I’ve come here principally to say that this is an amazing app which can be quite transformative in terms of the ability of visually impaired people (well, at least this visually impaired person) to explore new locations and navigate independently.
So why, I hear you ask rather reasonably, have I only given it one star? Well, rather unfairly, I’m hoping it attracts the attention of the developers and will gladly move it up to 5 stars later. You see, the new “community“ version of this app, originally introduced by Microsoft, is actually slightly too alike to its predecessor, in that it has exactly the same name once loaded onto One‘s phone, and cannot be distinguished when asking Siri to open it. Not only that, but there appears to be no way to migrate saved locations from the original version to this one. I realise that fixing the latter issue depends not just on the developers of this version, but on Microsoft, who have already said that they have suspended development activity, but I wonder whether someone could at least look into it?
I have to say, when this app first came out, I still preferred to use its main competitor, blind square. They both operate on a similar principle, That given audio beacons placed virtually around a person as they move around in the real world it is possible for them to navigate independently rather than having to follow turn by turn directions. Soundscape does this in a slightly different way however, by taking advantage of spatial audio (Where a sound can be made to sit in a specific location around a person’s head, making it seem as though it is attached to a physical place). This can make using it feel somewhat more intuitive. That said, switching from BlindSquare, it took me a little while to get used to it, and I still sometimes swap between the two apps depending on what I need on a particular day.
I also like the manner in which Soundscape presents junctions as they are interacted with, placing the names of streets passed or in front of one in the appropriate locations in terms of spatial audio. For me, this is somewhat better than the way Blind Square presents similar information, but it will likely come down to personal preference for users.
Of course, the major advantage of this app is that it is free to users, thanks to the generous support of a range of organisations which have picked up the baton after Microsoft decided that it no longer had a role in providing such support. There is therefore no cost for trying it, or indeed running with it (metaphorically perhaps) in every day life. I would thoroughly recommend it to others tired of being tied to specific roots and keen to explore for themselves.
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