Using the Screen Curtain with VoiceOver in iOS 8.4.1

By peter, 1 September, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I have and iPhone 6 running iOS 8.4.1 and I also use VoiceOver.

In the past, when I performed a three finger triple tap I could toggle the screen curtain on and off. when the screen curtain was active, my screen was totally dark.

Recently, I have been told that when the screen curtain is toggled on the screen dims, but it is not totally dark.

Is this a bug or new feature in iOS 8.4.1?

I would prefer the screen go totally dark when the screen curtain is toggled on for two reasons:

1. Privacy
2. Not wasting battery power on lighting up the screen if I don't need/use it.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this change or if there is anything I can do about it.

thanks.

--Pete

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Comments

By Serena on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 - 02:21

i've notice this happening for quite some time, not just 8.4. just as a side note. technically speaking, turning on the curtain does not reduce your battery usage much. not much more then setting the screen to a lower brightness setting, which i'd do anyways. after all, the screen is still active, and being used to translate touches to commands. and that still draws power, no matter if it's lit up slightly or not. and btw. even in previous versions of iOS where the curtain did darken the screen better, it never actually totally blackened it. there was always a small amount of light produced, just a blank screen in terms of text / graphics.
I do hope they will sort this out though, as sometimes it's a bit off putting when you're in a dark room, and if you have any light perception, sensing a bit of light coming from your screen when there shouldn't be. lol. makes you think the curtain isn't on when it is.

By LaBoheme on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 - 10:08

it has been like this from the start, see this:
http://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ios-app-discussion/vo-repeating-screen-lock-ios-703
and look for post by yours truly.

and they have not fix the problem. no, not turning off the backlight, but to announce "screen dimmed" in an useful way. right now if you have vo and screen curtain on and your device say "screen dimmed", it immediately lock the screen, giving not time for you to intervene in case you don't really want your device to lock itself.