VoiceOver won't inform me of notifications on my iPhone 8

By Nut, 7 March, 2018

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi,
I just got my new iPhone 8 last Wednesday as a birthday present as well as a new protective case that basically covers the entire screen. I noticed, while using my new iPhone 8, that VoiceOver won't inform me of new notifications when I have my iPhone display off. I tried turning on always speak notifications and this doesn't make any difference.
This only occurs when my new case is covering the display, but once I uncovered it, VoiceOver behaves normally. This doesn't occur with my old iPhone 6, which also use a similar protective case that covers both the front and the back of the phone.
I really wonder what could be causing this, as I would like to be informed of new notifications without having to uncover the front screen.
P.S 'Hey Siri' also don't work when my front screen is covered; once again my old iPhone 6 doesn't have this issue, even with a similar protective case.

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Comments

By Eileen on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:44

It sounds like your case is triggering the iOS Face Down feature; the feature which prevents the screen from waking for notifications when the iPhone is placed face down on a surface.

Depending upon how much this bothers you, you could disable this feature:

  1. Go to Settings > Privacy
  2. Double tap on Motion & Fitness, and then switch Fitness Tracking Off

Of course, if you make use of the fitness tracking features of your iPhone, do not do this.

As the Face Down feature was introduced to save on battery use, you should also expect worse battery performance if you do disable it.

Personally, I would suggest either a new case or simply learning to live with this behavior.

Hi,
I think I agree with you regarding the case triggering the face down feature.
However when I turn off fitness tracking in settings, it still makes no different.
However it seems that if the screen is not fully covered then notification announcements (including 'Hey Siri') works normally.
The strange thing is, this has never happened with my iPhone 6, which as I mentioned use a similar protective case.
I'm not sure if the iPhone 8's A11 chip has something to do with this...
Also, just for your information, both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 8 are running exactly the same iOS version, iOS 11.2.6.