Introducing Envision Assistant Beta

I know that both the website and the app are quite new, but the website could have more written info about the app. The app itself is amazing though. I'll sign up for the beta soon. I have a question though: Why make a new app and not integrate this assistant thing into Envision AI? Also, when should we expect support for other languages to be implemented?

Got your reasons. I presume this app utilizes the same AI so it's something like a voice assistant version of Envision AI's newly-introduced "Ask Envision" feature. This is why I thought it could be better if integrated into Envision AI as a new feature.

It's all good though, especially given the fact that I have rarely had enough time to play around with all this stuff. Well not exactly, but for the most part I've been busy. But anyway, this is so cool and I hope it will remain free at least for now. I sort of wish somebody around here could take the time out of his or her busy day to work with me on this stuff, since I only have light perception and my aim isn't always great. But I guess that's just not to be. Lol such is life sometimes, right? In any case, this is great and I for one am so looking forward to trying out yet one more tool in the ever-expanding toolbox. Btw, I just listened to the demo and love it. Kinda reminds me of Carrot Weather, for those familiar with the app. I'm referring to the sarcasm.

I've signed up, the sarcasm is cool don't get me wrong but I think turning it off would be nice too.

What would you say the diffirences are between your assistant and BeMyEyes's BeMyAI feature?

Since you've been responding to everyone in person, you should've responded to my comment saying "Ask Envision" and "Envision Assistant" are technically the same and that they could be merged into one single thing. What's more important is that you've been resorting to manipulative advertising by making a false claim that Envision Assistant is the only app that can personalize the descriptions according to user demands. Yes, it's been so long since its first release, and my experience with not only the app but also the company has been quite problematic and I have already posted about that several times so I am not here to represent or defend anyone here, but you still can't deny the fact that FYE also does offer personalized descriptions and video descriptions, which, in theory, will be what makes it different from Be My AI once it finally starts to work properly. The app's developers have also been working on real-time image processing, so Envision Assistant is unfortunately not unique in that respect. Though I am aware of the fact that you will promote Envision Assistant not only as an image describer but also as a personal assistant and chat app thing, as the name already suggests. By the way, our applications should be "received" once we submit the beta form; not "recieved".

Hi!
It seems absolutely promising, fascinating, and proof that technology can increasingly boost my motivation to get into computer science. I'm more than willing to provide feedback on the app; I signed up some time ago as soon as the form opened. However, I'm not sure if I was supposed to receive a confirmation email as the user above mentioned, or if it's just a matter of time before they start sending out invitations.
Best regards.

I've registered for the beta and hope to get the chance to try it out soon! Thank you for sharing this with the AppleVis community, Karthik!

My name's Enes. I might've got what you meant wrong but this is what I thought when I read your post titled "Response to Brad". Even if wrong, it is your own words that made me conclude that you claimed that Envision Assistant would be unique as one that could be personalized. As for providing unbiased feedback, I am waiting for the invite for that, and hope you acknowledge that "negative" and "biased" are not necessarily the same, and just because I made a negative comment shouldn't mean I am more likely to have a biased approach. I am really looking forward to testing the app.

Hi Karthik. Thanks for reaching out here. I’ve just completed the access request form; really looking forward to checking it out.
Dave

Hi.
I received the welcome email, but I haven't received the other email mentioned with the link to the testflight.
Best regards.

I'm actually looking forward to testing the app. The personalisation sound so cool.

The app is great but I've never used Slack and am not sure I will install it, so I'll continue to provide feedback via e-mail or post on AppleVis if that's okay. Here's what attracted my attention so far:

1. VoiceOver says something like "Scrim" when I flick right once more after the Close button on the screen where I'm given advice on what to include in my biography or info. Also, the Next button there should be dimmed if nothing is entered in the text field. The keyboard doesn't work as expected in the text field either. Things like auto-capitalization can be considered minor details but they do make the experience smoother.
2. We should not have switch buttons on the voice selection screen. Instead, we should either only have the button to play the sample, or not even that, and instead have it as a rotor action.
3. On the settings screen, the "BIO AND PERSONALITY" and "VOICE" headings should be announced as headings by VoiceOver.
4. The app should remain free for the beta-testers even if you do happen to introduce something like a subscription or paid features in the future, to honor our contributions. Note that we will recommend the app to others as we continue to use it.

Hey there! I submitted the form to be a beta tester. This sounds really promising, and I'm really curious to give it a try. Good luck, and I'm looking forward to testing it out!

I just replied to the welcome message which I received, but I'm wondering if anyone else is being prompted for an activation code upon accepting the invitation? I ask because I haven't found a code, but I'm being prompted to enter one. I re-downloaded TestFlight on my phone.

Would you like feedback here or would you prefer it only in Slack? Although very obviously an early beta, this looks very promising. Great voices too.

Sadly it just says something went wrong. No other info to offer but I’d be happy to join and provide feedback.

I couldn't figure out who to get a hold of about this, so I hope the person from invision can help me out here. I am so used to using my gmail address for everything, so when it asked for my email address, I thought that was for email purposes, not my apple ID. my apple id is under a different email address. if someone can help me, my apple ID email address is actually jamminjerry@jjhof.com and not jamminjerry2011@gmail.com

The where are you from box isn't that accessible with screen reader users, it would be better as radio buttons or check boxes, at the moment it's just text.

I have access to the app, and it seems like a top top product, only thing was I never got a welcome email? I've seen a few people here mention Slack? How would I go about sorting that for any feedback purposes?
Cheers

I strongly disagree with the idea that beta testers should get free lifetime access to anything. Give us a discount, give us a free month or 2, perhaps pay for testing although I understand that may not be practical but we aren’t entitled to anything for giving feedback. These services are not cheap to run, I’m currently beta testing other offerings and I’m seriously concerned about continued funding for those once grants expire. As one of my favorite sci fi authors loved to say there aint no such thing as a free lunch.

