Hello, I was trying to do a screen recording today to show somebody how to do something with Voiceover. Unfortunately I realized that now in iOS 12 there is no way I could think of to make such a screen recording which includes what Voiceover is speaking. This used to be not easy in iOS 11, either, but it could be accomplished by using a Bluetooth or wired external speaker. Now Voiceover is switched to the Earpiece of the phone where even at full volume it can be barely heard and even though with a Bluetooth speaker Voiceover was speaking loud and clear via the Bluetooth speaker, nothing was picked up by the microphone. My own voice could be heard as I was explaining my gestures, but nothing else.
I would really appreciate it if others who have newer phones than me could test this to see if they get the same result. I have a 6S Plus so if people with an iPhone 7, 8, XS or XR could do some testing that would be great. Please make sure you flick down on the Screen Recording icon in Control Centre to Adjust controls and make sure the microphone is turned on before starting. Then try it with just the phone and see if Voiceover remains on the external speaker or switches to the Earpiece and also try it with a Bluetooth speaker or wired external speaker. Below is a message I just wrote to Apple Accessibility regarding this. If your findings match mine please also send a message and feel free to use all or part of my message. Screen recordings which include Voiceover speech can be really useful and they used to work. This way if you encounter an app with unlabeled buttons or other elements which are not spoken correctly by Voiceover you can easily make a demo and send it to the developer to show them. OK, here now is my message: Hello, I'd like to point out what I consider a substantial bug with the Screen Recording feature. If this is not considered a bug then I think it's a big feature omission which should be addressed especially since it used to be different. Here is the problem: If I, as a Voiceover user, start a screen recording with the microphone enabled Voiceover disappears or, to be more exact, it is banished to the earpiece where it can be barely heard. Not only does this make it difficult for a blind user to navigate and perform gestures on the phone, but it also means that only what I say is recorded, whatever Voiceover speaks or does not speak is not captured on the screen recording video. As I said, this used to be different. When screen recording was first introduced as a feature Voiceover continued to speak on the external speaker and what was spoken was captured on the video. This allowed a blind person to demonstrate accessibility issues in apps or iOS itself. If, for example, certain buttons were only spoken as "button" without a description as to their purpose I could have made a screen recording to demonstrate this and then sent the recording to the developer asking if the problem could be fixed in a future update. In iOS 11 or at least the last time I used screen recording for this purpose which I am pretty sure was in iOS 11, I could still accomplish this by connecting to a Bluetooth speaker, the audio would remain on the Bluetooth speaker and would be captured on the video. Today I wanted to make a screen recording to show somebody how to do something in an app and while Voiceover continued to speak via the Bluetooth speaker, after I finished and played back the video I heard my own voice as I was explaining the gestures I performed, but there was no trace of Voiceover which really baffles me because all along Voiceover could be heard loud and clear via the Bluetooth speaker. How is it possible that my voice which is an external sound is recorded, but Voiceover coming from the Bluetooth speaker, also an external sound, was not picked up by the microphone? I use an iPhone 6S Plus so after this didn't work with a Bluetooth speaker I used a wired speaker and plugged it into the 3.5mm audio jack of my iPhone. Once again Voiceover came from the speaker loud and clear. I started the screen recording and made sure that microphone was turned on. After I finished I played back the video only to find that again I could be heard clearly but Voiceover could not be heard at all. I don't have access to other phones such as an iPhone 7, 8 or higher to see if screen recording behaves differently, but I would really like to urge Apple to consider to make screen recording once again accessible and, what is equally important, useful for a visually impaired user with respect to making a demo which includes what Voiceover speaks. Best regards, Sieghard -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
