Voiceover stuttering in iOS 17

I reported this to Apple several times, also sending screen recordings, diagnostic files, etc. It doesn't seem like Apple is interested in it that much, despite myself, I stopped continuing to report.

The first thing I noticed when I updated my test iPhone to the iOS 17 beta was a Voiceover stuttering issue. I reported it several times in Feedback, including screen recordings and detail descriptions. Apple still has not fixed it. It’s a super annoying issue, and is keeping me from updating my main iPhone to iOS 17. I just updated my Mac to Mac OS 14 and voiceover seems to stutter there as well. I already regret updating the Mac. I hope Apple fixes this soon because it’s a super frustrating issue and if not addressed, will keep me on iOS 16 for as long as possible.

The one good thing about macOS is the ability to downgrade. Pain in the ass, but it's available to Mac users.

Now if only Apple would allow iOS and iPadOS users the same luxury.

I just updated to iOS 17.3 from iOS 16.7 today. I have to say that I am very much regretting that decision. This extremely annoying bug that pertains to voiceover speech stuttering is now experienced on my phone too. I’m just amazed that I haven’t really seen this mentioned or talked about much when other bugs of iOS 17 have been discussed. However, once I began encountering this bug, I ran a quick Google search and this page was the first result in the list. I so wish I had somehow seen this earlier. I would've never updated. I just don't know why this has not been added to the bug tracker, nor mentioned at any point in the list of bugs that are mentioned in blog posts notifying everyone of iOS version releases. I understand that not everyone may be experiencing it, but this page, along with some others on this very website show that this definitely a bug. If the Applevis team already mentions other intermittent bugs anyway, this should be right up there in the "Major bugs" list. My question is, has the stuttering issue been this bad in prior versions of iOS 17 as well? Or did I just get extremely unlucky that when I did ultimately decide to take the plunge and update, I was hit with a release in which this bug is more prevalent and pronounced than ever before? I’ve tried tweaking speech settings and restarting my phone and things of that nature, but nothing seems to help. It is super annoying and I’m not sure how I’m going to get used to this. I hope someone has a workaround to make it better somehow. It’s extremely noticeable when using Safari to navigate webpages, swiping through news feed items in apps like Facebook, swiping through emails in the Mail app, swiping through available updates in the App Store app, swiping through messages in the Messages app, etc. However, I have noticed that it is extremely random and seems to crop up all across iOS at various points, on various screens. Even within the iOS settings app.
Just to mention, I am using the Samantha voice, the standard one. Not the enhanced voice. And I would prefer to continue using that rather than having to switch to a different voice.
That said, I did switch to a different voice to check and encountered the same bug. I also wonder if this is one of those device/model specific bugs since I don't see many people talking about it. I would think that there are a lot of us who are iPhone SE (3rd Generation) users, but still, just wanted to throw that out there too.

This bug needs to be reported as much as possible to Apple Accessibility. The only way I see that this ever even gets acknowledged and potentially fixed is, if it gets reported again and again. So I request all those who are experiencing this bug to report it to Apple Accessibility again. I feel that based on this last iOS 17.3 release, where there were were no existing bugs addressed (as per the Applevis team's post), Apple Accessibility needs to be reminded that bugs very much exist and they need to take them up with the relevant teams for resolution. This one needs to be right up there. I also think that the Applevis team needs to acknowledge this bug and add it to the bug tracker and also report it to Apple Accessibility. This is a major/significant bug, and it is being encountered by enough users to warrant that.

I tried to report it, also doing screen recordings etc. The problem is that even many blind people don't realize the problem. Let's hope they resolve it sooner or later.
I can confirm that the problem is not only present on the iPhone SE, but also very famous models, such as the iPhone 15 pro, have it. So I have an idea that it's in all models. Only, for example, this friend of mine doesn't realize it. This is noticeable for example when flicking in the file app, where VO has to read slightly long parts.

If it can't be reproduced how do you expect it will get fixed? I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm saying You haven't given a clear set of instructions of when I do 1 than I do 2 than I do 3 filling in the steps It happens. Without steps to reproduce it it is very hard to fix.

Apple need to pay for thereapy for VO.

Hi Dennis, I provided some information to Apple on how to reproduce the bug. Here they are:
1. Open an app where VO has to read fairly long texts, for example the Files app, or the Google News app, where there are various news articles.
2. Flick quickly between one news item and another, or between one file and another, without waiting for VO to finish reading the previous one.
3. You will hear a stutter in almost all voices, except Siri's. That is, VO before pronouncing the news or the next file will pronounce a syllable of the previous news.

