Featured in @iosdevweekly@iosdev.space, issue 770! Thank you @andyyhope@mastodon.social for the kind words on my blog post about making Xarra as accessible as possible. Up to 11! 💪
Remote
Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats
@dadederk@iosdev.space
mastodon 4.7.3#iOS @ Yoto. Developer of RetroRapid! & Xarra! Previously: Apple (contractor), Spotify, BBC & Skyscanner. "Developing Accessible iOS Apps”.
1173 Followers
222 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 14, 2022
If you cover apps, accessibility, or indie development for a publication, blog, newsletter, podcast, or video channel... and think Xarra's story might interest your audience, please reach out. I’d love to chat!
Press kit and demo:
https://accessibilityupto11.com/apps/xarra/press/
Thanks so much!
How did this happen?! 😱
Xarra is a 2026 Gaady Award winner!
I’m genuinely humbled and honoured. Thanks to the GAAD Foundation for pushing the industry to build a more accessible digital world, and to everyone who has helped shape Xarra!
Something I’ve wanted to do:
I’d like to offer public institutions and nonprofits free lifetime access to Xarra for people in their communities who might benefit from a more flexible way to read.
Xarra keeps speech and highlighted text in sync, works offline, and has no accounts or tracking.
If this could be useful where you work, please get in touch. We can figure out the details together.
To start the weekend, we’re celebrating Xarra’s Gaady Award win with three thank-you offers for Premium!
Tap any of these to redeem:
GAADY2MONTHS (2 months free)
https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6759402266&code=GAADY2MONTHS
GAADYYEAR50 (50% off the first year)
https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6759402266&code=GAADYYEAR50
GAADYLIFETIME33 (33% off Lifetime)
https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6759402266&code=GAADYLIFETIME33
Available through 12 October.
New blog post! This time about "Little stories on my journey to making Xarra as accessible as possible (Part 1)." Why part 1? Because I hope to make a little series of it. What do you think?!
I'm going to SF for a week in December! Can't wait, haven't been in aaages! Any recommendations on where to stay or what to do? You know I'm a foodie and a coffee snob. Any events or meetups going on while I'm there (week of the 10th)? Anyone up for meeting for coffee?
Xarra 2.0 is ready for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS 27. Find Xarra documents in Spotlight, use four new Shortcuts, or just ask Siri to start listening or pick up where you left off. Smarter automatic voice selection, clearer import progress, library search, and improved playback controls.
Now available in French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese, with refreshed existing translations. https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759402266
"Offer important information through more than one mode when possible: text, audio, haptics… or a combination.".
I've always worked with this accessibility principle in mind, it's Xarra's whole purpose and why I started it.
When building RetroRapid, I had three things in mind: simplicity, accessibility, and fun. Mission accomplished? I'll let these reviews speak for themselves 😊 Please, keep them coming!
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Feels at home on iPhone and iPad, with an adaptive design and making the most of Liquid Glass. Built to be helpful and respectful. Works offline. No ads, no trackers, no accounts required. Lightweight, and focused on helping you engage with text in the way that works best for you.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/xarra/id6759402266
RE: @iosdevweekly@iosdev.space
What an awesome surprise to see my post "Learning to develop more accessible iOS games" featured in @iosdevweekly@iosdev.space this week! And what a lovely comment to introduce it, @daveverwer@mastodon.social thank you!!! 😊 It really made me super happy!
300 downloads! 🎉 Thanks everyone!!! Can we do 300 more?! 😉
Step 1. Your app icon in Helm's app wall. ✅
Step 2. Your app icon in Apple's WWDC keynote app wall... 🤞
That's how it works, right? Right?
Massive FOMO last week for Deep Dish Swift AND try! Swift Tokyo!
Caught up on some talks... and @klemensstrasser@mastodon.social
you are so awesome! It felt amazing to see that me and RetroRapid were part of it in a small way.
Thank you so much! 🙏
The Art of Caring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nAZUW62t5c
Yesterday was the best day for downloads by far with 108! And just like that, it marks RetroRapid’s first 1k downloads! 😱 Pretty amazing! Thanks everyone! 😊
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Powered by Apple Intelligence! I'm particularly proud of this feature, which uses Foundation Models to explain what a piece of code does in an audio-friendly format.
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Accessibility, front and center! Supports VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Voice Control... both portrait and landscape orientations... light and dark mode... Increase Contrast, Reduce Transparency... you name it!
Working on something cool! Hello, Mac! 🖥️
Since day one of building Xarra, I've wanted a seamless multi-platform experience. Import content on your Mac, sync it to your iPhone with iCloud, and continue listening on the go. That vision is becoming real, soon.
