Hi AppleVis members! I made a handsfree and audible Twitter client called Social Speaker. It automatically retrieves Tweets at regular intervals and speaks them using the same accessibility voices as VoiceOver. Tweets can be sourced from your timeline, mentions, trending topics, lists and saved searches. There are also many settings to tailor how Tweets are spoken.
I would love to hear any and all feedback from the AppleVis community regarding the app's accessibility. I want to do all I can to make it work for everyone! The link below should take you straight to the App Store page if you access it from your iOS device:
https://socialspeaker.app.link/IyEdxteiUK
Thank you!
Will Dinkel
http://twitter.com/social__speaker
http://twitter.com/willdinkel
Comments
Fantastic
Hi,
I'm looking forward to using this app! It's another tool in my toolbox! Thank you for creating it!
Great to hear!
You're very welcome. Please keep me posted on how it works for you.
Get stuck during setup
I’m using voiceover. When I get to the screen where I need to select timeline, lists, etc., VO can’t select any of those items, so I’m stuck. Also, many interface elements that aren’t visible on the screen are able to be navigated to by VO, which shouldn’t happen. I would recommend learning how to use VO yourself and doing some basic testing before asking for further input because it seems like there are multiple basic VO navigation problems. You need to be able to iterate faster on those problems.
Thanks for the feedback.
I'll get cracking on your suggestions, Peter. Thank you!
My feedback
I actually got it to work, there is some voiceover issues but I like it. I can’t seem to get it to go from for example timeline to my list. Keep up the good work I’m keeping this app
A question
Do you want me to keep leaving feedback here? Or is there somewhere else that you would prefer?
Thanks!
Glad you're finding it useful, lelia! I'll look into the issue with switching sources. I'm thinking I tried to make too many UI elements respond to VoiceOver at the same time, and they're getting in the way of each other, especially while the app is actively speaking new Tweets.
social speaker is not available in my country Czech Republic
Hello, just to let you know, your app Social Speaker is not available in my country, Czech Republic. Can you add it to Czech appstore please? Thank you.
Checking Czech
I’ll look into it! I had thought it was available in all App Stores.
Social Speaker
Hello.
Thank you for wanting to make your social Speaker app as accessible as possible. I'm a Voiceover for iOS screen reader user and I downloaded it. I've already hit a snag where you instruct us to tap on a guy's head. Moving my finger across the screen reveals no such button. Perhaps someone using the Zoom screen magnifier might be able to find it but...
I'll keep the app and check in to see the progress you've made re accessibility for VO users.
Czech Confirmed
According to iTunes Connect, all territories are checked, including the Czech Republic. I haven't localized the app for Czech yet, so I'm pretty sure English search terms can be used. Try these out:
<ul>
<li>social speaker</li>
<li>twitter listen</li>
<li>twitter audible</li>
</ul>
Bird’s head
If you go to the far right-hand corner or right hand End you’ll find it. I did I am also a voice over user
Working on VO
Hi Lynne,
Thanks for giving it a shot! That voice prompt isn't too helpful, is it? You're looking for the "Twitter Account Selection" button. I'll get that text fixed.
I've gotten some great feedback here on AppleVis, and I'm already working through a lot of other VO improvements. I hope to have something available for beta test by mid next week. I'll post back here so users can sign up.
Have a good one!
App Feedback
Hi,
I've noticed there are two unlabeled buttons each time I open the app. The first button is in the top left and the other is in the top right corner of the screen. When I tap and hold on the top right button the settings menu comes up. After I exit the settings menu the settings button is properly labeled using Voice Over and the twitter account button in the top left corner is labeled correctly as well.
The option for the in app purchase is not seen correctly when I have Voice Over in focus on it inside the source menuu. It is hard to make an in app purchase.
I enjoy using this app! Keep up the great work!
Thanks,
JoAnn
Thanks for the feedback!
Hi JoAnn,
Yup, those two buttons weren’t being properly hidden during the onboarding, so VO thought they were still “visible”. There were a few other interface elements with the same issue. I have them fixed in my development version.
And I’ll definitely look at the store pop up. Thanks for pointing out that issue.
Glad you like the app! The next version will be much more accessible!
Call for beta testers!
Many thanks to everyone here on AppleVis for all of the feedback. I have a new version of Social Speaker ready for beta testing. If you would like to participate, please email socialspeaker@obeemobee.com and I'll send a TestFlight invite.
Here's what has changed in this new, improved-accessibility version:
<ul>
<li>Hidden views are properly hidden and should no longer be selectable when VoiceOver is enabled.</li>
<li>When using VoiceOver during the tutorial, the app will pause before speaking the tutorial elements. This allows VoiceOver prompts to finish. Some tutorial text is also tailored specifically for VoiceOver.</li>
<li>When using VoiceOver while the app is actively speaking Tweets (i.e. playing), they are no longer selectable in the list. They become selectable when you activate the pause button. I did this because VoiceOver would keep switching focus to a different element when a new Tweet was inserted at the top of the screen. This caused both the app and VoiceOver to speak at the same time, which was confusing.</li>
<li>Better VoiceOver labels and hints in general.</li>
</ul>
There are a few more tweaks to implement, but I wanted to get this version out there and see how it works out for you all. Looking forward to more feedback!
Thanks!
New Beta Version Available
After some great feedback from the first wave of AppleVis beta testers, I've made some tweaks and posted an updated beta version. Please email socialspeaker@obeemobee.com if you'd like to participate.
I'm looking forward to releasing this improved VoiceOver version to the public soon!
Love the app
I just wanted to say that I love your app.
I make Twitter bots and I have been wanting a way to hear tweets from the bots as they come through. I had been trying to use a windows app with a similar function, but it does not work well and is partly inaccessible. I have your app open on my phone, next to me while I work; By the way, I know your probably busy with this iOS app, but it would be great if you could create an app like this for Windows at some point. Thank's for the useful app.
Thank you!
I'm thrilled to hear that you're loving the app! Thanks for sharing.
For Windows I would have to research to see if it includes speech synthesis voices like iOS does. It makes things much snappier to be able to do the synthesis on-device rather than farming it out to a web service. If it does, I don't see it being too difficult to reproduce what the app does. Then it's just a matter of having enough time to do the development!
Android support is another item on the list. A list that keeps growing, unfortunately.
As for a macOS version, there are rumblings that Apple may soon announce iOS app compatibility for macOS. This could mean Social Speaker would work as-is on a Mac with just a few tweaks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
All the best,
speech synthesis voices on Windows
Yes Windows does have built in voices. There are different voices depending on the OS version, but I really like the Windows 10 David voice; I use in with my screen readers.
Just in case it's helpful, the Windows app I mentioned is called Twisten. http://blog.alner.net/articles/Twisten.aspx
It's not a great ood app and I believe it is not being actively developed, but it does use the Windows built-in speech synthesis voices.
New Version Available in App Store
Apple just approved the new version of Social Speaker that has a whole bunch of VoiceOver improvements (thanks testers!). Please feel free to grab it from https://socialspeaker.app.link/IyEdxteiUK and let me know how it works out for you!