VoiceVista Blog
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Phase 7: Updates for Users
Mar, 31, 2025
- New Features:
- GPX file import now supports both waypoints and tracks (1.9.1).
- Customization options for callout distance and close-by thresholds (1.9.0, 1.8.9).
- Super category options for automatic driving callouts (1.8.8).
- Option to disable enter/exit sound effects (1.8.7).
- Query text history saving (1.8.0).
- Language Support:
- Multiple new translations added via machine translation: Hausa, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Xhosa, Maltese,
Tamil, Sinhala, Nepali, and Kyrgyz.
- Updates to translations in Italian (by Simone Dal Maso), German (by Sharo), Spanish (by Enrique Varela),
and Russian (by Danil Kostenkov).
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Other Improvements: General stability improvements (1.8.6).
Phase 6: Core Changes
Dec, 31, 2024
- New Features & Enhancements
- Query text history for future reference.
- Customization options for road name and house number callouts.
- Links to nearby intersections and points of interest (POIs) in the Markers tab.
- New settings for controlling callout announcements and managing intersection callouts
(enqueue/interrupt).
- Simplified monitoring feature for better usability.
- New Translations:
- Albanian,Mongolian, Luxembourgish, Slovenian, Zulu, Uzbek, Belarusian, Khmer
- Bug Fixes & Performance:
- Fixed freezing issues in certain locations.
- Manually toggling beacon audio effect now disables auto unmuting.
- Other Improvements:
- New option to read street numbers digit by digit in callouts.
- Various UI adjustments including a change in navigation style from "present/dismiss" to "push/pop."
Phase 5: More Translations
Sep, 30, 2024
- Dynamic location simulation
Are you tired of being stuck in one place while exploring virtual worlds? The latest update introduces
dynamic location simulation. By importing GPX files, you can now trace your virtual avatar's path along
real-world routes, providing a more immersive and realistic experience.
- Automatic beacon sounds
No more missed opportunities! With a new setting, your beacon sound effects will automatically unmute when you
enter their range. Stay tuned in and never miss a valuable item or hidden treasure again.
- Road name announcements
Navigating unfamiliar virtual territories just got easier. The VoiceVista will now announce road names as you
encounter them, helping you stay oriented and find your way with confidence.
- Location explorer enhancements
The functionality of the location explorer UI expanded. You can now access markers and routes directly from
the explorer, making it easier to plan your virtual adventures.
- Accurate distance measurements
Rounding for distance values in callouts eliminated, ensuring precise and accurate information for
your virtual travels.
- Expanded language support
Addition of several new languages to VoiceVista: Afrikaans, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Estonian, Filipino,
Icelandic, Irish, Kazakh, Latvian, and Lithuanian. This means even more users can enjoy our virtual world in their
native tongue.
Phase 4: Users Feedbacks
Jun, 30, 2024
- Organization and Data Management:
- Separates routes and markers for easier management.
- Backs up and restores all your saved data.
- Simplifies adding current location and searched places to routes.
- Filters markers for efficient route creation.
- Separates app data from troubleshooting tools for a cleaner interface.
- Improved User Experience:
- Resets iCloud storage with a single command.
- Allows selecting the closest waypoint to begin navigation.
- Displays intersections nearby for additional actions.
- Puts the app to sleep on iPhone directly from Apple Watch.
- Shows relative directions for places, markers, and intersections.
- Sorts places and markers based on distance.
- Streamlines marker editing with a "clear all" button.
- Advanced Features and Customization:
- Fixes issues with marker notes and information.
- Tailors automatic voice alerts based on activity (walking, driving, etc.).
- Introduces a standalone Apple Watch app for navigation alerts.
- Streamlines exporting, importing, backing up, and restoring data.
- Allows customization of location point categories.
- Fixes automatic callouts for specific locations like bus stops.
- Provides options to:
- Control trigger ranges for automatic alerts.
- Adjust next waypoint notification distance.
- Learn how point of interest categories are created.
- Match sound effects to different categories.
- Define turn proximity detection distance.
- Offers route calculation with alternatives.
- Allows avoiding tolls and highways during route planning.
- Provides options to disable sound effects.
- Introduces a new "Pedestrian Crossings" category for customization.
Phase 3: High Customization
Mar, 31, 2024
- Apple Watch support for accessing surrounding callouts and controlling beacons without using iPhone.
- Pin markers to the top for quick access to frequently used markers.
- Include category information, web links, and telephone numbers for Points of Interest.
- Automatically stop the beacon after moving away is detected.
- Virtual Location Explorer allows teleporting between intersections and places.
- Call out markers and places ahead, as well as intersections nearby and ahead. Exclude unnamed roads from
intersections.
- Numerous UI enhancements, such as waking up by pressing the play button on the headphone, a mute all button on
the home page, double-tap to hear GPS information, a quick button to delete the last breadcrumb marker, removing
marker prefix accessibility label in the Markers tab, creating a route directly to a marker or place, and
location monitoring improvements.
Phase 2: More New Features
Dec, 23, 2023
- Different speech speed in vehicle and on foot
- Split on/off for intersection and transportation
- Overture map data: California 1.4M, Germamy 3M, United Kingdom 2.5M, Japan 2M
- Open street map tram stop data
- Places offline searching and marker filtering
- Wizard style UI for turn-by-turn navigation parameters
- Alert distance setting for each marker individually
- Degrees direction stylee
- Nudge marker location
- Option to disable beacon sound effect
- GPS information callouts
Phase 1: New Features After Resurrection
Oct, 27, 2023
- Transitioned the user interface style from Windows Phone to iOS, including avoiding the use of a tab
bar for providing actions.
- Integrated more place data from Apple Maps to provide users with additional location information and
options.
- Introduced the ability to manually trigger the "Hear Intersection Ahead" command on the first tab or hear
about the next intersection while in a vehicle.
- Enabled turn-by-turn navigation instructions for a single audio beacon or a route with numerous waypoints.
- Implemented street name callouts to help users become familiar with the region, even indicating the house
number they are located near.
- Expanded the range of methods for creating or importing routes, including generating them using a navigation
algorithm or importing from a GPX file, with the most popular method being the Breadcrumb waypoints mode.
- Provided additional methods for creating or importing markers, such as pasting them from Apple Maps or
importing from a GPX file.
- Introduced the option to add reverse waypoints for a new route or append reverse waypoints to make the route
circular.
- Implemented adaptive callout frequency for the distance to the beacon, similar to a radar, resulting in more
frequent callouts when nearing the destination.
- Added callouts for the distance and relative direction to points of interest or beacons, with the option to
use clock relative direction.
- Expanded the availability of Siri shortcuts for the most commonly used commands, including "Start Route."
- Introduced more assistant commands for quick access to commonly used features, such as marking or sharing
the current location.
- Published a list of frequently asked questions on the website for user convenience.
Microsoft Soundscape Resurrection
Jun, 29, 2023
Microsoft discontinued the project Soundscape and made it open-source.
VoiceVista is licensed under the MIT
License to continue providing the service to blind and vision impaired community.
Map data from OpenStreetMap are licensed by Open Database License (ODbL).
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