Pandora: Music & Podcasts

Category

Description of App

Great music discovery is effortless and free with Pandora. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs, genres or composers and we will do the rest. It’s easy to create personalized stations that play only music you’ll love. Tap into an entire world of music, including almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and obscure. Create up to 100 personalized radio stations with your free account. Not sure where to start? Create a free account to explore hundreds of music and comedy genre stations. Already a Pandora listener? Even easier. Just log in and enjoy the same free radio service. Your Pandora is the same across the web, on your TV and in your car—access your free personalized radio wherever you want to hear great music. Enjoy all your existing music and comedy stations - and create new ones right from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. If you want the music and nothing but the music, you can also subscribe to Pandora One: • No Ads everywhere you listen to Pandora Plus the following features on the web: • Higher Quality Audio • Desktop Application • Custom Skins • Fewer Interruptions Your Pandora One subscription will automatically renew each month and your credit card will be charged through your iTunes account. You can turn off auto-renew at any time from your iTunes account settings. Please go to www.pandora.com/privacy and pandora.com/legal_apple for more information.

Version

5.5

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

9

Accessibility Comments

Mostly accessible. More information about some of the accessibility issues are found in the Comments for the 5.5 below.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

Most buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some minor accessibility issues with this app, but they are easy to deal with.

Developer's Twitter Username

@pandora_radio

Options

Comments

By mehgcap on Friday, December 24, 2010 - 04:22

When I created a new account with this app, I had to turn VO off and have a sighted person tap the graphic to submit my details and create the account. I emailed Pandora about this, and a couple other small issues I found (such as the 2-finger double tap), and they said they would look into it, for what that is worth.
Made some improvements. All buttons are now labeled. Double tap now start and stop music. Haven't tried creating a new account to see if they have fix this issue or not. What's New in Version 3.1.15 • Upgrade to Pandora One from the Settings tab. • Show Now Playing track metadata and artwork on the Lock screen (New in iOS 5). • Stay connected to automotive accessories while in the background (New in iOS 5). See www.pandora.com/auto for more details about getting Pandora in your car. • Fixes BMW/MINI integration for iOS 5. Please keep your iOS 5 device unlocked while connected to BMW Apps/MINI Connected. See www.bmwusa.com/apps or www.miniusa.com/pandora for more details.
I tried to register yesterday and had the same problem, needing sighted assistance to complete the task. My son explained that you had to hit "done" and then "submit registration" or something like that, and in that order. Not sure about that, but it was not a smooth process. But now that I am in, I love the app.

By AnonyMouse on Saturday, November 24, 2012 - 04:22

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Many new features!

What's New in Version 4.0

A new Pandora for the iPhone and iPod Touch with the following added features:

• Share your latest discoveries with friends on Pandora, Facebook, and Twitter
• Discover new music by following others on the Music Feed
• Re-discover your favorite music on your profile page
• Explore the artists and music you love directly on your device
 • Full lyrics for the songs we play
 • Artist biographies and discographies
 • Detailed track features from the Music Genome Project
• Find even more music you'll love by adding variety to your stations
• Enjoy constantly updated and expertly curated genre stations

... and other great updates:

• Timer added to the track progress indicator - drag the player controls up to reveal the timer
• Support for the taller iPhone 5 screen
• Support for new BMW vehicles with the “BMW Apps” option, see bmwusa.com/apps for more details
• Numerous stability and performance enhancements

By mehgcap on Saturday, November 24, 2012 - 04:22

In reply to by AnonyMouse

For those wondering about the update, it looks like it is still accessible. There are a lot of unlabeled graphics, and some buttons with image name labels (such as "backarrow"), but the essentials are labeled properly. I have not yet tried any social networking features, however.

By AnonyMouse on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 04:22

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Be advise that starting on March 1st that the Pandora Radio will no longer offer the unlimited FREE streaming readio. The new limitation on the FREE version is that you will be able to listen up to 40 hours a month.

