8. Sound and voice
Both exist for the same reason: keeping your eyes on the road. Voice is the richer of the two, and Sounds is the one that still works when you cannot make out speech over the engine.
Everything here lives under Settings ▸ Sound & voice.
8.1 Sounds
Sounds (default: on) is the master switch for tones:
- a click when you mark a crossing, where Voice is off and speaks instead,
- the audible start countdown,
- the partial-distance beep,
- the over-max alert on a capped part, for crews running on sound rather than voice.
8.2 The partial distance alert
Partial distance alert is a single setting with three states: Off (default), Beep, or Spoken. Alert every sets the distance between two of them.
A beep and a spoken callout are alternatives, so only one can be active, and picking one switches on the Sounds or Voice setting it needs. That is why it is one row rather than two that could contradict each other.
8.3 Voice
Voice (default: off) activates the audio session with ducking, so announcements dip your music rather than fight it.
Announcement voice picks which installed voice speaks, from those installed for the app's current language. The name tells you the quality, and "Default" shows what it resolves to. Choosing one speaks a sample immediately so you can judge it.
Announcements are spoken in a slightly lower voice than normal, and the ones that repeat, speeds and time to ideal, a little faster too, so each one is finished before the next is due. That is deliberate, not a fault with the voice you picked.
To get more voices, install them in iOS Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Spoken Content ▸ Voices. iOS gives an app no way to do that for you. The list follows the app language, so changing the language changes the voices, after a relaunch.
What Voice says without being configured
| Event | Spoken |
|---|---|
| Voice turned on | "Voice On" |
| Tapping next | "Reset", or "Average started" when it starts the independent average |
| Marking a split in Stage | the elapsed time, spelled out |
| Reverse on and off | "Going Backward", "Going forward now" |
| A row that crosses by itself | the new target speed, or for a pause how long it lasts, so it never changes silently |
| Arming and ending the independent average | "Average started", "Average ended" |
Spoken speeds follow your Speed format setting, not the roadbook's, and drop a decimal that carries nothing. A target of 45,3 is announced as "45,3" when your setting has a decimal; a target of 80 is announced as "eighty", never "eighty point zero". A spoken number is not something you compare against the page character by character, so it answers to your own setting, and every needless decimal is another word to sit through at speed.
The warning and the confirmation say it the same way. When a part is coming up you hear the new target, and when it takes effect you hear it again; both come from the same formatter, so the number cannot appear to change between the two.
8.4 Announcements
Confirmations cut in. When you press something the app answers immediately, stopping whatever it was saying. Announcements are periodic and come round again in a few seconds; the press does not, and a confirmation you hear once the readout has finished is answering a question you have stopped asking. The one-shot upcoming section callout cuts in too, because heard late it is no use. The periodic announcements never interrupt: they wait their turn.
Sound & voice ▸ Announcements, reachable once Voice is on.
Speed
How often spoken speed updates play. The partial-distance callout is on the previous screen, under Partial distance alert.
| Row | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Announce current speed | Off · 10 sec · 30 sec · 1 min | 10 sec |
| Announce average speed | Off · 10 sec · 30 sec · 1 min | 30 sec |
The average announcement carries the current pace tip with it, so you hear one phrase rather than two. It goes quiet inside a roadbook pause part, where the dashboard prints a dash in that slot for the same reason: with the odometer stopped there is nothing to average (6.6b).
Roadbook
Pace guidance, spoken only while Roadbook mode is selected. You can set it up here in advance.
| Row | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Announce speed tips | Off · 10 sec · 30 sec · 1 min | 30 sec |
| Announce time vs ideal | Off · every 0.5 / 1 / 2 units | Off |
| Announce upcoming section | on / off | On |
- Speed tips speaks the pace instruction, and it never speaks when there is no tip to give.
- Time vs ideal speaks the live delta, for example "3.20 seconds to ideal". This is the announcement that lets a driver hold a regularity without looking at the screen.
- Upcoming section speaks a one-shot callout when the look-ahead appears, for example "CAST 80 ahead".
⚠️ Over a MAX cap, the spoken warning is "over max", not "slow down". The two mean different things: the pace tip is about the schedule, the cap is a limit. They are kept apart in the voice for the same reason they are kept apart on screen.
8.5 Choosing a setup
| You are | Suggested |
|---|---|
| Driving a regularity alone | Voice on, time vs ideal every 0.5, speed tips 30 sec, current speed off |
| Two-up with a navigator on the paper | Voice off, Sounds on, partial alert on Beep |
| On a capped part | Voice on for the spoken over-max, or Sounds on for the alert. One or the other, not neither |
| Touring | Partial alert Spoken every 1, everything else off |
8.6 Language
Settings ▸ Language overrides the app language independently of the device. It is saved at once but applied only on a full relaunch, because iOS reads an app's language when the app starts. While a change is pending the section says so and offers Restart now to apply.