Apple Releases iOS 11.3; Bringing New Features, Enhancements and Bug Fixes

I am downloading it now. Hope things go well. Cross fingers.

I’ve just updated my iPhone SE and iPad Air 2 to 11.3. Initial thoughts…
1. The voiceover volume sound has changed. I believe this now matches the feedback heard on the Mac but I could be mistaken. If so, this would provide some nice continuity between Mac and iPad specifically, following the dock imitation in iOS 11.
2. The speed and performance improvements on these devices are very noticeable. it makes things feel a lot snappier, especially wen typing.
3. There now appears to be just 4 carrier signal strength bars, not 5. I’m in the UK so this could be a country specific thing, I suppose.

This is of course in reference to the bluetooth icon fix: When at least using a magic Keyboard, bluetooth is still only on according to the icon, not connected as one would expect while typing THIS POST with the keyboard itself. The exception I found to this behavior is when using any wireless headset, for the icon is changed to say “headphones connected, and has been for quite a while now.

I was just curious, I heard that apparently 11.3 is suppose to finally bring Message syncing between devices. Meaning that if you delete a conversation from your iPhone, that it is suppose to be deleted on your Mac or Apple Watch. Has anyone tried this to see if it is the case? Would be curious to know. Thanks!

Messages in iCloud was tested buy Apple during the 11.3 beta cycle, but is not present in the final version: https://appadvice.com/post/messages-in-icloud-11-3-final/762224?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AppAdvice+%28AppAdvice%29

I just updated my iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch to iOS 11.3 and it was a great update. I like the new volume sounds.

After doing a little initial testing, it appears the Smart Invert feature now works in Safari and Mail, and doesn't seem to break YouTube or Twitter's dark modes. Some graphical apps will still make images inverted though, like google Music. Still, I'm glad that Mail and Safari are starting to support this. It's the next best thing until Apple decides to give us a full system-wide dark mode.

This is great and indeed I've noticed a fix for the five things mentioned in the post. I have downloaded an update on my iPhone X and have noticed an additional fixes and improvements, some are iPhone X specific. The notifications displays on the coversheet, or lock screen are no longer repetitively spoken. There now is a new volume up/down sound effect, graduating from the old long overdue sound, finally matching the macOS volume sounds. The VoiceOver finally correctly reports the cellular signal bars on older devices that doesn't have the split redesigned status bar, such as on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus devices. Apple redesigned the cellular strength indicators to a 4 of 4 bar scale, which matches the iPhone X bar like style for all cellular devices. VO incorrectly spoke the number of bars until now for these devices. There were only 4 maximum bars but VO was reporting it as a 5. This is now fixed on 11.3, so expect to hear"4 of 4 bars" on all of your iPhones. The braille input when using with the braille displays seems more reliable, and an often annoying and hard to resolve disappearing keyboard issue seems to be fixed also. There were times where the software keyboard did not appear even though there are no hardware keyboard or braille display attached. The VO just seems more responsive at least on all my iDevices which is always welcome, but your mileage may vary.

Why do they always have to mess with stuff. I'm not a fan of the new volume sounds it sounds like some wierd plastic pick sound. I wish you were able to pick sound themes. Voiceover does sound a bit clearer which I didn't think was possible.

Just want to make it seemless between iOS and MacOS. Personally, I think it was about time to ad the volume sounds found in Macos.

Thank you very much AppleVIS for another great update.

I still find it anoying. So much so that I'm down grading back to IOS 11.2.6. At least until I'm ready to deal with this.

Like everything else, change is enevitable. I wouldn't have downgraded, because eventually, the other commenter will have to either update, or buy a new device, then you're stuck. I am not much of a fan of the sounds, though I get why Apple did what they did. I also noticed the number being spoken of an incoming call, that isn't in contacts to be spoken I think at least three times. A minor hinderance I think. Also, the new messages it asks to confirm deletion before you delete one. personally, I liked the, old way. Nothing will ever make me downgrade an IOS because of new sounds, features, or other such things.

Well that's your call. Glad your happy with the update.

I love the new sounds for volume up and down... the old ones were too intrusive.

An update to the new American Siri voice is a sign that the new system is out. I'm on my way to iOS 11.3!
A little something worthy of note for Mandarin Chinese speakers, iOS now, at last, can describe and reference characters while using the Characters rotor, an effect similar to the phonetic feedback of characters and words in the English environment. Also, some changes in the phonetic reference of words, and characters that previously didn't get any hints are now hinted in the system, making the typing experience in Chinese easier and more reliable.

Just updated to the new version and had a go with it. The Siri female voice I'm using as a VoiceOver voice is more snappy and responds much faster. This is a 64-GB version of iPhone SE. Also, I find that the volume indication tone has changed, just for the record. Happy updating to you all!

I havent updated my Iphone in a long while now.
I am probably running the initial ios 10.0 release? (not quite sure cant be bothered to check) and I didnt update as newer versions of ios came out as the one that I was on seemed better,even though it had a few quirks, the new bugs introduced or features didnt really make me want to upgrade.
However, this update does seem worth upgrading to,and I dont see any major bugs that would anoy me.

