Predictive text verbosity settings do not consistently behave as configured

Category
VoiceOver Announcements/Feedback
Severity
Moderate

Description

The new predictive text feature in iOS 17 provides recommended words inline as you type using the onscreen keyboard. There are verbosity settings that allow VoiceOver users to control what happens when predictive text appears and when predictive text feedback is entered.

However, some users report that these verbosity settings are not being applied consistently across different apps. When the "predictive text" verbosity setting is set to speak recommendations, some VoiceOver users report that recommendations are silent in certain apps, even though they expect them to be spoken.

Conversely, other users have found that with the "predictive text" setting configured to not speak recommendations, VoiceOver will still read out the recommendations in some apps like Mail.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Enable VoiceOver.
  2. Enable predictive text in the keyboard settings.
  3. In VoiceOver settings, check the "current verbosity settings for predictive text.
  4. Open different apps like Mail, Messages, Notes and observe whether predictive text recommendations are spoken by VoiceOver or not.
  5. In VoiceOver settings, change the "verbosity settings for predictive text.
  6. Open different apps like Mail, Messages, Notes and observe whether predictive text recommendations are spoken by VoiceOver or not.
  7. The behaviour will be inconsistent, with some apps speaking predictive text recommendations when that setting is disabled and vice versa.

Expected results:

The "predictive text" verbosity setting should consistently apply across all apps - predictive text should only be spoken aloud when that setting is enabled.

Actual results:

The verbosity settings do not reliably control predictive text feedback across different apps for VoiceOver users.

Bug First Encountered

iOS/iPadOS 17.0

Device(s) bug has been encountered on

iPhone

How often the bug occurs

Sometimes

Apple feedback #

FB12790180

Status

Fixed

Fixed In

iOS/iPadOS 17.1

Options

Comments

By Mister Kayne on Friday, February 21, 2025 - 10:04

iPhone 12 speak predictive text setting is turned on under accessibility but predictive text is not spoken on any of the applications.

By Mister Kayne on Monday, May 26, 2025 - 08:34

I rely heavily on auto predict text in applications like What's app. however , even though the verbosity setting is set to speak and change pitch I never get the predicted text when appearing spoken. I have to check for it by finger above the keyboard. I am using a iPhone 12 running the latest IOS 18.5. So I really am not sure if this bug has been fixed. Perhaps I need to do some trouble shooting like turn the setting to off and then restart the phone and then turn it on? I might get to do this sometime over the weekend

By Sanjana the Co… on Monday, May 26, 2025 - 13:53

I have never seen that predictive text is working in iPhone 12.
latest iOS version installed