MBraille

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Wednesday, June 26, 2013.
Last modified
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Category
Productivity

Description of App

MBraille brings you a mobile braille keyboard.
With the free features you can type, edit and send tweets and text messages using contracted or uncontracted English braille.*

With the full version you can also use braille to

- call contacts or telephone numbers
- send email
- do facebook status updates
- add calendar entries
- fire away internet search engine queries
- the text typed is automatically put to clipboard when you switch apps.
- interact with other 3rd party applications
- check spelling
- save and open text files
- sync to dropbox
- use MBraille as third party keyboard

The keyboard is also available as a separate in-app purchase.


MBraille fully support both iPhone/iPod and iPad

An experienced blind MBraille user can easily surpass the sighted typists using the built in virtual keyboard.

*uncontracted Braille is supported and help is available for Arabic, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish

UI and Braille are also supported for Czech, Italian, Portuguese, and Slovakian, only help is still missing.

MBraille supports iPhones, iPod touches and iPads.

"An iPhone without MBraille, just isn't a fully operational iPhone anymore!" --Cliff Isaksen, Norway

AppleVis granted MBraille and MPaja a Golden Apple, which we accept with deep gratitude:

http://www.applevis.com/blog/accessories/announcing-applevis-golden-apples-2013

Version

3.7

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

Accessibility Comments

Very accessible.

iOS Version

10.3.1

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

App Store Link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mbraille/id639199558

Developer's Website

http://mpaja.com/

Developer's Twitter Username

@mpaja

Recommendations

15 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Fatima.Hamoud10 3 years 3 months ago

Options

Comments

Submitted by Larry Thacker Jr. on Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Being able to write contracted braille is a huge improvement over what has been available thus far. The app needs a little refinement, but it's a delightful first run. Sometimes what is spoken when you type certain things can be a little confusing, but if you understand how braille is translated from text you get what is happening. I could not get the contraction for "ment" to work, nor could I get the app to represent a letter T standing alone by means of a letter sign. I got semicolon T. Both dots 2,5 and dots 1,5,6 are spoken as colon. I found the placement of the fingers for table mode to be awkward. I kept missing one side or the other and typing things I didn't want. I'm sure that would improve over time, but I found it very easy to use when held facing out as one does with BrailleTouch. It sounds like I'm griping, but I think these are 1.0 type issues that will be cleared up soon and I think this is the best braille data entry app yet!

Submitted by sockhopsinger on Wednesday, June 26, 2013

One thing you might consider trying Larry, is to go under settings and lock the app into Facing Away mode as opposed to Table mode. I found that much easier to use than table mode.

I was having a LOT of issues getting letters to work, but once I locked the app into Away mode, everything worked much better. So I would suggest doing the same as Sockhopsinger did.

Submitted by Roger Smith on Friday, June 28, 2013

I want to love this app, and I'm about to buy the pro version, but I'm really having a time with the keyboard, especially the 4-5-6. I also use the away mode and frankly, this is the only mode that resembles braille to me. Even then, it's really hard to hit all of the dots. What bothers me is that brailletouch has a way better keyboard. I guess my questions are: is there hope for improvement? Also, I am using the 4S iPhone. Is the keyboard any easier to use with the 5?

Submitted by Gina on Monday, July 1, 2013

Here's my question. If one were to buy MBraille, would you be able to paste in to any application, like say, the Notes app, or the LiveJournal app, or something, or does the pasting just work for the apps like Twitter, and Facebook, and Calendar, and such?

You can paste into any app. Once you back out of MBraille with the Home button, whatever you typed in the app is saved to your clipboard. Then you can go to wherever you want and paste the text.

Submitted by sockhopsinger on Monday, July 1, 2013

J, dots 2-4-5, is very close to the D. Make sure your left pointer finger is not accidentally too far down on the keyboard.

Submitted by Guillaume on Monday, July 1, 2013

My test was not complete. In the settings, select the echo both letter and word. When you type a single 'd' VoiceOver says 'j' but if you type for example 'default' followed by a space, VoiceOver says the correct word.

That is, indeed, a strange issue. I've done some beta testing for MBraille, and never had an issue like that. Are you typing in English? If not, perhaps it is a language-specific bug?

