with word rotor, the key word being quickly.

For me it's far from being repeatedly though, either on the latest stable of 17 on the beta. It was slightly more frequent on beta 1 but honestly nothing really drammatic at all For those unfortunate unluckies I feel really sorry for you. Usually this bug for me would happen once or twice after 2 weeks.

Note: This will not do anything for VO going silent.

For those of you having issues with the Side Button and VO, I have a multi-part solution for you.

Part 1:
1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch. Tap here.
2. Navigate to the bottom of this screen, then tap on Back Tap. Next enable one of the options to toggle either, "Accessibility Shortcut", or, "VoiceOver".

Part 2:

1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Commands > Touch Gestures. Tap here.
2. Navigate to the bottom of this screen and tap on one of the Back Tap options.
3. Set it to, "Accessibility Shortcut".

Explanation:

There are 2 back tap functions with in iOS. One works on its own, and one only works with VO enabled. Having both functions setup to do the same thing, i.e. toggle Accessibility Shortcut/VoiceOver, will ensure that a back tap will turn VO on and off anytime, and potentially on any screen.

HTH. 🙂

Thanks for the feedback, guys, on the VoiceOver speech cutting out. I experience this issue every day, unfortunately. Lucky people who only have it every couple of weeks. I’m a pretty heavy user of my iPhone. The suggestion to use the back tap to toggle VoiceOver is interesting, but I’ve never found it effective for me. I struggle to find the right spot to tap on the back of the phone. I know it’s beside the camera, but it hasn’t been reliable enough for regular use, so I just have it turned off. Thanks again.

to all that have this bug you are not providing nearly enough info! What model of phone? What TTS are you using? What voice of the TTS are you using? What is the speech rate? What app is this occuring in? Is it always happening in these apps? Is it specific tasks in certain apps that trigger this? Much more info is needed. If you are not putting this stuff in your fb reports it will be extremely difficult for Apple to reproduce it! Please get in the habit even when posting on hear to include this info.

Iphone SE3, Eloquence Reed both Spanish and English, rate about 60%. Doesn't seem to happen in any specific apps or cases that I can point to, rather random. Thankfully it isn't all the time.

Hi there. I’ve experienced this bug too. It happened as I’m typing this.
Using an IPhone 15 pro,public beta 1.
Voice is eloquence rate 80. .

Nice job of including important details so others can try and reproduce what you are expercing. Try getting beta 2. It came out today.

I like the different tone for the Type to SIRI swipe up gesture.

However, IMO, VoiceOver behavior is incorrect. I get no feedback from VoiceOver that Type to SIRI has activated or that focus has landed on an editable text field. If I navigate left and right, looking for the text field, it's as if the screen hasn't changed at all. If I was on the home screen before activating Type to SIRI, navigating left and right navigates app icons on the home screen.

If I four-finger single tap at the top of the screen, focus jumps to the Type to SIRI text field, but then navigating left and right gives me the thunk sound, as if there's nothing else on the screen. What happened to the app icons I was navigating only a second earlier? It seems like incorrect behavior, no matter how you look at it.

I've opened an issue for this.

Unless I'm hallucinating, it seems like the method for starting BSI has changed in the latest beta.

In prior betas, hadn't BSI been removed from the rotor? I was turning it on in accessibility, VoiceOver, Braille with a BSI toggle button, then manually activating it with the new two-finger gesture. Or it could be activated automatically in settings, when focus lands on a text field.

In the latest beta, that has changed. Accessibility, VoiceOver, Braille no longer has a toggle to turn BSI on or off, and I see it is back on rotor. Now, rotoring to it activates it, and so does the new two-finger double-tap gesture.

It's like turning it on and activating it used to be two separate steps, and now they've merged them, so that it's always on, and just needs to be activated - either with the rotor, the two-finger gesture, or by navigating into a text field.

This is confusing. Do we have a destination we're headed toward, or is this just aimless wandering?

Just a thought, but have you tried going into Settings > Accessibility, then Siri under the General heading, and (un)checking "Show apps behind Siri"?

I was responding to PaulMartz post, where he mentions not being able to interact with the text field from within Type to Siri, but rather was getting feedback from the homescreen apps. I was suggesting disabling apps being displayed in the background, it is a Siri feature under Accessibility > General tab > Siri.

not sure what you mean by intentional behaviour?

