I recently purchased an iPhone 15. I have noticed some BSI behaviors on this iPhone 15 that I have not previously experienced on any older models, and I'm curious if anyone else has experienced these and, if so, maybe you can provide some tips or solutions.
While using BSI, a common behavior is that the phone will insert a character with more dots than fingers that I have placed on the screen. For instance, I will attempt to type the letter d, but, instead, the phone will insert a letter g. Another example is that I will try to type the letter m and get the letter p. In the past, I have seen the iPhone misinterpret characters based on the proper amount of dots that were pressed on the screen. For instance, it hasn't historically been uncommon for me to try and press the letter f but get the letter m. This makes sense because my fingers were likely placed badly and/or I needed to recallibrate my finger positioning. But, so far with this phone, my most consistent errors are the iPhone including what are, essentially, dots that I am not pressing. I hope that explanation makes sense.
I should mention that I have locked my orientation into screen away mode, which is what I prefer. I also callibrate my finger positions quite frequently. I have also checked and Zoom is not enabled, which I have seen mess up BSI in the past. Yet the issue still occurs. Another symptom of my BSI trouble is that, for some reason, when I go to type some letters, VoiceOver will often state, "place at most three fingers on each side of the screen", which I am doing. But perhaps it is perceiving fingers that are not in direct contact with the screen?
My apologies if this issue has already been discussed on this forum before, but I'm curious if this is a bug, or if there is a setting I can change to fix this behavior. I have emailed the Apple Accessibility team about the issue, and they have said that they are experimenting to see if they can replicate the behavior. But I wanted to leave no stone unturned and see if anyone in this community had any ideas.
Comments
I believe...
I believe bsi is not working proparly when you don't use the phone with it's case. When I took my phone out of the case and start using it, I cannot type stably, whereas if i have my phone with it's case; everything works perfectly fine.
Braille Input on Newer iPhones
I concur with the previous comment. Are you using your phone out of its case? What happens with more recent iPhones, particularly iPhone 12 and newer, is that literally the entire face of the phone is touch sensative, and the flat squared off frame of the phone and the pretty much edge-to-edge screen means that when you're holding the phone between your hands to type in screen away mode, sometimes part of your hand touches a touch-sensative part of the screen, so your screen thinks it's another finger. In short, your hand is touching the screen at the very edge of the phone when you're typing. This wasn't a frequent issue in iPhones 10 through 11 because the rounded frame was thicker which meant that even while your phone was out of the case, it kept your hands further from the edges of the screen. The problem almost never occured on any phones with a home button as the very top and bottom parts of the face of the phone weren't actually part of the screen.
It's in a Case, but ...
My phone has always been in a case since I started using it. However, the comment about the edge to edge screen makes complete sense. I have noticed that my hand inadvertently activates the notification center, and I was aware of that. I didn't even think about how that would affect BSI.
I don't really want to get a case with thicker edges, although I imagine that would help. Do you folks have any recommendations for grip adjustments that I could make? In the meantime, I will try to take special care that only my brailling fingers are exposed to the screen
Thank you both for your comments.
better grip?
Turns out I had a similar issue when first moving from the iPhone 8 to a samsung that I think is about the same size as your new 15. I never did this consciously but you got me to notice I mostly use my palms and thumbs to support the phone. When I'm typing screen away I've got my palms on either end bearing most of the weight with both thumbs keeping it stable from behind. My pinkies are usually underneath but don't have to be, just helps them stay out of the way. Hope that helps!
Better Focus
Yes, those are good tips. This is essentially what I do, but using this new phone makes me realize how much I let the palm side of my knuckles rest on the ends of the screen in the past. I can't do it that way anymore, so I will just have to pay more attention. It makes sense that this would be an issue on the newer Samsung phones too.
Another suggestion
You can lean back slightly, rest your phone on your stomach (phone being in the screen away mode) and type away without much friction.
I had experienced this to.
Hi, I’m using BSI and experience this too.
I’m sure that it’s a bug.
I use “Screen a Way Mode” and lock the oriantation.
It’s solved when I calibrate my fingers, but it’s heppans again after a wile.
I use an iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro with beta version running.
On my prymery device I’m running iOS 17.5.1 the latest up to date.
In Hebrew “Screen A Way Mode” translated as:״Unavailable mode”, it’s make me laugh.