VoiceOver in iOS 16 beta 5/public beta three

By Levi Gobin, 9 August, 2022

Forum
Apple Beta Releases

So yesterday I want to download iOS 16 beta five. As soon as I installed it, I noticed two things were wrong with voiceover. First of all, who is noticed that eloquence sounds very distorted? It sounds almost like it was on an early computer. Also, who is noticed that voiceover sounds are a bit laggy and are in mono when connected to AirPods? I have reported both of these issues in Feedback, actually not yet but I will :-) but I want to see how many other people are having these issues/other voiceover issues.

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Comments

By Daniel Angus MacDonald on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

Eloquence in developer beta 5, Is amazing. it sounds just like Android now, with the 16 kHz version and adjust for best quality selected! I don’t have AirPods so I can’t test the lag.

By Igna Triay on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

So after going to settings a few minutes ago, I saw a new version of the beta was available via software update. I hit download, and I cant tell whichversion is this of the public beta, my device just says, ios16.0, but not which beta this is. I'm on the public beta not the developer, but how can I check which beta am I on, I.e: 1, 2, 3, etc? Its the latest version of th beta, but how can I check which version it is?

By Holger Fiallo on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

Just installed the public beta 3 in my iPad 9 gen. No issues. I am using Evans voice. Was able to send messages, emoji works and VO reads them. No crashes at this time with messages and facebook. Looks good. It better, next week beta 6 or public beta 4 should be out. Will see about battery.

By Tyler on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

iOS 16 developer beta 5 is build 20A5339d, and I believe public beta 3 is the same. If this matches the build listed in Settings > General > About on your device, you're on the latest beta.

By Ray Rucker on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

I am having trouble opening the app switcher with VoiceOver using the gestures on the iPhone 12. Is anyone else having this issue?

By Julian on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

I'm hearing distortion on my iPhone SE-3. I've submitted feedback including a screen recording that has audio, hopefully that'll help the fine folks at Apple Accessibility to track it down and fix it. I do however appreciate that the crackling sounds have been eliminated, the high end has increased, and the entries made to the Pronunciation dictionary are now respected by Eloquence.

By Levi Gobin on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

It’s not just your iPhone SE3. It’s all devices. I was looking back at all the comments and saw that someone liked it that way. If it stays that way, I’ll be mad. I can’t even use it now. It’s so bad

By Kerby on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

Also, I noticed that when in the facebook app, Elequence doesn't read each post in your newsfeed unless you double-tap the post to get into the thread and then it'll read it while Alex is still reading everything as it should.

By Daniel Angus MacDonald on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

That was me who liked Eloquence the way it currently is in beta 5. Now, that I herd it read more things, notifications mainly, I agree with the majority of commenters who don’t. It sounds strange compared to eloquence on windows and Android. I cannot compare iOS with macOS Ventura, as my early 2015 mac isn’t supported.

By CuriousNetEntity on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 23:42

I installed iOS 16 public beta 3 yesterday. Now my preferred voice, Allison, sounds distorted and disgusting. I think the only voice that doesn't is the default female Siri. I am extremely intolerant of all distortion. I could hardly use iOs for years because of low quality Samantha being the only option. Previously, I rejected the newer Siri female voice, because although the sample sounded good, the actual voice has some slight distortion. Sounds like they are trying to make most voices sound like they are long-term smokers developing emphysema. I certainly will report my disgust, but wanted to know if it had anything to do with being on my old over-used iPhone 8. Seems not.

Glad the poor sound quality doesn't extend to my preferred VoiceDream Reader voice, because that is my main use of my old phone. Comparing the relative volume of VoiceDream Reader and VoiceOver, which previously was about the same, it is obvious that the new bad sound profile for VoiceOver also reduces it's volume.

I already reported that the VoiceOver screen for choosing 1 of the 5 Siri voices makes VO go so unresponsive it is almost totally unusable. Using a Siri voice doesn't make VO less responsive.