[accessibility] Not possible to determine with VoiceOver if a message is a reply

[tuukkao]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

---

Bug description

While reading messages with VoiceOver it is not possible to tell if a message is in reply to another message. The message gets read out as if it was a regular message, i.e. not a reply. For this reason it is also impossible to know the message this one was replied to. These bugs make this feature essentially unusable for VoiceOver users.

Steps to reproduce

• Open a conversation, either with another user or a group (this applies to both)
• Reply to a message marking it as such (i.e. using the reply action - I'm a blind Signal user and don't know exactly how this works without VoiceOver, so please forgive me being a bit vague here)
• Turn on voiceOver and navigate to the message you just sent either by swiping left and right or exploring by touch.

Actual result: VoiceOver announces the message just as if it was a regular non-reply message, i.e. [your name] sent: [your message]. No information about this message being a reply gets announced.

Expected result: VoiceOver should announce this message to be a reply, something like this: [your name] replied: [your message]. Additionally there should be a mechanism for the user to know which message this one refers to. This could be, for example, a rotor action for jumping to the message in question. I strongly discourage announcing the original message before the reply, since it significantly increases the time to know the content of the actual reply.

Screenshots

Not applicable.

Device info

Device: iPhone SE 2020

iOS version: 18.1

Signal version: 7.34

Link to debug log

I believe this is not applicable, but I'm happy to provide one if needed.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[tuukkao]

I just saw that in the most recent Signal iOs release as of this writing this issue has been partly fixed. Now VoiceOver tells whether a message is a reply or not. Thank you for that!

However, it's still not possible to know what message this one was in reply to. I think that is an essential bit of information to truly make this feature useful. See the issue description above for a suggestion on how this could be implemented.

[Simon818]

This has been partially fixed in recent updates, but there's still no way to tell which message is being replied to. Sometimes it's possible to tell from context, other times it's not. I would recommend including this in the VoiceOver hint for the message, which is either read automatically or after tapping once with three fingers; or possibly in the message details screen. It's not something we'll need with every message, but when someone replies to a message and the reply is ambiguous, it's frustrating not to have the same access to information.

Edit: Did not realize @tuukkao had replied to this already, for some reason. Leaving this comment up as I think these are also possible solutions.

If developers do choose to have the original message as part of the accessibility label, I would suggest putting a line break between the end of the reply and the original message, and also including the words "in reply to:" or similar, so there is some separation. I also agree that having the original message read out before the reply would be cumbersome.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[Simon818]

This is in the same state as most recently discussed: It's still not possible to tell which message a reply is referencing. Pretty frustrating in busy group chats. I am running beta builds.

[MarlowBrown]

Hey @Simon818. I'll take a look at this soon and see what I can do.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[MarlowBrown]

Keep open

On Sun, Oct 26, 2025 at 7:26 AM github-actions[bot] < @.***> wrote:

github-actions[bot] left a comment (signalapp/Signal-iOS#5907) https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/5907#issuecomment-3448474241

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/issues/5907#issuecomment-3448474241, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AI3H5DJXBCQJOXROIHPZCDT3ZS4ZBAVCNFSM6AAAAABRMBC2K2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTINBYGQ3TIMRUGE . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[Simon818]

I created #6134 in an attempt to propose a viable solution to all of the accessibility problems surrounding composite messages, including the outstanding issue of not being able to read the quoted message in a reply. There are other related issues, such as not being able to interact with a link or an attachment properly.

Since the original issue was being able to tell *whether* a message is a reply, and we can now do that, I'm going to suggest moving discussions there. I am not a developer, so if someone who knows the code better disagrees that these should all be lumped into one issue, I'll defer to them.