1 question,though. the volume sounds have changed,I do see that, but have any navigation sounds been changed? I dont fiddle about with my volume enough to be bothered by a change to those sounds lol, and to not upgrade just because of the volume sounds would be rather silly, or so I feel.
Falcon.

"• In the list of recent calls in the Phone app, VoiceOver once again announces which phone (Mobile, Home, Work, etc.) the call was to/from. "

not totally fixed, here is an example in my call log:

actual display on screen: harry (2), signal audio

voiceover announces: harry, incoming, 2 calls, framingham, ny

let's analize this. the regular screen must have some kind of indication so the user knows whether it's incoming or outgoing, vo interpretes as incoming, so that's good. the regular screen says it's signal audio call, vo doesn't say that, that's unacceptable. how am i supposed to know if i return the call by tapping on it, what kind of call i'm making?
then, when you have someone in your contacts, the place should not be displayed, and that's the regular screen does. vo omits the all important calling source (signal audio) and gives the unnecessary place (framingham, ny) instead.

this seems to be a simple parsing issue, and it took apple one year to fix? come on, do they have brain drain or what?

I'm really happy that the app badges with VO issue is finally resolved. Having to actually launch messages to determine if and how many new messages I had was quite annoying! Now, if the Bluetooth indicator worked properly, life would be good. In 11.2.6, it was always connected. Now, in 11.3, it is always on, regardless if a device is actually connected or not. Visually, it does indicate if a device is connected, would be really nice if VO properly reflected this info.
Have a great day.
Jim

Got it and no issues. People will do whatever they want, download or not download that is the question. Whatever works is my philosophy.

I just updated my phone this morning. The update was successful with the exception that VoiceOVer speech sounded distorted until I rebooted my phone. I had hoped that there would be some improvement for Braille support but was really disappointed. Writing with a Focus Five Braille display is still sometimes sluggish and inaccurate. VoiceOver seems to still have problems registering words like Braille and know. Output is still sometimes being displayed in Grade two Braille even when output is set to 8-dot Braille. I haven't tested reading a book with the Kindle or iBooks apps. So far no suggestion anyone has offered has resolved the issue of text being skipped. This is even an issue using an actual Kindle Fire with the VoiceView screenreader. My e-mails to Apple and Amazon have fallen on deaf ears. Both companies thanked me for reporting the problems and said they would report them to their software engineers. so now I have a book collection I can't enjoy. I plan to test the VoiceOver update with the Hims Braille Sense and Braille Edge, and the Orbit Reader. I will be interested if I get different results.

apple doesn't seem to bothered about the braille side of things, braille screen input has had two big bugs for years, and each time I report them to apple they say they can't reproduce them, even though in the case of periods being turned into number 4's when used in web and email addresses other people on applevis have also reported this issue, and I can reproduce it on other people's phones. the other issue they don't seem bothered about is quite often the dot 4 goes walkies on screen and its position changes and its very difficult to get it back where it should be. I even offered to demonstrate the bugs to apple when I was in the US as I think I was near there HQ at the time, and they thanked me for my offer but declined, I mean how short sighted can you get? if someone offers to show them a bug and they turn it down they are obviously not really interested in fixing them.

I use Braille Screen Input pretty regularly, and I never encountered either of the two issues you described. That isn’t to say BSI is flawless, because it definitely isn’t, but I haven’t had those particular problems. Periods in web addresses always come out as periods for me, whether in contracted or six-dot mode, and I have had no issues with dot 4 changing its position on me. Perhaps you need to redo the dot calibration on your device?

It used to be, before iOS 11, that when I opened the iPad case to bring up the lock screen, VoiceOver would automatically announce the time and number of notifications, similar to pressing the power button on the device. With iOS 11.0, that feature went away, and VoiceOver remained silent after opening the cover, even though the iPad screen lit up.

With iOS 11.3, the old behavior has finally returned, so opening the case now announces the time and notifications the way it used to. I have forgotten how much I missed that feature.

Hi, I tried redoing the dots and no joy it still wonders off every so often,
regarding periods coming out as number 4 for me, what happens is say I start to write a web address, I can put in the first bit of the address, so for example if I wanted to go to google I would put in the www dot google bit, but then as soon as I go to put the end of the address on for example dot com as soon as I do that second dot it comes out as a number four, and then any future dots I write would also be output as number four, so I would get a mess of www.google4co4uk the only work around I found was to do a space before my second period then delete it and carry on writing the address. as I say others have reported this issue over the years on applevis and I can reproduce it on other people's phones so its not corrupt settings or anything on my end I guess. this issue happens with both UEB and UK braille, and changing contracted or uncontracted makes no difference.

Hmm, interesting. Maybe try switching to US braille or whatever you can do? I honestly have never seen this issue crop up in my experiences with braille screen input under iOS for the past couple years or so. Wish I Could help more alex.

Hi!
Has anyone on here tried using Braigo with 11.3 yet?
I really hope it isn't broken still. I miss that app.