Does not happen with Siri voices?

Using the Italian Siri voice, I don't hear any stuttering when I follow the described procedure. But with all the other voices, including Eloquence, yes.

I have been using Siri Voice 1 (US) since iOS 17. Never experienced the stutter. And now I know why. 😅

Actually, I just tried the English Siri voices and unfortunately, the bug is there with those as well. I tried the US English Siri voices initially. Then tried Australian English, South African English,. tried both,, the regular voices and the Siri voices for all of them. No change.

Ok, so I made a screen recording where I go crazy on the Audible mobile site on my iPhone. Using iOS 17.3, Siri Voice 1 (US), on an iPhone SE2.

Enjoy.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/01cnDCHusMo4pbSoNRiVfFWRQ

I do not notice the stutter. If you all do, then your hearing acuity is far better than my own. 😅

That's right Brian, I also don't hear any stuttering in your audio. If it can be useful to you, I can send you an example of stuttering with other voices.

Sure. Whatever's clever. 👍🏼

Sadly, it doesn't seem like anyone at Apple Accessibility is willing to even acknowledge this bug, even though I have been on the phone with them multiple times and even sent screen recordings. Apparently they can't "hear" the distortion/stutter in the recordings. According to them, I, the user, is navigating too fast. I have sent them recordings with speech rate set to 30% to 35% as well as the normal rate that I use it at; 80% to 85%.
Note that these people who are answering calls at the Apple Accessibility line are sighted.

For the record, I have been using Voiceover since iPhone 3GS came out, and I did not encounter this bug up until I put this stupid iOS 17.3 release on my phone last week (I was on iOS 16.7 prior to this). It would make more sense if Apple actually put Voiceover users on this Apple Accessibility line rather than non-Voiceover users who have no clue as to how Voiceover is supposed to behave, what the expectations are and what we, as dedicated Voiceover users are hearing.
They did not even want to send it forward for an engineer to look at because they couldn't identify it as a bug.

It is one of the most frustrating responses I have ever received to such a significant bug; how will it even get looked at if it isn't even being sent forward? We are all encouraging each other to report this, report that, no matter what, all the time on this site. Yet the people that we are reporting this to are just picking and choosing what they do or don't want to send forward.

All that said, I would still encourage all who are experiencing this bug, to still report it. The more it keeps getting reported/coming up in their records, the more they are going to feel compelled to look at it. Also, I am in no way discouraging anyone from contacting Apple Accessibility. I am just sharing my experience. I am sure others experience has been and will be better than mine.

This may be why they don't quite get it. Still, it shouldn't be difficult to find or somehow make a screen recording on some older version of iOS and sending it along with the iOS 17 recording for comparison.
* Note: The problem occurs on my iPhone SE3/3rd generation, AKA SE 2022, with Siri 1 (US English).

For what it's worth, I also reported this on both iOS and Mac a couple months ago. I think it appeared for me at the end of iOS 16's release cycle.

Best
Malthe

Hello. I’ve been heavily invested in trying to help Apple fix this issue and wanted to give an update. I recently sent Apple two screen recordings of me performing the same exact interaction on two different iPhones. One was running the latest version of iOS 17 and the other was running The last public version of iOS 16. On the iOS 17 example, you could clearly hear the stuttering and distortion in Voiceover speech as I move around the screen using flick gestures. I also included log files from the iOS 17 device for reference. Apple acknowledged receipt of my videos and log files, and said that the report would be passed along to the engineering and software development teams for investigation. Hopefully, this issue will finally get fixed. While the VoiceOver speech distortion is still present in iOS 17.4, I am hoping that The problem will be addressed in the iOS 17.5 beta’s. I will drop an update here if anything changes or if I discover that the issue was fixed.

I use that voice and haven't noticed any stutttering.

I've just updated to ios 17.4 if that makes a diffirence, if i can reproduce the issue; I'll report it.

I can't say I've experienced it, can someone put a recording up here to hear what we're looking out for?

I might have heard a very very sslight clicky sound when flicking to one article but I don't think there's much that can be done there apart from perhaps upgrading the speakers but I'm honestly not sure.

On the upside for me; I now have a great news app, it's really easy to work with.

