VoiceOver on iPhone: the gestures you need for audio games Official

Audio games on iPhone are played with a mixture of VoiceOver gestures and the game's own touch controls. Knowing which is which saves a lot of confusion.

Turning VoiceOver on and off. Triple-click the side button, once you have set that up under Settings, Accessibility, Accessibility Shortcut. Being able to switch quickly matters, because some games are easier with VoiceOver off.

Basic movement. Swipe right and left with one finger to move through items, double-tap to activate, swipe up and down to change the rotor setting, and turn two fingers like a dial to open the rotor. A two-finger swipe down reads everything from the current position; a two-finger tap stops speech.

Direct touch. When a game draws its own touch area, VoiceOver can be told to pass your touches straight to the app. In the rotor choose Direct Touch, or turn on Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Rotor, Direct Touch Apps for the game. Life in Nature is designed as one direct-interaction element, so it plays the same with VoiceOver on or off.

Typing. Touch typing, where you slide to a letter and lift, is faster than standard typing for most people once you get used to it. Braille screen input is faster still if you read braille.

Sound. Use Settings, Sounds and Haptics to turn off system sounds that overlap with a game, and keep the Attention Aware feature in mind: the phone lowers the volume when it thinks you are looking at it.

Battery and heat. Long sessions with the screen on drain the battery. The screen curtain, a three-finger triple-tap with VoiceOver on, turns the display off while everything keeps running.

If a game seems to ignore your taps, the usual cause is that VoiceOver is handling the touch. Try direct touch first, then VoiceOver off.