Last I knew braigo was working again. In fact, they just released an update a few days ago in the appstore.
Ever since 11.0 my app switcher has had focus issues, like for example vo will say I'm on an app, I close it and it's not the app that I wanted to close. Anyone else experiencing this?

If this particular bug has been fixed.
After updating to iOS 11 .2, I noticed after locking my iPad Air, that the screen would go dark as usual.
But if I then lift, move, or shake the device, the screen unlocks itself.
I later learned that this was a feature called raise to wake, and that was only supposed to be available for iPhones, and since this is the case, there is no way of disabling it in the iPad settings.
Has this now been fixed?

Hi,
Do you also have that during a call through the telephone loudspeaker every now and then the sound switches into hands-free mode?
This happens only when I have VoiceOver enabled.
I've checked on several iPhone and the error is repetitive.
Appealing to Apple, unfortunately, does not give anything.

I can confirm one of the issues Alex Wallace mentions with Braille Screen Input. Periods, or full stops, are turned into the number 4 when typing web or email addresses, and the @ symbol is sometimes converted intn the % symbol. If truth be told I've never reported this behaviour to Apple as I found it simple enough insert and then delate a space before the symbol as Alex describes above. I'm not having any dot 4 issues. From time to time (not very often at all) the ts on the keyboard don't appear where I think they should be, but that just means it's time to recalibrate the dots. As I've said elsewhere on this site, More a big Braille Screen Input fan and although the issue Alex describes has been there since Braille Screen Input was introduced, it really is the only issue I've experienced.

Thank you Troy!!
I didn'j even know about the update until I checked my email this morning!
I got it, and did a clean install of the app, and it works! YAY!!!!!!

Anyone else seeing this annoying issue. I don't need to know this information. I check the music settings and there is nothing there to toggle this setting. Any suggestions welcomed.

thanks for confirming the issue bingo, I am going to go back to apple and report the issue again, maybe they might be up for doing a screen share with me to see the bug in action, I won't let them fob me off with resetting my settings etc or claim they can't reproduce it, I would love it if those experiencing the bug could also report it seeing as apple is obstinate that there is no problem.

With IOS 10 using dictation with the message app. If I needed tocorrect the dictation I would shake and then press undo andwhatever I last dictated would be selected and the curser would be at the end.So I would just press delete and of cours delete the text. With Ios 11 that changed. The keyboard would no longer automatically come up so I had to press a keyboard button. When I did that the text would be not selected.So it didn't work.With 11.3 it's better. After a dictation and a shake and undo the keyboard still doesn't come up but I am able to click on the latest message and text is selected with the curser at the end.However, you can only do it once per message for example, When I dictate I usually dictate 1 or 2 sentences at a time. I can't dictate a message,then stop, delete a 2nd time and shake and undo the text won't be selected. Sorry if that was confusing and rrambling lol.

Yes, I just tried this and VoiceOver does speak my name after the name of some of my playlists. I'm fairly certain my name isn't on screen, so I believe this is a voiceover glitch. Glad it speaks the name after the playlist and not before or this would be a much more annoying problem.

I had somebody check, and your name is actually displayed on screen below the name of any custom playlists (in the same area where it says “Apple Music Alternative”, “Apple Music Pop”, etc below any of Apple's curated playlists).

I don't know if this has previously been displayed but not spoken by VoiceOver; or whether the Music app has only just started to display this. Either way, it's not a bug - it's either a bug fix or a change in behavior.

Hello. I have noticed the audio on my iPhone 8 plus is much clearer on 11.3. Also typing is much faster on this one. IOS is not my daily driver but I still use IOS a good amount. I'll have to put my sim in and see how the signal strength thing works. Also the badge thing seems to be working good. That was very annoying. LOL

I can't be certain of this yet, but a sighted neighbor was just over here and we were doing stuff with my new recently-acquired iPhone. He noticed that the gesture for ending calls is now some sort of slider rather than a button. Can anybody confirm this? Other than that, I can't say much as this is my first iOS device and I've only had it for a few days. I'll post elsewhere about my impressions of the iPhone thus far.

HI all,
I’ve updated my iPhone and iPod Touch and I’m really pleased with the update. First issue I’ve been waiting for years concerns Braille Screen Input. Some problems concerning Polish Braille have been fixed and now I can type a ? *, “, etc. Also, the @ symbol has been changed which is more common then dot 4 that used to be used for this sign.
I really like new volume sounds that are less annoying and my call to Apple is to enable turning on/off volume sounds in VO settings. It seems that general performance is better than before but time will tell if I’m right. Cheers!

HI,

I have set typing feedback for my braille display to words and characters, however in mail and only in mail nothing is spoken when I type.

Hi all. I updated a few days ago, and everything was fine. But, yesterday, when I selected the emoji keyboard, it said: next keyboard oinpeemoji. I can select emoji just fine, and my region is set to U.S. and Lang. is set to English. I reset the device, and it hasn't fixed it. Did they change the name of the emoji keyboard and I just not realize it? Because, weather fried our router so I haven't had the unit on for a few days. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.