I am glad to hear that another one of us was persistent enough to go through all the steps and do whatever they could to get the information to Apple Accessibility, and at least get them to forward it to the relevant developers/engineers to at least look at. That itself is a huge issue in itself, when people at the front-end at Apple Accessibility fail to recognize that there is an actual bug and enough people are experiencing it (even if they don't seem to experience it or hear it in our recordings).
I was disappointed to see that this was not fixed in iOS 17.4, since I reported this when I first experienced this in iOS 17.3 (after updating from iOS 16). I got the same response that you did from Apple's end (eventually, after a very tedious and arduous few calls and emails to convince Apple Accessibility to register the bug complaint and at least send it forward). Believe me, I heard all sorts of denials and excuses like, this is not getting approved by my supervisor, so I can't send it forward. Unless the supervisor approves it, there is absolutely no way I can send it along. They'll yell at me if I try to talk to them. I can't hear it. You're just probably flicking through too quickly, and so on. The recordings aren't sufficient. There is nothing wrong here. Everything is as expected. Blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, here's to hoping that yet another successful bug report submission pushes them to look into this and fix this bug in the next 17.X update.

Yes this happens with all US English voices, Alex included.

Just to keep everyone updated, iOS 17.4.1 was released to the public today. After some brief testing, I can confirm that the Voiceover stutter/distortion issue still exists. However, I am noticing that it seems to be a bit less prominent in this version. It definitely still occurs, but seemingly less frequently. For example, as I write this post, there were only four or five times where voiceover stuttered as I moved focus between the different sections of the comment form. The last time I wrote a post here, voiceover stuttered on almost every other swipe. Hopefully, Apple is making progress on fixing this issue. I will update here again if anything changes. I encourage everyone to comment about their own experience to help determine if my observed improvement is localized to my specific device or is more widespread.

I use Alex so I can't vouch for any other voice, is it how fast you're flicking around on a screen? Granted, my phone can get a bit warm when I just do things to fast for it to catch up with me. I guess I just expect almost instant gratification and yet I also managed to take two blurry photos because voice over just didn't want to speak. I'm just asking if this is part or a way of reproducing the problem.

My wife's Honda 2013 CRV had a problem in third gear where it felt like the whole chassis of the car was vibrating. She brought it in to the dealership twice, described the problem both times, and both times they were unable to reproduce the problem. Finally, she asked to speak to a manager. He immediately recognized the problem as a software issue in the transmission control. Their database had it listed as "juddering," and explicitly stated that if the customer did not report ""juddering," do not apply the software upgrade to the transmission.

Why do I mention this? Because we have a whole discussion here about stuttering, but I've never heard my phone stutter.

Since upgrading to iOS 17 (and also MacOS Sonoma),, I've heard VoiceOver make a raspberries sound when I interrupt it, the same kind of sound you might get from sticking your tongue between your lips and blowing. Is this what you folks are calling stuttering?

I never hear VoiceOver say anything like "N-n-n-n-new line," for example. That would be stuttering.

I would probably express it as "the last few miliseconds of the previous phrase replaying right before we command VoiceOver to speak the next one, and audible pops".

It appears that this happens dependent on two things, the voice, and the speech rate of said voice. Of course, each voice can handle higher rates differently. From what little bit of testing I have done, I seem to do OK at 60 to 65% speech rate on voices like Alex, Samantha, Siri voices 1 and 4, Karen, and finally Zoe. Anything above 65 on the other hand, sounds like they are trying to speak underwater.

Hth. 😃

I think that it is true to say that the sound we are all hearing is not really a stutter. I just haven’t been sure of what to call it. It is a crackling/ hiccup/ popping/ distortion that occurs when voiceover focus is moved from one item to another. After doing some testing with two different devices, one running iOS 17, and the other running iOS 16, I discovered something that I wonder if is related to this issue. The Voiceover touch response time seems to be a split second faster in iOS 17 than it is in iOS 16. In other words, the duration of time between a screen touch and voiceover speech response seems the slightest bit faster in iOS 17. I’m wondering if this has something to do with the speech distortion problem. Maybe that split second faster response time is causing Voiceover to jump too quickly from the previously focused item, causing a partial syllable of the previous word to be spoken, which leads to that popping sound. I hope I explained this clearly enough. This is just a complete guess but I thought it would be worth sharing anyway.

