Issues with Low VoiceOver Volume on Apple Watch Series 1 when Using Bluetooth Earbuds

By Fingertips65, 30 June, 2017

Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

Hi guys,

My name is Jon and I live in the UK. I'm registered completely blind and have a hearing disorder and so am also registered partially deaf.

I've always been extremely happy with the 5 iPhones I've bought over the past several years, and have always been impressed how seriously Apple takes the matter of accessibility.

Just a couple of days ago, I took the plunge and bought the series 1 Apple Watch. On the whole, I absolutely love it! But there are one or two things that as a deafblind person makes certain aspects not so enjoyable.

While using my hearing aids and having Voice Over activated on my watch, increasing Voice Over's output to the highest possible rate works really well. However, living in the UK, if I switch the language and region to UK, I find it very difficult to hear/understand what Daniel is saying. So I have the language/region set to the USA, and I find Samantha's voice much easier to follow/understand.

It would be extremely helpful if Apple made it possible to download the higher quality voices to the Apple Watch, maybe that'll come in due time? I hope so.

I've paired my bluetooth earbuds to my Watch, the volume of course is on the highest on my Watch, and even after having made sure my earbuds are at top volume as well, the output volume of Voice Over from my Watch is disappointingly low.

In very quiet settings it's manageable, but the slightest background disturbance means I can't hear Voice Over properly.

Does anyone else have this issue with low output when using bluetooth earbuds? The ones I'm using are manufactured by Bludio, and on everything else I've used them on, the output is really really good. It's just on the Watch I'm having this volume issue.

Best wishes to all,

Jon

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Comments

By slj on Friday, July 21, 2017 - 22:11

Hi Jon.
I'm glad to hear that you like the watch. I have the very first watch, which is extremely slow, so I'm thinking about upgrading to the new series 1. Having a watch which is that slow does not work well with Voiceover, so I'm not using it much accept for checking the time and how active I am each day. I totally agree that it would be great if the high premium voices could be installed as well, but I don't know if the watches are powerful enough to run those voices.
Regarding Bluetooth and especially regarding to hearing aids, my recommendation is to contact Jonathan Mosen. I don't know him personally and I'm not sure on if he is on this forum, but he is from the UK as well, are using hearing aids and he have a lot of experiences by hooking up Bluetooth devices with the watch. He's website is:
http://mosen.org
Where you can find his contact information.

By Fingertips65 on Friday, July 21, 2017 - 22:11

In reply to by slj

Hi there, thanks for your reply, and I'm sorry for my late reply.
Yes I am sort of in touch with Jonathan Mosen, so will contact him as suggested, thank you!
Thanks again, best wishes,
Jon