By Faerie on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 04:23

Thats aweful!! Thats not even two days. CRAP!!! Thats aweful. I might just have to turn to something else if this is the case.

By AnonyMouse on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 04:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In reply to by Faerie

Now that Pandora has shot themselves in the foot in this decision. May I recommend to people to an alternative streaming radio that behaves very much like Pandora but better? I've been impressed by the Jango Radio Mobile which you can find over here at: http://www.applevis.com/apps/ios/music/jango-radio-mobile

By Santiago on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 04:23

Although not completely accessible on all platforms, I'm now glad I switched from Pandora to Spotify. Its completely usable on iOS and other platforms, but the amount of accessibility varies. Still, its a really good app for streaming unlimited music for no cost on a PC or Mac and for a small cost on mobile devices.

By AnonyMouse on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 - 04:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
What's New in Version 4.4

• Stuck with a flaky connection? We've improved playback buffering to keep your favorite music stutter-free.
• Never miss another great song: if you mute your phone, we'll pause your music for you.
• More links to more of what you love: all the URLs that work on Pandora.com now work just as well on your phone.
• Bug fixes and improvements to keep your music playing as it should.

By Zaina on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 04:23

This app does not work in all countries. After installing it, i recieved a message saying that . Although i downloaded it from the US app store.

By Santiago on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 04:23

Hello, Even if you managed to download the app, Pandora varifies your location, and if you're not in the US, then it will not work.
Updated Dec. 09/ 2013 Version 5.1 What's New in Version 5.1 • By popular demand, our new alarm clock lets you start your day with Pandora - Pick one of your favorite stations to wake up to – if you like what you hear, you can keep the music playing - Need a few extra minutes of shut eye? Hit snooze to catch more zzz’s - Use with the sleep timer to listen to music you love morning and night • Refreshed app design just for iOS 7 • Other small improvements and bug fixes to make your listening experience even better I have seen few voiceOver updates, first comparing previous versions, new interface, most of the buttons are label now is easier reclinize on the uper left corner are label the Icon Back and following on the uper right corner the Icon Menu.

By Misty Dawn on Friday, January 24, 2014 - 04:23

I have found that the critical button that allows one's sharing to Twitter and/or Facebook to be submitted is not clearly labeled, if it's labeled at all. At least that's what I figure. The "Facebook" and "Twitte" buttons themselves are labeled, but the one you click to do the actual sharing is not, it would seem. Which button is the one you use to share and where is it and what is it labeled? I find it interesting that sharing is almost always lacking in accessibility in apps and I've always wondered why that is, especially since the social element has become so important to us these days. FInally, I have noticed, at least in the most recent update, that there are actually quite a few un-labeled buttons, so I'd have to disagree with the original reviewer of this app as to its level of accessibility.

By AnonyMouse on Monday, February 24, 2014 - 04:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
What's New in Version 5.2 If you love the Sleep Timer for your iPhone or iPod, you’ll be happy to know it is now available for iPad • Dream away to the sounds of your favorite station • Adjust the countdown time from 15, 30 or 60 minutes Opt-in to Push Notifications on your iPhone, iPod or iPad to get personalized updates • Hear about new music or comedy added to your stations • Find out your friends' activities including follows and comments on your Pandora profile The usual improvements and bug fixes to keep bringing you the best listening experience

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Monday, February 24, 2014 - 04:23

Personally, I wish the sharing features were excised from this and all ‘non-socially core’ apps. It seems almost every app has these features and I consider them as bloatware no matter how popular social media is today. Of course part of my opinion stems from my strong direct opposition to social media but the other part is due to my liking for simplicity. Anything that has social media sharing features is too much for me. Either Pandora developers should make a ‘Slim’ version or the sharing features should be paid upgrades instead Pandora One.

By Ivan Cardenas on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 04:23

Hey guys, I have a question about the last few updates. In the past, you could double-tap and hold to the shuffle option and it would let you choose which stations you wanted to add to the list. I have noticed that in version 5, that is no longer the case. I use the shuffle feature because I love the virity it offers. Can anyone help fix this issue?

