Eloquence and iPhone 14 Woes

By Kylee, 3 March, 2023

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Kia ora. I just bought a new iPhone 14 and, wishing to try Eloquence I selected a US voice. Then, deciding I wished to try a new British one of which I'd never heard I switched to Flo. Unfortunately, this has rendered my speech unintelligible. It sounds like the rate is on 100% and I can't now use my phone because I can't understand a word the thing is saying. Braille isn't an option either as I hadn't even gotten around to trying to pair my Mantis as yet (it's been hard enough trying unsuccessfully to pair my hearing-aids). I've tried turning VoiceOver off and on again, and rebooted the phone, to no avail. I apologise if this has already been covered elswewhere but it does not appear that this forum is searchable. Thank you in advance of any help., Nga mihi, Kylee

Options

Comments

By Devin Prater on Friday, March 24, 2023 - 01:34

If you have speaking rate in your rotor, turn the rotor and flick down until you get to speaking rate. Flow is ... I guess, supposed to be a fast voice. They could have put that in the name, though.

By Kylee on Friday, March 24, 2023 - 01:34

Hi, Devin. Thanks for your reply. However, as I said the speech is now unintelligible so I can't tell what the rota is saying. Literally, all I can do is unlock the phone. I think a call to Apple will be in order. I think they may be able to share my screen and help me out of this bind. Cheers, Kylee

By Gar on Friday, March 24, 2023 - 01:34

Kylee,
This may be a bit over the top, but you obviously have a second device you can use. Have you thought about using it to record what voiceover is saying and navigating to voiceover settings that way? In most audio editors, you can slow down the rate of playback in some form.
If not, you may be able to do something through iTunes, though this is a feature I haven't tried myself.
The other solution as was already mentioned is the rotor. You may not be able to hear it, but I'm like 90% sure that speech rate is a default option. Try the rotor turn gesture, then swipe down a couple times. If nothing happens, turn and repeat.
I believe the default rotor setup is
Characters
Words
Speech rate
Containers
Headings
Actions
At least if you're in a place like the lock or home screen.
Hope this helps.

By Kylee on Friday, March 24, 2023 - 01:34

Kia ora, all. I phoned Apple (on my landline) and a lovely young man named Jeffrey shared my phone screen and, laboriously (as he had to have me flick slowly right one button at a time so he could see which button was selected), got it sorted out. I had to reduce Flo to about 45% to make her intelligible so chose another voice. Thank you for all your help. Now to get my hearing aids to connect. (Sighs ruefully). Nga mihi, Kylee