Hi, this is a bug in the first release when typing French or German. Note that it is just the VoiceOver announcement that is wrong, once the word is complete you'll hear the correct character was entered. Good new is that this is fixed in the next update, and the complete help will also be in French and German. Regards, Harri

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Sunday, July 21, 2013

What's New in Version 1.2.11

- new dot commands: .dial and .web
- much improved iPad support
- .sms and .dial can take a phone number as argument, in addition to contact name
- better punctuation support
- sending text messages is now possible in the free version
- misc. bugfixes
- more supported languages

Submitted by Daniel on Tuesday, July 30, 2013

What's New in Version 1.4.0 - Full Spanish and Croatian support, including help - Improved typing accuracy - bugfixes

Submitted by Clare Page on Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Hi! In the past I have tried several brailling apps for IOS, but for different reasons, which I won't go into here, I decided not to keep them. However, when I recently read about MBraille, it made me reverse my previous decision not to try any more brailling apps: I was so impressed with its features when I read about them in this here app directory entry, such as two modes of brailling, the inclusion of contracted braille in English, and the fact that this app can be multilingual, and those features made me decide to get it for my iPhone 4S. I only installed the app yesterday, and have only just started to test the free version: since the paid version costs 26.99 euros in the French app store, I will give the free version plenty of testing before I decide whether to buy the full version or not. I can already say that my brailling with this app is well on the way to being pretty accurate even within 24 hours of getting the MBraille app, and I'm sure it'll improve with practice: I must admit I find it easier to position my fingers for the mode where you hold the device with the screen away from you, but I'm not doing too badly with that in the other mode, so currently I still haven't chosen one or the other. As I write in French and German as well as English, those possibilities will be great to have if I do decide to purchase the app. I know MBraille is far from cheap as apps go, but I can understand the choice of pricing it a bit high, given its numerous features and the fact that the market for this app is small: also, even the free version of MBraille can be pretty productive. Given all these advantages, it's thanks to MBraille that my interest in brailling apps for IOS has been reawakened, at least to the point where I'm taking interest in this one.

Submitted by Guillaume on Friday, August 9, 2013

Hello, Can you explain me how do you type specials characters like '#', '{', '}', '[', ']', '&' ... with mBraille ? I write in French language so may be the dot combination will be different than others languages. Thank you in advance.

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Friday, August 30, 2013

This is a pretty cool update. You can now give BlindSquare commands from MBraille keyboard plus send Whatsapp messages.

What's New in Version 1.5.0

- improved calendar support
- improved text browsing
- A new setting that enables clearing the text buffer automatically after sending it.
- support for more 3rd party applications such as BlindSquare
- full support for Hungarian and initial support for Slovak braille.
- bugfixes

Submitted by olgapetrovic on Monday, September 16, 2013

Hi people, I have used MBraille for everything and it's really great app. What's have been happening is that I cannot post to facebook. .fb command was not working, i accedentaly deleted MBraille from list of apps on my facebook account. What I can do? Exist a way to have the app back to facebook? Thanks a lot! Olga

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Wednesday, September 18, 2013

What's New in Version 1.6.0

- re-execute old commands from history
- full help in Polish
- typing speed test command
- translation to Italian (with the exception of help)
- bug fixes

Submitted by falcon wings on Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I am considering perchaseing MBraille just because of the whatsapp shortcut. I manage farely well with the usual keyboard,though and my brailleing skills aren't that awesome. Anyway, the question I have is,what do you need to do to type stuff to whatsapp? I mean shortcuts and such. as I haven't heard anyone using the shortcut for whatsapp. Falcon wings.