By dvdmth on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 04:23

You know, that's a really good question. I too would like to know how to configure the Shuffle feature in the Pandora app. I can configure it on my computer when using Pandora via the web, and whatever configuration I choose is remembered when I listen to Pandora on other devices, including my iPad. However, I have never figured out any way to configure the feature anywhere except on the website, including the Pandora One desktop application (in which the feature is called Quick Mix). If there is a way to configure the feature within the app, I would certainly use it more often than I do currently.

By Ivan Cardenas on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

As the subject says, how do you configure this using the websight? I use a LapTop running windows XP, with NVDA as my screen reader, using the most recent update of FireFox.

By dvdmth on Monday, March 24, 2014 - 04:23

I can't tell you how to change the Shuffle settings using a screen reader. Since the website uses Flash, it doesn't work well with VoiceOver on the Mac, which is my platform. I have some vision and only use a screen reader for certain tasks, and using Pandora on my computer is not one of them. I can tell you how it is done visually, and hopefully it will be enough for you to figure it out, if indeed it can be done with a screen reader. First, you go to pandora.com and make sure you're signed in. It should be playing music if you are signed in. Next, there is a list of stations located visually on the left side of the window. Shuffle is at the top of this list. You can probably get to it most easily by searching for the word shuffle. You need to click on this in order to get the station to play, if it isn't already. On the Mac, it doesn't work to perform a standard VoiceOver press (VO + Space) on the item. It has to be an actual mouse click, meaning having VoiceOver move the mouse pointer to the VoiceOver focus and then doing a virtual mouse click. Now for the part I cannot do with VoiceOver. Directly below the word Shuffle, an item appears which states the types of stations currently being shuffled. To the right of that, there is an options button. VoiceOver will not interact with this button in any way, so here is where you will be on your own. Clicking on that button brings up a submenu, displayed visually directly to the right of the button just pressed. You can choose from that menu to shuffle all, to shuffle stations of a particular genre, or to use an option called My Shuffle. Clicking on My Shuffle creates check boxes next to the other station names, which you can click on to turn individual stations on and off as part of the shuffle. Again, VoiceOver will not interact with these check boxes, so I can't tell you how to do it with a screen reader. You can't do this on iOS devices, because going to pandora.com simply launches the Pandora app on the device. It's too bad the Pandora web site isn't very accessible, at least on the Mac. As I said, it uses Flash, and my understanding is that Flash as a whole is inaccessible on the Mac. So maybe the Windows experience will be better. The best solution, of course, would be to do it within the app itself. I certainly hope there is a way. I'll do some digging and see what I can find out.

By dvdmth on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

Okay, I have done some testing with the Pandora app, and it appears there are accessibility issues with the app overall, so the rating on this site should be changed from fully accessible to minor issues. First off, about the Shuffle feature. There is, visually, a submenu button to the right of the word Shuffle while the station is selected. However, VoiceOver will not interact with it at all. It is necessary to turn off VoiceOver to access the submenu, which won't help those who can't see it. The other stations also have this options submenu displayed while the station is playing, but the icon looks different on-screen, and VoiceOver can interact with it just fine. There is a catch, though. If you switch stations while Pandora is playing, the options submenu is not accessible at first, but it becomes accessible if you close and re-open the app, or if you switch between landscape and portrait modes. I checked to see if this would also work to bring up the submenu for Shuffle, but it does not. Another thing I learned is that there is a whole section of the Pandora interface that is not accessible with VoiceOver, at least on the iPad. It is located to the right of the stations list and above where the song lyrics and other info is displayed. There are unlabelled buttons here, as well as some functions that VoiceOver won't interact with at all. For example, it is supposed to be possible to use this region to bring up thumb controls for songs that have finished playing, so you can give a song thumbs up or thumbs down after it has finished. With VoiceOver, this is impossible. Also, there is an options submenu for the current song, with options such as creating a station based on the current song, or telling Pandora you are tired of the song and don't want to hear it for 30 days. That menu is accessible, but it is unlabelled. All basic functions are fully accessible, but the more advanced functionality is not.

