Hi everyone.
I know that the "audio destination" rota item, which previously enabled selection of whether Voice Over audio should be sent over a connection to a Bluetooth device such as a speaker or remain on the iPhone, has not worked for a number of years. The "Audio Destination" item does not appear in the rota. I am finding that Voice Over seems to behave in a very random way when I connect my phone to Bluetooth speakers, and the inconsistency even continue to occur when I am using the same Bluetooth speaker on different occasions. Sometimes the VoiceOver audio will be sent over the Bluetooth connection to the speaker and sometimes it will continue to come through the phone speaker. It seems to do this at random and there is no obvious pattern and I don't think I have changed any related settings.
I am wondering whether anyone has worked out a way to either force the Voice Over audio to play through the Bluetooth device or to come through the iPhone speaker. There are various situations where it would be useful to have some control over what happens to Voice Over audio, depending on what I am doing. Or, is it just completely random every single time a Bluetooth device is connected, with no way to control it at all.
Thanks.
James
Comments
same with hearing aids
There are times when I need to help my roommate out, and he uses hearing aids. But, in order to access VoiceOver, he needs to disconnect his aids from the phone so I can hear voiceover. there should be an easy way to either force Voiceover to go through the phone's speaker, or to at least switch VO to speaker on the fly, or both.
Not sure about hearing aids, but
Regarding Bluetooth speakers, you can go into settings, Bluetooth, your Bluetooth device, and swipe up or down on it to get to the more info option, then tap on that. The dialogue that pops up should give you the option of choosing what type of device it is, and you can actually set it up to where even though you have Bluetooth speakers connected, most sound still comes out of the iPhone. My best advice would be to play around with the different options, and find out which one works best for your given situation.
HTH.
Yes, this should do it…
Yes, this should do it. Select speaker and voiceover will remain on the phone. There is still a bug with voiceover volume when connected to a bluetooth speaker where it gets a bit shouty when you enter an edit field. Hopefully that will be resolved soon though.
How to force VO on the…
How to force VO on the speaker though? I have the same problems and since 4 years or something it's been there and before like on ios 12 it was working perfectly as far as I can remember.
Oh, you want it to come…
Oh, you want it to come through on the speaker?
A guess would be to follow Brian's advice but set the output as headphones.
Me, the thread is about…
Me, the thread is about something else I think. I'm sure I've already tried that and it didn't work but I'll redo it. Thanks!
I can't help but...
I'm able to play voiceover through my JP flip Speaker.
As far as I know; I didn't do anything, I just set it up and it started playing through the speaker, it works on windows too.
i'm so glad I found this thread.
i'm having a similar issue. With me the voiceover speech always comes through the phone regardless of whether I have a Bluetooth speaker connected or not. It comes through fine on headphones though. This has been a thorn in my side for years and I have used a couple of other smartphones where the screen reader and Bluetooth didn't have this problem.
this might sound cruel but I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing this. it somehow makes me feel less alone.
I do hope that it gets fixed or someone finds a workaround.
Possible solution
If you have not already tried this, for those of you experiencing this issue with Bluetooth accessories, try the following.
1. Go to settings, Bluetooth, (name of your device).
2. Swipe up or down until you find more info. Double tap here.
3. On this next screen, your first option should be a, 'Device Type', button. Double tap here.
4. On this screen there will be five options you can choose from, which sets up a type of profile for your Bluetooth device. The choices are Car Stereo, Headphone, Hearing Aid, Speaker, and Other. Try choosing Headphone or Speaker.
5. Double tap on back in the upper left corner, and keep doing this until you are on the main settings page, the screen where it has your name at the top. Then, and only then, can you safely close settings. This just ensures that your Bluetooth settings are saved properly.
HTH.
How to force Voice over in different directions
Hi all. I have been trying various ideas since I started this threat. Here is what I have recently discovered works consistently for me, with the latest IOs.
If you want Voice Over to come through the phone speaker and not through a connected Bluetooth speaker, first connect to the bluetooth speaker. Make sure you set the "device type" to "speaker" in bluetooth settings, you may find that sometimes when you connect to the speaker, Voice Over comes through the bluetooth speaker, but sometimes it will come through the phone. It seems pretty random as to whether it comes through the speaker or the phone and I haven't been able to work out what determines or controls which way it goes, despite making many attempts with different theories. However, if Voice Over comes through the bluetooth speaker and you don't want it to, I have found the following procedure works.
While remaining connected to the bluetooth speaker, try toggling Voice Over off and then on again, using the tripple-tap accessibility shortcut twice, with a gap of at least about a second between turning Voice Over off and back on again. This will virtually always make Voice Over come through the phone again after you turn Voice Over back on, but other audio will go to the bluetooth speaker. This is useful when I am using my phone to play content and I am in a room with other people who don't need or want to hear Voice Over. It is a bit of a pain, but is very quick to do.
If, on the other hand, you want the reverse - Voice Over to always come through the bluetooth speaker and never through the phone, I have found that changing the device type to "headphones" in bluetooth settings always makes this happen. If you do this, even turning Voice Over off and on again won't change where Voice Over is output to. It will always come through the bluetooth speaker. This is useful when I am in a room on my own and want to hear Voice Over clearly over Bluetooth without holding my phone.
The disadvantage of using the "headphone" device type is that iOS may think you are listening to loud music through headphones for long periods and send you hearing health notifications, when in fact you are listening through speakers which are much further from your ear and are probably not damaging your hearing. This issue with the notifications has never happened to me, but I only use the "headphone" device type with small speakers. I am not aware of any solution to this issue as I think the hearing notifications are a regulatory requirement if the device thinks you are using headphones.
As a reminder, to change the device type in bluetooth settings between "speaker" and "headphones", you first pair the device, then find it in Bluetooth settings, swipe down to "more info" and double-tap. You can then select the device type. I have edited this comment slightly since I first posted it, as after reading Brian's excellent description above I realised you need to use the "More Info" option. See Brian's original post above for detailed instructions on changing the device type.
I hope this helps.
Thanks.
James
A note on headphone volume
If you go to settings, sounds and haptics, headphone safety, you can adjust some of the settings there. Keep in mind this is region specific, and some regions require notifications to be left alone. You can also limit the level of decibels your headphones produce while in use. And of course some regions actually can disable the headphones safety notifications altogether.
Use at your own risk.