VoiceOver needs to support CFBundleSpokenName

Question

tedtang OP

Created Oct ’24

Replies 3

Boosts 0

Participants 3

VoiceOver does not support the plist property CFBundleSpokenName. This is wrong and should be fixed.

Ultimately the issue I am dealing with is that our app name is UWCU, and instead of VoiceOver pronouncing each letter, it tries to read this as a word and horribly butchers our organization's/app's name.

Alternatives such as using U.W.C.U. and U W C U are not acceptable.

@Apple, I know you're first response is going to be "no, it is working perfectly," but quite frankly you are wrong. I know you feel strongly about this, given your response in posts like this: https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/734545?answerId=760084022

HOWEVER, with iOS 18, your argument for "VoiceOver should read what's on the screen" doesn't hold water anymore. With iOS 18, you Apple have added a new feature that lets users customize their home screens and completely remove the name of apps. Here's your own guide: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/customize-apps-and-widgets-on-the-home-screen-iph385473442/ios

Quoted from your guide:

Make the icons bigger: Tap Large. (In large size, the names of the apps disappear.)

With large icons + VoiceOver turned on, VoiceOver still reads the app name even though it has disappeared from the screen. So, your own argument "VoiceOver should read the text as it appears on the screen" is invalid, because there is NO text on the screen.

If you can't tell, I'm pretty peeved about all this. There's a reason why screen readers support aria attributes to help deliver the right accessible experience. It's a simple ask for VoiceOver to do the same thing.

Boost

Answer 1

tedtang OP

Oct ’24

Oh and I forgot one more reason why your argument for not supporting CFBundleSpokenName is invalid.

When you open an app with VoiceOver turned on, VoiceOver will in fact use CFBundleSpokenName to tell the user what app was just opened. Why would you use it in that case, but you wouldn't use it on the home screen?

0

Answer 2

Frameworks Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’24

I've forwarded this feedback to the team.

1

Answer 3

danax OP

Oct ’24

Could you share what you've set as the spoken name that is not being spoken correctly? VoiceOver should indeed be reading the spoken bundle name when you focus on an app icon. One important note, is that this label is cached on the Home Screen icon, which does not change if you rebuild your app. If you've changed the spoken bundle name, you should hear this name if you switch to your app (i.e. using a 4 finger swipe gesture), but to hear it on the Home Screen icon, you'll need to re-launch the app running the Home Screen. The easiest way to do this is to reboot your device.

0