By AnonyMouse on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Unfortunetly, There are problems with this latest version. Please be advise there are VoiceOver problems.

What's New in Version 5.3
Start waking up to music you love – the Pandora alarm clock is now available for iPad
• Pick your your favorite station to play as your alarm
• Not ready to wake up? Adjust the snooze time to catch more zzz’s
• Use with the sleep timer to hear your music morning and night


 

By dvdmth on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

On my iPad Air, the new version of Pandora has major accessibility problems. I can't speak for iPhone, so someone else will have to be brave enough to try it out there. After getting the new version, I had trouble using the app right out of the box. There was some kind of unusual screen that first came up, which prevented pretty much all of the standard controls from working. I was able to get rid of this somehow, but I'm not sure what I did to get by. Now the basic controls are working, but much of the on-screen content is now inaccessible, including the station recommendations, song lyrics, similar artists, and the like. Anything generated from the Pandora website now shows up to VoiceOver as, "backstage webview," with no way to interact with the content. I am very displeased at this. The previous version of Pandora was much better, even though it had its own quirks. Near as I can tell, nothing was fixed. Only new problems, aggravating ones, were introduced. At least the thumb controls, pause, and skip buttons are still accessible, and I can still change stations, but not much else works. Very disappointed.
Hello, I'm also having the same accessibility issues on Pandora for iPhone, not just on the iPad version. I sent Pandora an email regarding these issues, and I hope they fix them soon, however, given the responses I've gotten from their competition, such as Spotify, they probably will ignore us once again. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.

By Santiago on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

Hello, I know that on Windows, we can use Hope, as an alternative app to use the pandora service. Is there any accessible alternative app to use Pandora on iOS?

By Santiago on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

Hello, Earlier today, I contacted Pandora, regarding the accessibility issues on their iOS app. I got a response a couple of hours ago, and to be honest, I was actually surprised at their response, given their past responses regarding accessibility. The email is as follows: "Hi Santiago, Thanks for writing. First of all, I would like to apologize for the current accessibility issues with our app. There are some technical hurdles preventing us from making all the features of Pandora accessible to blind and print disabled listeners. We're doing our best to come up with a solution, but we haven't got there yet. Thanks for your patience. Your feedback is helpful for our engineers. I have passed your email along to them. Let me know if I can help you with anything else! Best, Ben | Pandora Listener Advocate PANDORA® internet radio." I'm glad Pandora finally realizes what accessibility is, and I'm glad they're working on improving their app for blind and low vision users.

By Ivan Cardenas on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

Hey guys, I have the iPod Touch Fourth Generation and the current version of Pandora and I don't see any accessability issues with it, if anything there are parts that have been clarified. The only issue is that VO now says "Artist name, track name, and album," before each of those things. Ads aren't accessible, which is a good thing.
Hello, Have you tried changing info and or viewing your profile? Also, a lot of information on the NowPlaying window just says "Backstage WebView." This is on devices running iOS 7. I'm not exactly sure about the fourth generation iPod Touch, since it still has iOS 6.

By Ivan Cardenas on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

Yes, I see what you mean. But the good news is, Pandora is awear of these issues and will try the best they can to fix them. There are some parts of the app that work great, like choosing stations and thumbs up and down, which is basically all I need. I honestly think that those who say there should be an alternative app for Pandora are thinking to far into the issues we are having now. You can just pick a station, and if you like a song look it up on YouTube or to find out more on the artist, do a google search. That's just my opinion, sorry if it offends anyone.

