Hello. I need help, as I am not very knowledgeable about the native books app in iOS. When reading books, I find that the experience is, to say the least, quite bad. What I’m meant by this is, I’m used to reading in the Kindle app, but I decided to give the native books app a shot. So, I start reading by going to chapter 1, then swiping 2 fingers down. Voiceover starts to read. All's fine. Until... It makes the sound voiceover makes when you swipe to a new element on screen, which, per what I can see, is how the books are structured. Needless to say, this is driving me bonkers. When I’m reading books, I’m used to not hearing the, click, click, click; of voiceover advancing to a new element on screen, as this is how it is in Kindle. Once you’re in the book, the book takes up the whole screen, so swiping down with 2 fingers will make voiceover start to read continuously and you won't hear the sound to indicate that voiceover has advanced to the next element because there are none. However, in the native books app by Apple, the text is divided into various elements, and it’s just... driving me crazy. Is there anything I’m missing? Any way to make the reading experience better on the native books app? Because years ago when I used it? It worked just like Kindle; the text was its own element, not split like what I’m seeing now. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm strongly considering writing to Apple because this is just... Offle. Either that, or I’ve read so long in Kindle and have gotten used to the text being one single element and not multiple elements on screen that now that I see books is like that I'll need to get used to it. I've tried using Speak Screen, but the thing which drives me crazy about doing that is, when a page is advanced, the Speak Screen reads out the number of pages left, i.e., 8 pages left, etc. Any help? Am I the only one who's fed up with this app? Or is it I’m missing something? If anyone has any suggestions or help, I would appreciate it a lot.
Comments
A couple of suggestions
Hi,
I have 2 possibilities for you. Hopefully you will find at least one of them useful. 😅
1. Disable VoiceOver sounds while you are reading a book. This theoretically should resolve the issue. You may also want to put your iPhone into Silent mode as well.
2. Set up an Activity so that VoiceOver sounds are automagically turned off when you open Apple Books.
Either one should resolve the issue. Just remember to manually re-enable sounds if you go with option 1. 🙂
turn off that specific sound
I know there's a way to turn off certain sounds without turning off VoiceOver sounds completely. I don't have my phone next to me right now, but I believe it's settings, accessibility, VoiceOver, speech, audio, and then sounds. And you'll see each section and you could turn that sound off for new element or whatever you want. Hope this helps.
Automatic sound-off activity for Books didn't work for me
I recently switched to Books entirely after a Kindle update broke compliance with Switch Control, which I also use sometimes with spoken scanning. I've turned off the Item Focused sound in VoiceOver altogether myself, but was curious about how the activity would work so I tried it. I set the app to Books, the voice to default, and Mute Sounds to On. What actually happened was this: Sounds were muted on the main Books landing page. When I opened a book, though, the activity appeared to exit as soon as I got past "pages left in chapter" and the Close button. As soon as VoiceOver started reading the actual page, the sounds came back. The activity did work if I activated it again from the rotor or quick settings, but I had to do it manually.
In some cases I kind of like that Books pages aren't one big block like Kindle though. It makes it easier to find my place if I lose it or to skip ahead. But yes, that sound can be vexing.
Sorry to hear that
For my iPhone SE3, running iOS 18.1, all I have to do is put my iPhone in to Silent mode, and the only sound I hear while reading a book with Apple Books, is the scrolling sound normally heard when scrolling with the 3 finger swipe gesture. That in turn, can easily be disabled through Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Audio, Sounds & Haptics.
Not sure why this would not work for everyone else. 😖
Edit
I take it back, Silent Mode only works on the main Books screen. Sounds come back as soon as you start continuous reading. Turning off Item Focused does the best job, on my devices at least. Silent mode would probably be the quickest method for some cases, though.
So strange
Yeah I do not experience this at all. When I do continuous reading, while in Silent mode, the only sound I hear is the sound you hear when scrolling a webpage, etc, with a 3 finger swipe.
That sound I can also get rid of as I mentioned in my last reply.
So strange that you all are having such issues. 🙁