The experience with my wife's car taught me that people who receive problem reports can be pretty disingenious. We've got to make sure Apple hears what we're hearing, and I think someone has already submitted A and B sound recordings to show the difference.

Geez, I'm hearing this bug as I type on Sonoma 14.4 with typing echo set to announce characters. Just type at a comfortable pace, and every letter sounds like it's being spat rather than pronounced.

I used to have enough eyesight to look at waveforms. I wonder what this sound issue would look like if we loaded it into Audacity and blew it up. If sounds like two waveforms spliced together with no attempt to blend, a sound sample at the apex of the wave followed immediately by a sample at the valley. Enes Deniz probably knows more about this than I do.

Either it's gone for me or I just push past it, I think it's gone though, I don't hear the clicks and pops anymore.

It was very rare for me, I hear Alex whistling a lot more but I'm used to it, I hope they upgrade it in ios 18 to fix this but we know how apple are when it comes to this stuff.

Sometimes this happens on windows, for example when getting a new laptop, and you have to either update the drivers, change them, or turn off some sound settings.

Can you do a similare thing with the mac?

I think I get what you're referring to. I'm totally blind, but can guess how audio editind software would display a visual representation of such choppy speech, broken syllables and the voices cutting off.

Hello, I wanted to give a brief update on this issue. After installing and exploring the first beta of iOS 17.5, I was disappointed to find that the voiceover speech distortion is still very much present. VoiceOver speech is still choppy when quickly moving focus from one item to another, or when interrupting voiceover before speech is fully finished. This is becoming very frustrating. I get the impression that Apple is having a hard time understanding this issue. I plan to continue reporting it in hopes of a future resolution.

I will not upgrade to iOS 17 until I know this issue is fixed.

Someone mentioned that perhaps the touch response time is set lower in 17 than in 16? I thought there was a way to change this somewhere; if so, then perhaps setting a longer touch response time would fix the issue.

The only thing you can change is the double tap timeout, going to settings, accessibility, VoiceOver, the last item at the bottom, and increasing it to 1 second, for example. This partially fixes double taps triggering things you don't want, but the stuttering remains. In my experience it was already present in ios 16.7, so for this reason I didn't stay on ios 16.

13 pro and iOS 17.4.1. Lucky me.

I spent some time playing around with all the voiceover speech and audio settings. I even tried almost every available voice. No combination of settings changes had any affect on the speech distortion issue. I refuse to update to iOS 17 until this is fixed. I know some people say that the issue started in the later versions of iOS 16, but I am running iOS 16.7.2 and voiceover speech is perfectly fine. I guess everyone’s mileage varies.

Hi,
I am running iOS 17.2.1 on an iPhone SE three. I use Samantha (standard) at about 65 or 70. I am not experiencing this bug, but from what I’ve read, I don’t want to, so I’m not updating. I used to update my wife’s phone and check things out on it, but she has a 7+ and therefore is stuck on iOS 15.8. On a recent call to Apple accessibility I asked about this, and as many have said, they’ve never heard of it. I would be interested in hearing a recording demonstrating it. I tried to access Brian‘s recording from the entry posted on January 24, but it said I did not have permission to access it.
Thanks.
Gary

See if this works for you. Note, that this recording does not demonstrate stuttering, but rather demonstrates how the voices are "supposed to "sound. 😃

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/043g62R8KJ0Pv2DJsAHwOs2hg#RPReplay_Final1706116553

I was able to play the recording. Now I’d like to hear the recording with the problem.
Thanks.
Gary.

Hi, I also wrote it in the topic on IOs 18 beta, but I'll repeat it here too. The problem was solved with the beta, and in fact it is something that made me very happy, because many blind people didn't notice it, so it was difficult for me to explain it. Luckily Apple seems to have understood and solved it. Blessed Ios 18!

Glad they finally fixed it for the next iOS. I know a lot of people were getting sick of that particular bug.

Unfortunately, I do not have any recordings of the stutter, as I never experienced it on my end. Sorry.

Hi. I haven't exactly experienced stuttering VoiceOver, but on occasion it will just stop dead in its tracks. If I wait about 30 seconds it seems to pick up where it left off. But as I say this hasn't happened to me much. I'm using an iPhone 14. I now have a pair of Jabra hearing aids, and something I have experienced a few times is VoiceOver cutting in and out when blue-tooth is on and I get speech through the hearing aids. The hearing aids themselves are working great though, but I don't want to stray off topic with this.