By dvdmth on Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 04:23

I also got a reply from Pandora after I submitted feedback to them about the app's accessibility. I was actually asked to provide further details, and I replied with as much detail as I could about my experiences. We'll see if that helps. To the one who is asking about a third-party app for Pandora, I highly doubt there is such an app for iOS. Even if there was, my experience is that most Pandora-enabled devices from third parties only support the most basic Pandora functionality, when remains accessible in the current version of Pandora's iOS app, so I doubt there would be much benefit of going with a third party. What I've enjoyed about Pandora's iOS app over alternatives is the fact that so much of what is available on the website is also available within the app, and the app is, or had been, very accessible. If I want to add variety to a station, I can go so directly in the app, whereas most, if not all, other Pandora-enabled devices don't let you do this. I can also rename stations, delete stations, view the artist and track info from Pandora's database, see the list of similar artists, and other nice perks directly in the app, without having to bring up a web browser. Very convenient, and though some of those functions are still available in the current version of Pandora, others are no longer accessible. I am still using this version of Pandora and, for the majority of what I use it for, it still works well. My biggest concern when I first used the new version was that Pandora might not be taking accessibility seriously enough and that the currently broken features might be a foreshadowing of other, more serious problems that could arise in future releases. Pandora is giving the right response to our concerns, so at least I feel better about the current state of things. It is now up to them to deliver on what they're promising.

By Misty Dawn on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 04:23

In previous versions of Pandora, I was able to search for a song to create a station around. In those version, I was able to search not only for a particular song but also for a particular artist's version of that song by typing both the song and the artist into the search field. However, I am now only able to type in the song. If I type in the artist, it says no results found. However, if I just type the song, I just get a bunch of song titles without the artist being listed for each one of them.

Say I want to search for "Amazing Grace" but the version by LeAnn Rimes. If I search for "Amazing Grace LeAnn Rimes", I get no results, but if I just search for "Amazing Grace", I get tones of results saying "Amazing Grace" but with no artist listed after them. I therefore cannot tell which one is the ne by LeAnn Rimes or if the one by LeAnn Rimes is even in the system!

Is there any workaround to this? Is the fact that artists are not listed after my results a general issue with Pandora or is it that VoiceOver is simply not reading the arists name but that it is, in fact, listed after the track?

In any case, how do I get around this?

By dvdmth on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 04:23

You need to add the word by between the song title and the artist name when searching for both at the same time. In your example, you would search for Amazing Grace by LeAnn Rimes.

In the search results, the title and artist are both displayed visually, but VoiceOver only reads the song title. It's actually worse when using the Add Variety feature to have more than one seed on a station. The results there are not read by VoiceOver at all, so you have to trust that the top hit is the one you want.

This is one of many accessibility problems introduced in the latest version of Pandora. I have contacted them about this and given them a lot of details about how the VoiceOver experience has regressed in this version. My communication with them went well, and I was assured that the engineers are working to resolve the issue. I am anxiously waiting for the next version, hoping they manage to fix at least some of these issues in that version. Until then, we just have to cope with what we've got.

By dvdmth on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 04:23

The good news is that most issues I had with the previous version of Pandora have been addressed.

The bad news is that, when navigating through the list of stations, you will not hear the station name unless you have VoiceOver himts turned on, and then you have to wait until the end of the hint to hear the station name. For example, if a station is called Nickelback Radio, you hear VoiceOver say, "Station name. Double-tapping it starts Nickelback Radio station."

Near as I can tell, this is the only place in the app whre you need VoiceOver hints to get the necessary info. When navigating through the list of recommended stations, search results, add variety results, and so on, VoiceOver gives you the station name in the main label, not just in the hint.

It's too bad switching stations is a core, must-have function of the app, and it's a shame that this one part of the app has been made less convenient. At least the app is pretty much fully accessible now.

