Microsoft Soundscape

Yep, what the title says.Yay!

I am so happy that this app has finally made its way up North. It's only been like a year! LOL

This coupled with the Bose Frames I plan on getting today, looking forward to see how well these two will work.

I tested the app out with my Bose Frames yesterday. It worked flawlessly. I think my aftershokz might not get much use any more these days.

On another note, apparently bing is not so smart, because I tried to mark my home address. It could not find my address in the database. Guess I'll have to remind myself to actually set a mark when I am at my house. And mind you. I'm here in the US. I could get it if I were trying it in Canada, where it was just released, but I'm not.

I haven't used this app in a while, but based on my experience when I did use it, the app uses OpenStreetMap exclusively for map data. I once had a detailed look at the service and noticed a lot of omissions in the data, including some missing street names and a ton of missing addresses. In fact, in my neighborhood I could only find a couple of locations where OSM knew the address, and one of them was wrong. And my neighborhood is several decades old, so it isn't like they just haven't gotten around to it.

The app's dependence on OSM is one of the reasons I stopped using it and went back to Nearby Explorer.

Thanks for the updates with relations to the Bose Frames and the Open Street Maps lack of information.

I usually don't tend to solely rely on GPS to help guide me, I tend to memorize my routes and frequent locations. I do plan on trying them out in the coming weeks, once I get my Bose Frames, and will see if the app has more details in Canada.

One of the main reasons I look forward to trying this app is that, in some situations, like open areas, is being able to save a spot and having that audio feedback help me to find that location again

Here in my region, we have many big and open bus stations, and for most of my stops, they have been mainly at the ends of the platforms, making it a little easier to find my stop. But some of them though, and thankfully I don't have some now, some stops are in the middle of the platform and can be a little difficult to find that particular stop. But if the app works like I think it might, I could set a favourite at the stop itself, and then if I need to find that stop, have that audio feedback to help me to it.

Like I said, I don't currently have to take buses at stops in the middle of platforms, but we are having some changes done in my city that could change all of that for me.

I've tried my best to use my hearing and memory to find bus stops, as technology isn't perfect, and for the most part, I've managed fairly well. But for those situations where using your senses proves extremely difficult, perhaps Soundscape could help me out.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Folks this is Amos from the soundscape team, thanks for all the great feedback, and a warm welcome to our friends in Canada, with our first multi-lingual release of soundscape in English and Canadian French.

Just to clarify one point, since our release in May 2019 we improved the Soundscape map significantly. You can now search for addresses or any point of interest far beyond what is in OSM. You should be able to find almost every address, business, etc. Try setting a beacon to the CN Tower in Toronto to see where it is. You can also explore your near by area and filter by categories etc. Please give it a try and let us know what you think on soundscapefeed@microsoft.com we are still making refinements.

When I tried Sound Scape earlier, I had a problem with the way the app took control of my blue tooth headphones' buttons. I use the controls to pause for road crossings, adjust volume, and skip back if I missed something in a podcast. It seemed these were being trapped by the app and I could no longer control audio playback. At the time, I searched the app's settings to find a way to disable this feature, but was not successful.

Is this still the case? Can I tell the app to ignore the blue tooth controls?

Hello. What GPS app can work great with Microsoft Soundscape? Maybe there can be a podcast demoing some options.

I normally use blindsquare for my gps needs but this is really an awesome app. I like how it presents things using stereo audio. Another awesome app from Microsoft!!!!!

Hi everyone. I'm back to relate 2 recent experiences with this app, and then I'll ask my question. The first experience I'd like to talk about took place 2 days before Christmas. This one is also up on my personal site for those who would like to check it out. I had to purchase a ticket for a New Year's Eve event that I was to attend along with 2 neighbors from my apartment complex. The tickets were at one of the branches of our public library, so I walked there and was expertly guided by this wonderful app. It also guided me back to my apartment complex. The second of these experiences took place just a bit ago today. Two neighbors and I went by car to a breakfast board meeting of the local environmental association. This time I had Callouts enabled, and we were very impressed with them. This leads me to my question. Is there or will there be a tutorial somewhere on how to use this app in conjunction with the native iOS maps app and/or something else? I have checked out the maps app only briefly, but it seems to be pretty extensive and a bit confusing.

Unfortunately, it isn't available in Brazil yet.

I read in the latest AppleVis email that this app was updated and decided to give it a go on my walk to the dentist office today. It sounds great, but I still have the issue that I lose my bluetooth controls if the app is running. If I have music, podcasts, or a book running, the app works just fine, talking in conjunction with the audio, but, I cannot pause playback from my Air Pods by tapping them as I can when using other apps like Nearby Explorer. This is a deal breaker for me. I do not cross intersections with audio playing, and taking my phone out to manually pause playback isn't convenient.

Am I missing a setting to tell the app to ignore bluetooth controls? Why is it trapping them anyways? Tapping on my Air Pod is set to pause, but all I hear when I tap is a soft little beep, and my audio continues.

Is it just me?

I've been using it ever since it came out in Canada, and it's so easy to use. Last week I finally got the courage to try downloading one of the other voices, but when I tried Soundscape again, the volume of that voice is so low, I can't understand a single word. I really want to keep that voice, but what's the point when you can't hear a single word it is saying?

Last Christmas I was gifted a pair of the Alto version of the Bowes Frames along with a set of mirrored lenses. Except for needing something to help keep them on my face, they like to slide down my nose so I am frequently pushing them back up, I rather like them.