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Wednesday, September 25, 2013

What's New in Version 1.6.1

- Improved compatibility with iOS7
- Support for Portuguese, Braille and UI, excluding help
- Support for Slovenčina (Slovakian) Braille and UI, excluding help
- bugfixes

 

Submitted by Harri on Thursday, September 26, 2013

You can use whatsapp in a similar way to sending text messages. Type your text, then .whatsapp contact-name and whatsapp app is invoked with correct recipient and body text, all set for sending. Lots of people use Whatsapp through MBraille. As to managing with the virtual keyboard, vs. MBraille, the difference in speed is like walking and driving :)

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Tuesday, October 15, 2013

What's New in Version 1.7.0

- Danish and Turkish contracted Braille
- Braille learning mode for sighted
- bug fixes

Submitted by Eileen on Saturday, October 19, 2013

Best app ever for typing in braille on my iphone! I almost never pull out my braille display. However Mbraille is always with me and just a tap or two away! I haven't got the pro version yet, but Mbraille is fast becoming my most used app. Mbraille handles contracted braille so much better than the built in Apple braille support! Apple should hire the Mbraille developer to help them implement braille properly on the Ipho. Excellent work Mbraill!

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Thursday, October 24, 2013

What's New in Version 1.7.1

- Added two finger swipe up to hear the number of characters and words in the text.
- improved SMS performance
- fixed history command regression

Submitted by Brooke on Thursday, October 24, 2013

I'm having no luck with the new two-finger swipe up gesture; absolutely nothing happens when I try it. Is anyone else having this problem, or is it just me?

Submitted by sockhopsinger on Thursday, October 24, 2013

It hasn't worked for me either. On the other hand, SMS messages appear to be working pretty well since updating MBraille.

Submitted by Eileen on Saturday, October 26, 2013

MBraille with a braille display I tried MBraille with the braille display. The display does not display the text entered in the braille typing mode. The display does flash up the information spoken as it is spoken in the braille mode. Once out of the braille keyboard the braille display is perfectly supported. If you happen to like typing better in MBraille but still want to review your work on the display before sending it, you can! i like the way ,EMbraille waits for a space before translating the contracted braille.

Submitted by Kelvin Tan on Sunday, October 27, 2013

hi there. how do i enter the hash tag symbol with mbraille? i can't seem to do so as the dots 3 4 5 6 numeral sign which should be the symbol for it does not work. does any body know how this can be done with mbraille? normally on a touch typing keyboard i will just have to look for the number sign on the symbols page.

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Sunday, January 26, 2014

What's New in Version 1.8.0 - Facetime Video. .ft is for Facetime audio as introduced in the last release, .ftv is for video. - regression fixed when backspacing to last word - added self voicing, so you don't need to have VoiceOver on when in the keyboard. The Voice language is automatically changed following the .lang command. You can also control the voice separately from the braille table with ".set voice name" command.

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Wednesday, March 19, 2014

What's New in Version 1.8.1

- Prevent screen locking on iOS 7.1
- Added documentation on how to type % & @ and other special characters.
- Portuguese and Italian braille fixes.
- Some small bugs fixed.

 

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Friday, March 28, 2014

What's New in Version 1.8.2

Fixed initial layout on iPad.
Documentation improvements for English, Croatian, Hungarian.
Some small bug fixes.

 

Submitted by Caleb Eee on Thursday, May 8, 2014

Hello all,I have been trying to send sms using mBraille and sometimes my message was not sent and it just got lost. Have anyone face this? This happen quite often though I can't reproduce this reliably in terms of regularity. Can someone help? Thanks in advance.

Submitted by sockhopsinger on Thursday, May 8, 2014

Unfortunately, this is not just an issue with MBraille. This also happens with other apps like Fleksy where you use a different keyboard program. Sometimes, and the reason to my knowledge is still unknown, the apps just seem to lose sync with the OS. When this happens, the only way to get SMS sending back is to restart your phone. It can be a pain, but if you wish to use MBraille or other keyboard apps, you will either need to copy your text to the clipboard, go into messages, and send it that way using the paste function, or restart your phone to get the program back in sync with the OS.

Submitted by Tree on Thursday, May 8, 2014

I have had this problem as well and am not sure what the issue is. I thought it might have something to do with the fact that after i type s m s and the name of my contact and the send screen comes up there is often a few second lag. In that lag I will touch the screen a few times and those touches take a minute and then all register at the same time. I was thinking that maybe one of those touches is typing a random letter in the contact field and that is making it not send right. I'm not even sure if that makes since though, and it sounds like sockhopsinger has a much better understanding of what is going on.

Submitted by sockhopsinger on Thursday, May 8, 2014

This issue has been a problem since the release of iOS7. I don't know why they can't fix it. Again, it's not just MBraille that has this problem.