Problems that have been fixed include:

1. The website info, such as song lyrics, artist bio, similar artists, and the like, is now fully accessible.
2. It appears all functional buttons now have labels. There were a few unlabeled buttons in prior versions, but the ones I know of are all nicely labeled now.
3. The Shuffle options button is now accessible. However, like the options for all stations, it may not be visible to VoiceOver at first, though the issue can be worked around by switching between landscape and portrait modes while the station is playing.
4. As I said above, the list of recommended stations, search results, add variety results, etc. are now fully accessible and labeled.
5. On the iPad, there is no longer an unlabeled button overlaid on top of the song, artist, and album names, so this info can now be accessed with touch navigation. Before, I had to use finger swipes to get to the info for the current track, or else bring up the Control Center and get it from there.

Issues that persist include:

1. As I said above, the button for station option, displayed next to the currently playing station, is not always seen by VoiceOver. It is there when the app first loads, but it seems to disappear when you change to another station. Switching between landscape and portrait modes resolves the issue, until you change stations again.
2. The album art section of the screen, at least on the iPad, remains inaccessible. This area, from what I've been told, is supposed to let you give thumbs up or thumbs down to a song that has already finished playing. Not a big deal, but it could come in handy if you weren't quick enough on the draw.
3. There are still a couple of cosmetic features that VoiceOver is reading while navigating, but this does not affect the app's usability.

All in all, with only a couple of minor problems, Pandora is now nearly 100% accessible. Pandora clearly put some effort into improving the app, and I applaud them for it. Now, they just need to fix the issue they introduced in the stations list, and I think everyone will be happy.

EDIT: I found an issue I missed earlier. When configuring the Shuffle station, VoiceOver does not give any feedback as to which stations will be included in the shuffle. There is a visual icon next to each station that is part of the shuffle, and double-tapping on a station toggles thee icon on and off, but VoiceOver says nothing. I included this finding in the email I sent Pandora regarding this update.

By Samantha Wyatt on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 04:23

I've been having trouble hitting the thumbs up and down buttons. I can easily find them, but voiceover says nothing when I double tap on them. Because of this, I'm not sure my feedback has been registered. Does anybody else have this issue?

By KE7ZUM on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 04:23

Yeah according to some of the posts on this thread it's broken wiht voice over. Maybe contact them and see what you get.

Good luck.

By dvdmth on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 04:23

On my iPad, the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons work perfectly, as they always have. That part of the app has not been affected in any of the recent updates, despite other areas having accessibility quirks. You might want to close the app from the app switcher and relaunch it, in case something weird happened.

By Samantha Wyatt on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 04:23

I have closed it out of the app switcher and rebooted my phone, and there is no change. My next step will be to contact the developer and make sure they are aware of the problem, and hopefully they will get it fixed.

By Misty Dawn on Thursday, July 24, 2014 - 04:23

Since it is often difficult to find direct contact information for companies on their web sites, I was wondering if could post a direct link where we might contact Pandora about accessibility? If so, could they please post that link here?

By Misty Dawn on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

First of all, I contacted Pandora about the whole annoying "Station name." issue but have yet either to hear a thing back from them or to notice any changes in the right direction.

So, in order to help us navigate the app more productively, I tried looking for an option to arrange stations alphabetically. I thought I recalled that this setting existed in this app, but, when I tried looking for it, both in the app's native Settings tab and under the Settings on the iPhone, I was unable to locate such an option.

Does this option still exist? Or, rather, has it become inaccessible? If it does exist, where can I find it?

By treky fan on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

I have canceled my pandora one subscription. A friend told me that the 40-hour listening limit has been removed. Is this the case?

As far as I know, there is no option for an alphabetical sort in the Pandora app for iOS. The option does exist on the web site, and other devices I've used in the past supporting Pandora also had an alphabetical sort, but their iOS app doesn't appear to have it. I looked for the option when I first installed the app last December, and I was disappointed when there wasn't one. Maybe it existed in earlier version of the app, but I have no experience prior to version 5.1.

I was assured several weeks ago that the station name issue would be addressed in an upcoming update. The app haven't been updated yet, but based on Pandora's past update schedule, that is no surprise. Have patience.

By 1drew on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

Notes state:
Improvements and bug fixes to give you the best listening experience.

Station names withVO seem to behave correctly now by reading the station name without having hints on.

