Can't get my head around Zephyr

By Krister Ekstrom, 24 May, 2013

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Hi, So upon recommendations from other Applevis users i downloaded and installed Zephyr, but i can for the life of me not understand how this app works, furthermore how this thing works with Voiceover. It seems no matter how much i swipe and do strange things, it just won't close apps or switch between them. Sometimes it clashes with voiceover gestures, but not always. I was trying to go back with the scrub gesture of VO in an app, and the app closed on me. Other times even though i swipe in any direction with or without holding my finger on the screen for the bypass sound, nothing works. Can someone explain to this dumb newbie how this all works? Thanks in advance.

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By Robert A.M. on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - 09:02

Hi There, You don't need to hold your finger down and wait for the ascending sound to use Zephyr with VoiceOver. Remember that, to switch from one app to another, you need to begin the swipe from the right or left edge of the screen, if you swipe from the center nothing will happen. First, I recommend that you go into the Zephyr settings inside the Settings App and configure it carefully: 1. Choose Zephyr gestures that will not interfere with the VoiceOver gestures you use most often. I use a 1-finger swipe to switch between apps and two fingers to swipe up from the bottom to dismiss an app or activate the app switcher. 2. You can select how sensitive you want Zephyr to be to your gestures, in other words, how close to the edge of the screen you need to begin the swipe for Zephyr to detect it. I Suggest you use a low sensitivity to keep you from activating Zephyr accidentally. 3. You can set the area of the screen where you want Zephyr to work when swiping between apps. I only have the top third selected for the same reason. Hope this helps!

Hi, building on what Robert has said, basically Zephyr has two main components: 1) Swipe from the side of the screen. 2) Swipe from the bottom of the screen. In both cases you can go into settings and choose how many fingers you want to use for the gesture. Swiping in from the side of the screen moves you quickly between open apps, rather than having to go into the app switcher. By default it is set to one finger, but if you find you're switching apps by accident all the time when you're just trying to do the VoiceOver flick left or right gesture, then you could set Zephyr to two or three fingers and you'll remove that conflict. Personally I like to be able to use my phone with one hand as much as possible, so I set it to one finger. However, in settings, I have set Zephyr to only the bottom quarter of the screen. To close an app simply flick or slide up from the bottom of the screen. Again it's set to one finger by default, which is how I like it, but you can change it as it suits you. If you're on the home screen, a swipe up from the bottom of the screen will open the app switcher. You can also open the app switcher from when you have an app open. Instead of swiping up quickly which will close the app, just slide up slowly and stop after about a centimetre and hold for a second. This last one can be a bit trickier than the others but you'll get used to it. I find Zephyr very intuitive and natural once I got used to it being there. Hope this helps.

Hi and thanks to everyone who helped me out with Zephyr. This thing could indeed be very useful. One more question though, you can't go from springboard to an app that's not visible right? I've tried this and it's not really working. Sometimes it does and somtimes the app switcher opens, and other times nothing happens, that's why i am a bit confused now. Otherwise things work ok with Zephyr. Now to get my head around the activator thing, there's soooooo many settings and so much alternatives, but that's for another thread. Thanks all.

By Robert A.M. on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - 09:02

Hi, No problem, glad to help! No, you can't use Zephyr to open an app from the Springboard but it can easily be done by setting an Activator Gesture to open a specific app. Regards!