For me, throughout the iOS 18 beta cycle, Braille Screen Input could be started by double-tapping the top and bottom edges of the screen, with no need to first enable it in VoiceOver Settings. Now, it appears that in addition to the new gesture, BSI can be started from the rotor, likely to ease the transition for those who prefer the pre-iOS 18 way of doing it. If you don't want BSI in the rotor, however, you can remove it in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Rotor > Rotor items, and use the new gesture exclusively.

I've been using Braille Screen Input with Apple's list of common braille commands. Incredibly, nearly all work.

One does not: the delete function. The Apple support page says to braille a spacebar+dots 1 4 5. In Braille screen input, command mode, I ignore the spacebar obviously, and braille dots 1 4 5. But this does not delete the currently selected text.

I can cut the text with dots 1 3 4 6, but that modifies the clipboard. Suppose I wanted to delete the selected text without modifying the clipboard. How would I do that in Braille Screen Input? Any ideas?

Could someone please give me exact steps for how they are using the new Type to SIRI gesture? Because I can't get it to work reasonably well with VoiceOver on either iDevice.

I swipe up until I get to the fourth tone. I hear a sort of whoosh sound, but, as mentioned previously, VoiceOver says nothing.

If I assume I'm in a text field and editing is enabled, and simply start typing, VoiceOver gives me no typing feedback. However, I am, in fact, typing into the text field.

After I type my request and press enter, I expect to hear SIRI audibly reply. SIRI does not, in spite of the fact that I have SIRI set to prefer spoken responses. I need to drag my finger around the screen to find SIRI’s response and read it with VoiceOver.

I get the same behavior whether I’m on my iPad Pro 3rd gen or my iPhone 15, so I would think that others are seeing this. Yet, everyone here seems to be fine with how Type to SIRI works, so I am at your feet, seeking wisdom. Enlighten me. Tell me what I’m doing wrong.

Okay. I think I have an explanation for the delete function in BSI.

In BSI command mode, with text selected, dots 1 4 5 actually does delete the text. This works fine on my iPhone.

But it doesn't work on my iPad, and the major difference seems to be that I've paired my Brailliant display to my iPad. So I guess I can try unpairing the brile display and see if that fixes the issue.

Hey guys. Need a little help. Im seeing on comments IOS 18 public beta is out but on my ipad under software updates i dont see it. Beta updates are on. So im confused.

Thanks, Gar. I use Type to SIRI with an external keyboard, but I'm not sure why that would impede VoiceOver's ability to announce that focus is on a text field and editing is enabled. Or that swipe left/right indicates the Type to SIRI window hasn’t opened at all - until I do a 4-finger single tap. Then focus suddenly jumps to the text field and all the other screen elements I was navigating have suddenly disappeared.

Does everyone else think this is normal? Or is no one else experiencing this? For my own sanity, it would be nice to know if it’s one or the other.

As for silent responses, that’s a surprise, and it contrasts with how it works on MacOS. So, explain it to me like I’m stupid: what’s the point of the Prefer Spoken Responses setting?

I'll let this go. I filed it as an issue; it's in Apple's hands now.

I must be hallucinating.

I unpaired my braille display, and still could not invoke a Delete operation with dots 1 4 5 in BSI. I went into VoiceOver Commands and reset all my VoiceOver commands. Still no change in behavior.

I typed up the entire bug description. Just before I copied it into Feedback, I went over the reproducer steps to verify one last time that I had described it correctly. And suddenly, the Delete operation worked.

So check me into the funny farm please.

One thing is still odd. If I braille dots 1 3 to enter keyboard help mode, I get no response from dots 1 4 5. Other commands are recognized and announced in help mode. Weird.

Anyhow, nothing to see here, I guess.

Public beta 2 is not out. I had not seeing it in Youtube. They talked about beta 4 but nothing about the public. Also did a update and my iPad 9 tell me that my software is update.

@Paul,

I believe Type to Siri is designed, more or less, for the deaf/ deaf-blind folks. Ideally it allows for the use of Siri without sound. At least that is how I understand things. 😇

Appreciate the answer. I thought something was wrong on my end. Thank u.

The subject says it all, Voice Memos now has stereo recording! You can enable the option in Voice Memos setting. It's a toggle.