Veil developer introduction: looking for VoiceOver feedback on sleep sound controls

By codercolin, 2 October, 2026

Forum

iOS and iPadOS

Michael’s reply is a green light for the forum introduction and VoiceOver feedback request we described. The updated agreement allows developer discussions, prohibits developers from adding their own App Directory entries, and asks that future updates stay in the same thread.

It also says: “Users must personally review and submit anything posted under their account.” So this is ready for you to review and post in iOS and iPadOS through Create Forum Topic.

Title: Veil developer introduction: looking for VoiceOver feedback on sleep sound controls

Hi everyone,

I’m Colin Hanson, the developer of Veil, a white noise and sleep sounds app for iPhone. I’m a light sleeper in New York, and I built it because I kept noticing recorded sound loops restarting during the night. Veil generates its sounds directly on the device instead.

I’ve been working on accessibility and would appreciate feedback from people who use VoiceOver regularly. Sound controls have labels and playback states, and volume controls announce their current value and support increment and decrement actions. Sound cards also have a custom action for opening their tuning controls. The app supports larger text and Reduce Motion.

I’d particularly like to hear about:

Choosing a sound and understanding whether it is playing or paused.
Adjusting volume, especially at quiet levels.
Finding and using the sound tuning controls.
Setting the sleep timer and navigating back from sheets.
Whether VoiceOver speech stays easy to hear while sound is playing.

I’ve checked the accessibility controls and navigation during development, but I’d value hearing how they work in everyday use.

White Noise, Pink Noise, Brown Noise, and Slow Fan are free. There are no ads or accounts, and sound playback works offline. Premium adds the full 24-sound library, three-sound mixing, and saved mixes through monthly, annual, or lifetime purchase options. I can provide lifetime codes to community members who want to try the Premium controls as well.

Veil on the App Store
App details and current screenshots in the press kit

If you encounter an accessibility problem, please tell me what you were trying to do and, if possible, your iOS and Veil versions. I’ll follow this thread and respond to questions and feedback here.

Thanks,
Colin

Options

Comments

feedback so far

Vale, on the whole, is very accessible. it is good to see an independent developer considering accessability. things that could be improved are, use of the magic tap, using VoiceOver modafier-hyphen. this keyboard command does not work right now. the controls for the different tambers, adjust in realtime, which is highly appreciated, and something, which seems to be lacking in my daley driver white noize app. the volume sliders for tamber controls should be amended to volume, instead of just vol. this would make things more clear, and help people, who may not kbow surtain abbreviations,, use the app. as well appreciate the app size, and there arn't an abundence of noizes, making the app a joy to use. all sounds correctly implament the use of VoiceOver's actions roter, which is refreshing. the mixer controls work well, and VoiceOver reads everything in the mixer. I bought this app, as although I although a premium code is offered,, , I like supporting developers, where I can. the upgrade screen is opened in previews, but VoiceOver does not automaticly read it. you have to drag your finger on the screen to get access, meaning that a bluetooth keyboard exclusive user like myself, for example, , has to use a non-preferred imput method. audo ducking does not work in previews. good furst effort, and I look forward to any updates.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for the thoughtful review, and for buying Veil to support its development! As a solo developer every purchase really means a lot to me. I love to build in an accessible way, but as someone that doesn't regularly use accessibility tools it's really hard for me to know if it registers well with users like yourself, which makes this feedback so valuable.

I'm glad to hear that it's in a decent place with some of the core functionality. I'll get working on some of your more specific feedback and do my best to have some improvements in the next release (probably ~1 week out). If you ever have any issues or additional feedback please don't hesitate to reach out!

I’ll share an update here when these improvements are released.

your welcome

i am eagerly awaiting the next updates.

Decent but not usable as it is.

I didn't even double-tap the Continue button to dismiss the onboarding screen because I don't want to hear constant noise as I explore the app for the very first time. I could actually hear VoiceOver clearly enough, but not everyone can. So the Continue button shouldn't be dimmed/greyed out unless we select a noise type on the preview screen. They're just previews after all, and I should be able to stop them before moving on.
Even white noise lacks the high end and isn't as clear as I would expect it to sound.
The volume of a real fan wouldn't fluctuate like ocean waves, but the volume of the slow fan in that app rises and falls periodically, and this annoys me quite a lot. So if this app generates noise in real time to prevent exactly that kind of disturbance triggered by loop points, then it should avoid such periodic and unrealistic fluctuations in volume. The timbre should also be made more realistic to resemble an actual fan more closely. I have my own app that uses recorded loops, and some of them are really great and they demonstrate how you can extract a truly seamless loop from a field recording. I'm also interested in procedural soundscape generation/synthesis, and request a promo code to hear the other sounds that Veil offers, but synthesized colored noise is not necessarily as convincing and realistic as recorded loops, and you can definitely find and record truly seamless loops yourself. But if you insist on synth noise, then I also have my own fan, rain, and cricket chirp synthesizer.
Finally, spatial audio is key to a more realistic and immersive listening experience, even for filtered broadband noise.

Re: Decent but not usable as it is.

Thanks for taking the time to share such detailed feedback, especially the VoiceOver issues. It’s helpful to hear where the experience falls short.

You’re correct about the white noise: we intentionally tapered off the high end after early feedback that it sounded too harsh. I think you’re right that it should be true white noise, though, particularly now that the larger sound library offers other options for people who prefer a softer sound. I’m planning to revisit that.

The fan sounds are generated continuously, so they really are infinite, with no recorded track looping. I agree that Slow Fan has a somewhat oceanic quality. Its regular rise and fall was intended to evoke an oscillating fan, which moves on a fixed cycle, but the depth and timing of that oscillation can be fine-tuned. Your feedback is useful for getting that character right.

If you email me at [email protected], I’d be happy to send you a code to unlock Premium so you can explore the full library. Thanks again for helping me improve Veil.