Today I decided to give Microsoft Soundscape a try, and after some initial confusion over the difference between markers and beacons, I soon had a handle on it and proceeded to go do some errands at the shopping center next door. Almost the first thing I noticed is that call outs were not being announced, and some markers were not where they should be despite using the map to place them. Lesson learned, don't use the map to set markers, instead set them while you are standing where you want the marker to be placed.

I also noticed that the app seemed really sluggish. I am using an iPhone SE with 64GB of storage. Is this iPhone not powerful enough to handle something like Soundscape?

I wonder what map system Bing uses and why Microsoft didn't simply use those maps since they already have a license to use them? They have to be better than the open street maps Soundscape is using now. If I decide not to use Soundscape, it will be because of the poor quality of the maps being used.

I tried Soundscape again today and was very disappointed with the results yet again. Today all it would do is lock up my 64 Gb iPhone SE, then crash to the home page leaving fragments of itself in memory. I tried terminating it using the app switcher, but ultimately had to shutdown and restart the operating system to get it out of memory.

There is no way that this flaky app is worth all this trouble...

Sorry to hear about the problems you've been encountering with Soundscape. Not to be rude, have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app? Which iPhone SE do you have, if you don't mind me asking?

I find it odd that Soundscape is that trouble-sum on an iPhone SE. If uninstalling and reinstalling it doesn't work, I would reach out to Microsoft and let them know.

I know that the app worked fine on my iPhone 8+ and now on my iPhone 11. Perhaps it's just a matter of uninstalling and reinstalling it, that may do the trick. That or the app is buggy on that type of hardware, so letting Microsoft know of the issue might not be a bad idea.

HTH!

I finally heard from Microsoft regarding all the problems I've been having with this app and they recommended that I should update my operating system to the current version. They agreed that early on upgrading to iOS 13 was not a good idea if you rely on the accessibility features, but that the current version has all of the major accessibility bugs fixed so that it is safe to upgrade.

So, I just upgraded my phone to iOS 13.7 and will try Soundscape again on Friday.

I'm hoping that this will resolve all these problems as this app seems very promising if I can just get it to cooperate!

Side note: I'm surprised, I was expecting iOS 13 to be a little bit sluggish on my original iPhone SE, but it is quite snappy!

It even has a street view mode now. Which other apps would you folks recommend to use together with this one? It is meant to be used alongside other gps apps, but I don't know of any good, free one.

Hello! I am not able to download the app. I have searched for it in AppStore and I couldn't find it. I've clicked on the link provided in the description and the following message occurs:
„Unable to connect to iTunes Store”.
I have an active internet connection. What should I do? Thanks in advance!

Hi all. Let me preceed my comments by saying that I only got my sopranos on Friday and having taken 2 trips out with them, I really really like using them with soundscape. However, it seems that i don't have access to the motion like I would if I bought the Alto or Rondo glasses. I don't know if this is because they don't contain the same technology as the alto or rondo (which considering they are a new model would surprise me) or whether Microsoft simply haven't done anything with them yet. I have sent an email to soundscape feedback so we'll see what comes back from that.

Also soundscape doesn't even recognize barely any bar codes on our products in the UK and considering I emailed them about this a couple of years back and they claimed they were doing something about it, they are sure taking their time. So, if anyone has any explanations/advice/differing experiences with both bar codes and Bose Sopranos I'd be pleased to hear them.

Hope someone owned some apple
AirPods 3rd Generation
and has tried with
Microsoft Soundscape as head tracking headphone device
there are some confusion or Microsoft has not updated the list of devices that support
head tracking feature
under Menu // Head tracking headphones
Only show Apple AirPods Pro or Max
As devices supported however under tutorials
Using Apple AirPods
mention about the 3rd generation. here the note:
Soundscape supports spatial audio with dynamic head tracking when using AirPods 3rd Generation, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max. When connected to Soundscape, sensors in the AirPods tell Soundscape the direction your head is facing. This helps Soundscape to improve your audio experience making it more natural as you move around in the world. When you use Soundscape with AirPods connected, you do not need to hold your phone for Soundscape to work correctly.

Question?
Anyone can confirm if the Apple AirPods 3rd generation can success work using head tracking feature?

Yes the third generation AirPods are supported

Hi.

Are any folks with hearing aids using this app? I'm very interested in what Soundscape might do for me, but would mfi hearing aids work the same as stereo headphones with this app? Ear pods and regular headphones don't work with my hearing aids that well, unfortunately.

I know I’m a bit behind everyone else here…. But I’ve finally started using this app and it’s amazing. I usually go out and about with my sighted partner and have been feeling a bit like I’m just being herded around in the fog. With this, and my Bose Alto frames, I finally have an idea of what’s around me and it feels so liberating. I love how much information it gives with so few words. I tried Lazarillo too but it never stopped talking and I had to turn it off.
The beacons were also great. I navigated us to a market and back to the carp park and it felt so good to be contributing for once.
Is thIs the directional sound unique to this or does anything else do it too?
My only minor gripe is the stupid shaking thing I need to do with my Bose frames each time. It always feels a bit random and because the sound comes out of the glasses it’s hard to know when it’s done. It’s a shame that Bose have given up on the head tracking as it’s brilliant.

I really wish this was available in Denmark. Any updates on internationalisation efforts? I tried emailing the address in this thread a while ago, but got no response.