Hi.
I received this email, not the invitation one. Anyway, Slack doesn't seem to be working correctly for me at the moment, as it's set up for @letsenvision.com emails only.
Best regards.

I love the options we have for voices!!!

Hi Enes,
As one of the folks testing the app myself, I'd strongly encourage you to give Slack an attempt. The platform has been very accessible so far, and a majority of communications take place through there, including users hashing out suggestions for concepts/features. I'd hate for you to miss out on that opportunity. Just my recommendation, though.

It’s not perfect but it’s more than usable. Having said that. My invitation doesn’t work which is a shame. I think this app is very promising. Obviously it’s rough around the edges but thats to be expected in an early beta.

I thought I made a reply here but I might not have.

It's the bradley brown email address, I prefer my gmail account for this kind of stuff.

If you can't do that, sorry for waisting an invite.

Well, this will mean I will actually have tried out two apps...

Agreed with the previous poster. I had a lot of trouble using JAWS 2024 in entering my location into the Edit field. I suspect that it really wasn't a standard HTML Edit field. A drop down list would work better. I acdtually have no idea how I got it to finally work, just persistence!

Anyway, sounds like a great idea and definitely the way to go in order to make interactions with AI more seamless and personalized. Looking forward to testing this out.

Thanks.

--Pete

I just installed it earlier today! I'm loving it so far. I'll be experimenting with changing personalities of the assistant to see what different responses I get. The only thing is, when I clicked the link to join Slack, it says my invite has been revoked. I did reply to the welcome email I got, so I'm sure they will respond in time. 😀

I just sign up the beta testing.
andI think it is a good one to let blind people livin independently

I haven't been able to do much with it yet, but it seems to work great. I love the voices and wonder where they're from. Additionally, I'll be trying out different personalities to see what happens. I currently have a bit of an intergalactic young lady called Rachel, who sounds a bit like that young woman on the Call Annie thingy. She did a great job describing one corner of my living room which happens to contain a blue yoga mat. How do I know it is blue? Well...I previously ran it through Seeing AI and then verified the result with a sighted neighbor. It's definitely a good time to be visually impaired these days! Btw, Slack didn't work that well for me either but I'll try it again.

Is this going to be on wearables? At the moment I think this is the USP that will make it stand out from chat GPT which, listening to the video, is just about the same thing. True, it's packaged slightly differently, but I'm not seeing much more tech here so it's the packaging that is going to make the difference.

Hi, I have been testing Envision for long
now I have temporarily abandoned it, or use it as a second alternative, because BeMyAI has become a more effective aid for my current needs. I have Envision Glasses too, despite I admit to find them somehow slow and not always effective.

What fascinates me most about this new Assistant is the possibility, as I heard on the site's video, that it might be used on any platform and hardware. Including computer and smartglasses of any brand, am I right? Did I understand it correctly?
Personalization, well, I would finally have my character talking to me!
I am writing some stories about a talking virus. And this is one more reason to play with the double meaning of the word "aids"
"Talking virus exists... prove me otherwise! Who do you think is talking to me? LOL"
No, seriously: before playing with characters, I'd like this one to work for what it's designed to work for.
Then, there's time to play! And clearly being careful about all privacy implications and stuff.

Hi,

Any timescales on receiving emails? Signed up yesterday and have absolutely nothing not even a welcome email. Appreciate you may have a lot to get through but was just wondering if say it would be this week for example.

receive anything that is. Was therefore starting to wonder if the sign-up process was somehow falty...

Thanks for the other link to the Slack channel. I just posted my first message on there, and it looks pretty good in terms of accessibility on the Mac with VoiceOver. I'll post on there again as time permits.

Your beta sign up form won't accept anything I type in the "where are you from?" field.
I've tried Canada, Ontario Canada, North America, the world, the milky way LOL

I've tried filling out the form with both the latest versions of Jaws and NVDA, and using both Firefox and Chrome. Please advise.

Yep filling out that part of the form was a pain as Lottie says a lot of arrows. Oddly I don't know how I eventually got a full list of countries. At first it was just blank then suddenly they all appeared. UK JAWS Windows 10. Alt+down arrow didn't seem to open a dropdown but maybe it did.

Hopefully it gets fixed or improved.

I have the app and it's interesting.

I believe the voices are 11lab voices so I'd not be surprised if you'd have to pay monthly for the app.

I think it helps to know that the field isn’t just an edit box. It’s a search field. You type the start of your location then the results are where you actually select the location from. I went round in circles a few times too trying to type the location and not understanding why it didn’t work. Hope that helps.

Well, so far, nothing I type causes anything to happen that I can tell. I'll play with it some more.

You'd think a company used to working with blind people would... oh never mind. LOL

Ok after what Andy said I revisited the form. So, in the location field type say the first 2 letters of where you are. So, for me un for United Kingdom then press tab. This takes you to the next form field or at least on windows using jaws then come out of forms mode and arrow up for UK as it has the entire world in a list and the UK is near the bottom once you find your country just press enter. That worked perfectly for me.

I was excited to get the email so installed and it and started up. Not had much time to play with it. The voices are incredible - all I would say is that there is a bewildering amount of them and they don't seem to be in any particular order. It would be nice to be able to browse just the British voices, for example. Maybe group by country then have headings to jump down?

Looks promising so far. I like being able to personalise it. And being able to quickly jump in with a photo or voice was nice. Although once I had asked a question about my room the end conversation button didn't seem to work so I had to quit the app.

My only problem with this sort of app is usually I go bunny in the headlights when presented with a "just ask me anything" prompt.