Audio Ducking; what is the logic now?

By Mister Kayne, 2 December, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

With the new IOS 18.1.1 update or earlier, IOS allows you to set when audio ducking should work and it also allows you to choose the volume for Voice Over when audio ducking is running. Generally, I have my VO volume set to 60% and noticed I can manipulate the VO volume with the media volume by pressing the physical volume buttons on the phone.

Now that we have a separate setting for VO volume under audio ducking settings, it changes the default volume of VO by which I mean globally. What does 100% volume or higher mean if set under audio ducking? What is the logic.

Here is what I think, when audio ducking is enabled while speaking VO volume should be 100% higher than the media volume. Otherwise it should be at the volume set for VO i.e. in my case 60%

So now that I got you all confused, in a scenario where I am on a call and the damn IVR puts me on hold playing some really loud music, I should still be able to use my phone with VO. But this will not happen as the hold music volume is not suppressed for me to hear VO speak.

Then again what is the logic of audio ducking and having a volume adjuster for VO under audio ducking? OR is this feature broken altogether after the update?
iPhone 12 IOS 18.1.1

Options

Comments

By Mister Kayne on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

For some reasons line breaks do not happen when posting or commenting. The above post has paragraphs and I used the enter key to insert line breaks separating the paragraphs but that did not work and the whole post is a chunk of continuous text. My English literature teacher would be rolling in her grave with disgust!

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

If there was logic, Apple do what logical be regarding fixing bugs but is about "The Money". It was not broken before, yes people cry that it could be better but not broken. It work well for me since it was created, now apple broke it to fix something that it was not broken. NUTS/.

By Mister Kayne on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

To the gentleman who felt that I am complaining and feel that the feature is not broken. I would like to tell you that the feature is not working as it should on my device. Hence, I claim it to be broken. Thank you for understanding as this is a very frustrating experience for a blind person to be kept on hold with loud hold music and no way to interact with his phone

By Mister Kayne on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

The lovely folks have already covered the new audio ducking feature on iOS 18 on the website search for it in the podcasts and I have understood how it is supposed to be working, but it doesn’t work the way it should

By Dennis Long on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

This will be fixed in 18.2 you have to add ducking amount to your rotor. It works a little different but it is the same concept.

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

Well I tried to respond about broken but applevis took it out and well. Since they own it they can do so. Just stated that and mostly told Denis that he needed to relax. This probably will be also taking out.

By Igna Triay on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

No one took your comment off man. If your talking in this thread its still here. Now if your talking about another thread... Maybe but I doubt it. People here don't just remove comments just because. I mean if your beeing overly harsh or using strong language... I can see them doing that but, otherwise? Not a thing here. I've not seen it happen once. Whenever a comment get's removed, there's a reason behind it. I.e, harshness, strong language, etc. That, and the, oh they removed my comment! Is not an accusation that should be thrown around lightly.

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

OK. Saw email from applevis. Did not read it not much sleep since Saturday.

By Igna Triay on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

That could've been because your subscribed to the thread, not necessarily for comment removal.

By Michael Hansen on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi all,

From time to time, it is necessary for the moderators to remove content that does not comply with our posting guidelines.

If a comment is removed due to being outside of our guidelines, we will email the author privately. We won't post here that a comment was removed, as we don't want to publicly shame or call anyone out.

If one of your posts/comments is removed, please check your email for a message from our team. If you have any questions, please reach out via our Contact Form.

By AnonyMouse on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Mr. Cane, The current implementation of Audio Ducking in iOS 18.1.1 is admittedly confusing. Adjusting VoiceOver relative to media requires setting values above 100%. For instance, to reduce media volume by 80%, you need to set it to 180%, which understandably feels counterintuitive.

The good news is that iOS 18.2 simplifies this. In the new version, you’ll be able to set the value directly—e.g., setting it to 80% will reduce the media by 80%, making it much easier to understand and use.

Additionally, you’re not alone in experiencing issues with Audio Ducking in iOS 18.1.1. Several users on AppleVis have reported that it doesn’t work properly even when turned on. Fortunately, this bug appears to be fixed in iOS 18.2, along with other accessibility improvements.

Once iOS 18.2 is released, I recommend updating, as it should resolve these Audio Ducking issues and improve your overall experience.

I hope this answers your question!

By TheBllindGuy07 on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

I will also tells that the moderator team is incredible now and for good or bad :) I am more familiar with Michael than I should be 😂
For me I am on 18.2 on my iphone and although the actual volume bug with the rotor is fixed (on 18.1 it was simply impossible to change volume no matter your settings for ducking) the actual audio ducking still doesn't seem to work for me and I tried all the possible variants of the settings. But currently it's the least of my issue as I stopped using audio ducking since like 2017 or so :) I hope other people have different experiences than mine. (after reboots of both the phone and voiceover)

By Dennis Long on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

I agree the audio ducking appears solved in 18.2 I also agree its broken in 18.1.

By Mister Kayne on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

appreciate the support and understanding, as stated this issue has been fixed/ addressed in IOS 18.2 I will wait for the update and hope that it starts to work like it did earlier. Thank you all for your support and understanding, have a good one!

By Mister Kayne on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

So glad to have seen your comment here. You need to read my screen name by letter navigation Mister is spelt as Mister not the abbreviation and Kayne is not spelt with a C it is spelt as K A Y N E and usually by many pronounced as Kanye I believe he is a singer named Kanye West. Have a good one!

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

Think the RC should be out this week, maybe today so if you want to have one week earlier iOS 18.2 get the RC, it would be the same as the public version for all for next week. Using 16 pro max and it worked well. Last Saturday play with GPT and was nice VO did not affect it and siri was able to read the result well. Also friend played with playground and did not heat the phone. She is sighted so do not know if is accessible.

By Brian on Monday, December 2, 2024 - 23:12

I'll gladly download the RC if it means that line by line reading is fixed. They did not just break it in Notes, as originally reported, but it is broken in many interfaces/applications, and it annoys. 😠

By Mister Kayne on Monday, January 27, 2025 - 11:12

When music, video is playing audio ducking works like a charm but when on a call and have to listen to the loudest hold songs like from apple and other banking services audio ducking suddenly is not working. I have set audio ducking to suppress the media sound by 80% which is a fair enough amount. However, does not work when on call and hold music is playing. Anyone else experiencing this? Call apple support from the support application to experiment. I am on IOS 18.2.1 now