iPhone/iPad VoiceOver: Text Messages

Hello, my name is Douglas Walker. Today, we will be looking at how to send a basic text message. Now, texting is usually used for sending someone short blurbs or small bits of information. And these blurbs, going back and forth, are called a conversation. And we can also send items such as a photo, a short video, or even small file attachments, which, I tell you, is really super cool.

Okay, so how about we go ahead and jump right in and check it all out? Okay, we already have our Messages app here open. And we are in our main messages list, which is a list of all of our conversations. However, for privacy, we have gonna ahead and cleaned all of this out. Okay, but today is all about sending a new text message. And we just so happen to be placed on our Compose button here in the top right-hand corner of our screen. We'll go ahead and just double-tap and begin a new conversations. We'll just double-tap here.

VoiceOver: To text field is editing insertion point at start.

Douglas: All right, our new text conversation screen has opened, and we have been placed in our To field just below our heading here, and we'll go ahead and just type our cell phone number here of the person that we are wanting to text. We'll go ahead and do just that. Now, for the sake of privacy and through the magic of video, we will be right back with our phone number entered here.

Great, we are back, and just like magic, our phone number has been entered. And surprise! I am sending a message to Douglas Walker. Yep, I am sending myself a text message, okay, just for demonstration purposes here. Anyway, our phone number, of course, is currently in our To edit field, and now that we have our recipient here in our To field, how about we move to our text field so that we can go ahead and type in our text message? Okay, so we'll just right swipe until we find our text field here. So we'll go ahead and just right swipe.

VoiceOver: Add Contact button.

Douglas: Okay, and here is our Add Contact button just to the right of our To edit field here. Now, this is a really great feature because if we were to double-tap our Add Contact button our address book would actually open, and we would be able to move through our address book, and we could select our recipient from there if we like.

Yeah, this is great. If the person we're wanting to text has been added to our Contacts app. Okay, how about we just go ahead and right swipe from here, though? So we'll just right swipe.

VoiceOver: Camera button. Take a picture with the camera and attach it to this conversation.

Douglas: Great, and of course, here is our Camera button. And VoiceOver is kind enough to tell us that we have the ability to take a photo and add it to our conversation. And this means that if we were to double-tap our Camera button, our Camera app would actually open here, and we can snap a photo that will be added right to our text field for sending. And this really is great, but, remember, today is all about sending a basic text conversation here. So we'll go ahead and just right swipe from here.

VoiceOver: Apps hidden button. Double-tap to toggle the app bar.

Douglas: Yeah, and here is our Apps button, and with our Apps button, we have the ability to send things like GIFs, photos from our photo library. We can decorate our text up with some stickers if we like, and we can even send a gift card from apps like Starbucks.

Now, VoiceOver announced that our apps here are hidden. So if we were to double-tap, our apps would actually appear in a horizontal list just above our onscreen keyboard. Now, this is kind of an advanced feature, and today, of course, is all about the basics of sending a text. When we right swipe again, we will find our text field. Yeah, so we'll go ahead and just right swipe from here.

VoiceOver: Message, iMessage, text field, double-tap to edit.

Douglas: Okay, and here is of course our text field, and you guessed it. This is where we will type our text message. Now, we heard VoiceOver announce double-tap to edit. And this is great because we can just double-tap to enter our text field here. And then we'll go ahead and just type in our text message, so we'll go ahead and just double-tap here.

VoiceOver: Insertion point at end.

Douglas: Yeah, and we are ready to type in our message. Now, it is good to know that we also have the ability to use our dictate feature from right here if we like. And if we're not yet familiar with how to use our dictate feature, well, we just so happen to have a workshop that walks us right through how to use dictation. And I tell you, I use my dictate feature all of the time. Okay, today we're just gonna type a quick message. How about we type, I don't know, something like, I don't know, hello there. Anyway, let's go ahead and just type in hello there here.

VoiceOver: Cap, H, Cap H, E, E, L, L, L, L, I, O, O, Space, Space, Hello, R, T, T, H, H, E, E, R, R, E, E.

Douglas: All right, and there is our text message, short as it may be, but nonetheless, we are ready to send it. And to send our text message, we will just need to find our Send button, which is just to the right of our text field here and near the top right corner of our onscreen keyboard. We'll go ahead and just touch our Send button here.

VoiceOver: Send button. Send using iMessage, double-tap and hold to add effect.

Douglas: Yeah, and here's our Send button, and, of course, we will just double-tap here to send our text message. Now, we also heard VoiceOver announce that we could add some visual effects to our message if we like, yeah, which could be cool. However, let's just go ahead and send our basic text message.

Now, when we send our message, we will know that it is sent because we will hear our ascending sound. Okay, so let's go ahead and send our text, and we'll just double-tap here. Sent message.

Douglas: Great, now we heard our ascending text message sound. So we know that our text was sent, and there you go! I tell you, that really is all it takes to send a basic text message, and once we actually have a text conversation going, the only items that we will really be using will be our text field here, our onscreen keyboard, and, of course, our Send button.

Once we get the hang of it, it really is super easy to send a basic text message. Again, my name is Douglas Walker. Take care, and I'll see you next time!