Want a sneak peek? The beta is on TestFlight
https://testflight.apple.com/join/ysbKq74Z
Looking to build accessible mobile apps? You should! Abra has compiled some genuinely useful resources. Worth bookmarking.
My app Xarra has been featured as the Indie App of the Week in @createwithswift@bird.makeup newsletter issue 101, and it makes me sooo happy! 😊
A lot of care has gone into developing this over the last few months, and I hope lots of you find it useful, and that it helps you go through your reading in a delightful way. If you're curious, check out the link in the comments to learn more!
https://www.createwithswift.com/weekly-newsletter-issue-101/
It's been such a big week for RetroRapid!! 🎉 Best week for downloads so far: 363, with 70 just yesterday! Second best week for revenue too, with 3 more Unlimited Play purchases. Some exciting updates coming soon. Stay tuned! 👀
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Jump easily to the content you're looking for using a list of extracted chapters and sections.
Going to @iosdevuk@iosdev.space has been on my bucket list for aaages. This year, I won't just be going, I'll be speaking! And it looks like it's going to be an incredible conference. 🎉 See you there?!
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@pesh Hey Peter, no worries. Thanks a lot for trying out the app! Those are great suggestions and I'll put them in my roadmap for sure. Will keep you posted!
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@pesh Hey Peter, that's a great idea! It wasn't in my plans so far, but I'd love to do that. Full audio support might be tricky, but I'll definitely look into supporting text DAISY files very soon. Thanks! I hope you like the app once it becomes available this week.
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Go as fast or as slow as you want. Skip forwards or backwards to get something repeated. Scrub along to quickly jump to the interesting bits.
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On-device voices in many languages! Download Premium voices in iOS for a more natural listening experience. Language is automatically detected for you, no hassle!
What a night! @NSLondonMeetup@mastodon.social at Apple's in Battersea Power Station was super fun! Incredible organisation, as always! Had the chance to see new and old Macs, and it was also awesome to start handing out #RetroRapid stickers! 🏎️
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Xarra lets you turn text into audio. For moments when reading alone isn't ideal, listening alone isn't enough, or when combining both helps you stay focused and engaged with the content.
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Lines, and if you want, words, are highlighted in sync with the audio.
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Xarra works completely offline once content is imported. No accounts. No data collection. No ads.
You can listen to 4 documents for free. After that, a subscription or one-time payment is required to support development.
Pre-order now! (no upfront payment).
I keep being asked: what is Xarra? I made a short one-minute video to show what it looks like and how I use it.
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But the simplest way to get content into Xarra is to use the Share extension from Safari, Notes, or your favourite app.
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@pesh Thank you!!! It has been out there for a couple days now. Modest release, but very happy with it! 😊
On the support for DAISY, I was starting to give it a go, and I have a first version ready on TestFlight, if you'd like to try it out: https://testflight.apple.com/join/ysbKq74Z
Still some tweaks needed, but seems to work alright with the sample files provided by the Consortium. Don't have any real Bookshare books to try out though...
Would love to know what you think! Thanks!
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@filmaniac@kind.social Looking forward to it! 💪
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You can enter plain text, use one of your PDF documents, or import content from a URL!
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Also working on DAISY file support in Xarra! DAISY is an accessible book format designed for people with print disabilities.
If you have any DAISY files, please give it a go and let me know what you think! 🙏
Learn more about the format at: https://daisy.org
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@KyleBorah@mastodon.social Hey! Yes, both text and audio. The main idea is that I concentrate better while reading while listening to it and as sentences and words highlight. In the iPhone, I use it to listen to stuff that I want to read when I’m out, all the time too.
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@kevinrj My principles are: accessible, native, multi-platform (I plan to port it to macOS, watchOS...), and respectful (no data collection, no ads, small app size...). There might be overlap with other apps. But I think it is just great that users have more options.
If you need on-device speech synthesis to present spoken content, something that could help people use your app without having to enable VoiceOver necessarily, here's how. From my latest blog post:
You asked, we listened!
The number 1 request since launch has been more control over voices, so we got to work.
Xarra 1.1 introduces Voice Management, a new setting that lets you choose your preferred voice for each language, not just the default.
We've also made it clearer how to download Premium or Enhanced voices in iOS Settings for a much more natural sound.
Thank you for the feedback! Keep it coming!
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@KyleBorah@mastodon.social Oh, I see! Not yet, but would love to explore that idea!
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Your library of Audio Documents goes with you. It syncs with iCloud across devices, and it remembers where you left off, so you can get straight to it.
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@marco@caneandable.social Oh, really?! Definitely not expected. The location should not be relevant. Let me investigate what might be the issue... I'll keep you posted. You should be able to find any books in the library, including titles in German.
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