Missing Departure and Arrival Cues for Beacons and Waypoints

[JJGatchalian]

The iOS app had an option to turn on the departure and arrival sound effects so that the beacon sound doesn't suddenly start and stop in the middle of a route.

[davecraig]

I'd forgotten about this setting, though I also don't understand what the purpose of it is! As far as I can tell it just disables the "hum" as you get close to the current destination beacon, what do you mean by "so that the beacon sound doesn't suddenly start and stop in the middle of a route"? Thanks!

[JJGatchalian]

I don't think it has to do with the hum when you get close to the beacon. It has to do with the melodies that play when the beacon starts and stops. In the iOS app, you should hear the difference between when you turn it on vs when you turn it off. When this setting is on, it plays the departure melody at startup before the beacon starts playing. I think this occurs with both single beacons and routes. The departure melody sounds like a series of rising notes. Then during a route, when you arrive at the next waypoint, the arrival cue will play just as you arrive. This melody is a series of falling notes. If there is another waypoint, you should hear the departure melody again before the beacon sound restarts. One quick way to do it is to set the first waypoint at your current location. If you start the route, you should hear the departure melody, then the beacon sound for a few seconds, then the arrival melody since you are already at that waypoint. Now if you turn this setting off, you just hear the beacon suddenly stop on arrival to each waypoint for a few seconds and then restart at the next waypoint. I believe that on arrival to a single beacon rather than a route, Soundscape plays an entirely different arrival sound when it mutes at 50 feet or 15 meters, but it still plays the departure sound when you first start the audio beacon. Thanks.

[davecraig]

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about those. They used to work, but I don't hear them at all now - I'll investigate.

[JJGatchalian]

I just opened both Scottish Tech Army and Soundscape Community, and the departure and arrival cues still work. You should also hear the arrival melody when pressing "Remove Beacon" in the iOS app. Maybe it should work the same way for the "Stop Route" button on Android.

[davecraig]

One of the main problems we had with testing the Android version is that almost none of the users had used Soundscape on iPhone. This issue is a good example of a feature that dropped through the cracks because none of the users knew it was even a thing. When we start using the same code for iOS I'm expecting a large number of reports from regular Soundscape iOS users of things that are missing from the Soundscape experience.