By dvdmth on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

Version 5.5 fixed a couple of issues, most notably the problem with station names already mentioned above.

However, they managed to break something in the process, again. The text field for creating stations no longer works properly. VoiceOver does not recognize the element as a text field, but you can still double-tap it to start editing. As you type, either with the on-screen keyboard or with a Bluetooth one, you will hear a bonk sound after each keypress instead of any typing echo. Also, there's no way to review what you typed, except by navigating through the search results. There is also no way to access the cancel button next to the text field, so if you want to cancel the operation, you have to close the app from the app switcher, or else create a station and then delete it. Finally, if you're using a Bluetooth keyboard, you need to turn Quick Nav off manually.

I also think they should remove the words "station name" which VoiceOver still says prior to announcing each station name. That would make it easier to scan through the list of stations to find the one you want.

I will send more feedback to Pandora about this. They are clearly trying, and I don't fault them for that, but it is a bit discouraging that every time they fix something, they manage to break something else.

To the editorial team here, I recommend changing the usability rating of the app to minor issues. As far as I know, the behavior of the text field is the only significant issue, and that is more of an oddity in VoiceOver behavior than anything else, which does not prevent the usability of the app in any real significant way. The usability of the app is definitely better than it was back when version 5.3 came out, which broke a number of things that have since been addressed.

By Reginald George on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

I have confirmed this behavior with two other people. Often when switching from one station to the next now the new station doesn't load until you've done it a couple times. Also the screen doesn't seem to be updating properly with VO. The options button seems to appear before the station you are listening to in the list instead of after. Once it brought up the options for a station I wasn't even listening too at the time when I wanted to add variety. Text fields don't always open on the first double tap. If I flick back and forth and double tap again it usually works. Occasionally when switching stations while playing another station with voiceover, the wrong station gets selected and starts to play. I agree that it would be nice if it didn't say station name before every station. This happens even when you are adding variety or creating a station and scrolling through the list of available artists or songs for building your station. Obviously I need to write them and give feedback.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

I just wrote them with feedback and refered them again to this site so we'll see what happens.

Take care and be blessed.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

I got an email from them regarding ht eios team. I already told htem what was up but they responded as if they did not read the message. here is what they said.

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for writing in about this. We are aware that our recent release has caused issues for our blind and print disabled listeners, and we do apologize for the surprise and inconvenience that undoubtedly caused to your listening experience.

I'd be happy to gather more information so I can share this with our Engineers.

What features were you able to access in the past, that are no longer working?

What hurdles do you encounter while listening, and what features could help with this?

We really appreciate your help with this.

Best, Star | Pandora

By dvdmth on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

When I first wrote into Pandora after version 5.3, the first email response I got was similar to the one you just posted. I responded with a very detailed account of exactly what I experienced in the new version. Much of what I said in the followup email was repeated from the first, but I made sure to explain everything in such a way that a sighted person could understand clearly how my experience was. I then got another reply from Pandora, thanking me for what I provided and assuring that the developers would work on improving the app.

With the release of 5.4, and now with 5.5, I sent in additional feedback by replying to the messages I last received from Pandora. Each time, I got a reply thanking me for the continued feedback and again assuring me that the appropriate people would get the information.

I know some people don't like that kind of response, but as far as I'm concerned, so long as they follow through on their end in subsequent releases, I am satisfied. So far, pretty much every issue I've brought up has been addressed, except for a couple of minor quirks that don't really affect the usability of the app. So, from my perspective, they have delivered.

I encourage you, and anyone else who is asked similar questions by Pandora when contacting them, to reply to the email you received, going into further detail about your experience. The more people write in about their experiences, the greater the likelihood the issues will be addressed.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, August 24, 2014 - 04:23

Since I dont 'use the app would you guys mind if I took yoru feedback from this thread witht he detailed explainations? if not then feel free to contact me using my contact form explainign what's broken in 5.4 and I'll be happy to pass it along.

Take cre.