Sound curtain on IOS 17 Public Beta

By Daniel Parker, 27 July, 2023

Forum
Apple Beta Releases

Hi all,

I was curious to see what this would do, but not only does it mute music and videos, it also mutes VO speech. I assume this can be useful for Braille users, but how do I force it off? For all intents and purposes my phone is unresponsive, and it is not showing up on my Mac (running Monterey). I'd rather not have to uninstall the beta if possible.

Thanks,
Daniel

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Comments

By Scott Davert on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 14:25

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

The idea behind VoiceOver Curtain is that a braille display user would likely be the only one who would want every sound disabled, or so that's the logic. So if you turn it on without a display connected, as of now, there is not much you can do that I'm aware of. They need to assign it the ability to be able to use a gesture so that you can at least set it up as an easy toggle when VoiceOver is enabled. You won't like this solution, and it may not be possible for awhile for this to be possible. You will need to disable VoiceOver and have a sighted person disable the feature for you. Sorry that happened, it's a joy of beta testing. In Apple's defense, though, they do warn you and you must confirm that this is what you want. or at least, that's how it has been thus far.

By Daniel Parker on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 14:25

Yup, that's exactly what I ended up doing. Otherwise I really like iOS 17. It would be nice if Apple would make a confirmation dialog when you toggle it, e.g.: "This setting is not recommended for users without a Braille display connected. VoiceOver speech output will be disabled." Alternatively they could have it so it is grayed out when no Braille display is connected. Oh well, now I know!

By Scott Davert on Monday, August 21, 2023 - 14:25

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Interesting, as someone said in another topic that the mode can only be enabled when a braille display is connected. I'm'' glad you were able to solve the issue though and thanks for posting your beta findings!