Submitted by Samantha Wyatt on Friday, June 20, 2014

I'm having a similar issue, but I don't have trouble sending the messages. The app will give me an alert saying that the message has been sent, but the person I send it to doesn't receive it. I also went to the messages app, and my message I typed in MBraille shows up there, and says delivered, even when the recipient hasn't gotten anything. I hope they can resolve this issue soon.

Submitted by Bingo Little on Monday, August 11, 2014

Hi folks, when referring to English contracted Braille, does this app support the differences between US Braille and UK Braille? For example, in UK Braille the pound sign is dots 1, 2, 3 together; in US Braille it's something else I believe. IN UK Braille, the decimal point, plus, minus and suchlike are also different. I would be reluctant to get it were I forced to write in the US Braille coce, not so much because I couldn't but because I believe I should be able to write in the Braille code I use all the time. IOS for the most part implements UK Braille pretty well incidentally.

Submitted by Khalfan Bin Dhaher on Saturday, August 30, 2014

Improved announcements and editing.
Added a setting to auto-capitalise text after punctuation.
Added dot command history search.
Accept dates without a year for calendar entries.
Added Romanian and Farsi braille tables.
Percent sign is now 4-25-1234 in English.

Submitted by LifepodDebbie on Wednesday, September 10, 2014

I love this app! It's great for dashing off emails and text on the go. But now, I cannot clear the text from the buffer By shaking the device when I am finished typing. I would like to see that feature return in the next update.

Submitted by Harri on Thursday, September 11, 2014

You can re-enable shake to clear with the dot command:

.set shake-to-clear on

Note the hyphens in "shake-to-clear"

Hope this helps,

Harri

Submitted by Samantha Wyatt on Thursday, October 23, 2014

I really love this app. It has made texting super quick and easy for me. Now that iOS 8 allows for custom keyboards, and the direct touch typing bug is fixed, is there a way to make MBraille my third-party keyboard? If there isn't a way to do this right now, is it a possibility for the future? I really love this app, and would like to use it for most, if not all of my typing across iOS.

Submitted by sockhopsinger on Thursday, October 23, 2014

This is a wonderful app. I would much prefer to use this than the iOS built-in braille input.

Submitted by Samantha Wyatt on Saturday, October 25, 2014

So would I. The braille screen input could be great, But when I'm in contracted mode, it doesn't echo characters and words. It only echos words, and my accuracy suffers when I don't here the characters I'm typing. It does okay in grade 1, but I want to use grade 2, so Here I am with MBraille again. I'm using the free version, so the only functionality I have is text messaging, and I would really like to use this as a system-wide keyboard. Hopefully the developers will have that in the works soon.

Submitted by Samantha Wyatt on Tuesday, October 28, 2014

When typing with MBraille, it's like some of my contractions are actually entered as computer braille. For instance, if i pype the word being, the first time I tipe it, it writes it as being. if I type it again, it writes be+. I have contracted braille on, and there doesn't seem to be any other setting that would fix this. Any suggestions?

Submitted by Unuhinuiʻi on Saturday, January 10, 2015

Iʻve got some language skills and braille level that make using VoiceOver frustrating on any of my devices... I use VoiceOver mostly in English, but also in Italian on one device (and that is a daily pain), and my Braille skills in English are level 1.
So... Iʻm thinking if I can figure a braille input method for me that allows to switch between different braille language inputs, that could be really cool. If I can get that to work with e.g. Italian, Finnish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Hawaiian, that would make me so happy.

Submitted by AnonyMouse on Friday, March 13, 2015

What's New in Version 2.0.0

Improved editing for all users.
User interface refinements.
Existing pro version users get spelling support and text macros via a new alias command.
New in-app purchase for document managent extension featuring saving and loading files, Dropbox sync, text search.
Bugs mercilessly squashed.

You can switch languages in MBraille directly from the keyboard without leaving the app.

.lang fi

for Finnish,

.lang pt

for Portuguese,

.lang it

for Italian,

but sorry, there is no Hawaiian braille support.

Also, if you use self voicing, it will switch the Voice as well, so if you'll get Italian spoken like a native, instead Italian with English accent.

Hope this helps,

Harri