Support

Playing

How do I play?

Put on your headphones and tap a game. The game talks, and every word appears on screen as it's spoken. When it's your turn, say your answer, type it, or tap one of the options under the story. A short rising sound means the microphone is listening; if you don't hear it, tap the mic button, or the picture, to talk. You can answer while the voice is still talking. Tap the picture to skip the voice.

The game paused by itself.

If nobody answers, the question plays again. After a second silence, or if you say "stop", the game pauses. Tap Carry on to pick up where it stopped. If you'd like longer to answer, choose Longer or Longest under Time to answer in Settings.

Can I play with the screen off?

Yes. Lock your iPhone, or turn your Android phone's screen off, and the game goes on talking and listening. Your headphones' button does what tapping the picture does, and the game's controls are on the lock screen (on Android, in its notification).

How do I start a game again?

Open the menu (the three dots at the top right of a game) and tap Start again. At an ending, tap Play again or Try again.

Does it work offline?

Yes. All eight games are inside the app. You only need a connection to buy and download packs, and on some phones for speech recognition (see below). Typing and tapping always work offline.

Speaking your answers

The game can't hear me.

• iPhone: open Settings, then Hear Out Games, and turn on Microphone and Speech Recognition.
• Android: open Settings, then Apps, Hear Out Games, Permissions, and allow Microphone.

Wait for the short rising sound, or the ring around the picture, before you speak. In a noisy place, headphones with a mic help. You can also tap the mic button to listen again. Settings, under Microphone, shows whether the app is allowed to use the microphone, with a button to put it right.

The mic button has a line through it.

Either the app isn't allowed to use the microphone (see above), or your phone's speech recognition isn't available to it. Your phone's own speech recognition does the listening. On iPhone, it needs a connection if your iPhone can't recognise English on the device. On Android, it needs a speech recognition service for English, usually Google's. Some phones need a connection for it, or English downloaded for offline use in the phone's voice typing settings. Until then, you can type or tap your answers.

Is my voice recorded?

No. What you say is turned into words by Apple's or Google's speech recognition, used to answer the game, and never sent to us, not even in the usage data. The privacy policy has the details.

Packs and purchases

What's in the packs?

Five games are free in full. Three have a free part and a pack with more:

Each pack is a one-time purchase. There are no subscriptions and no ads.

How do I buy a pack?

Open the Shop tab, along the bottom of the screen on a phone, or at the side or the top on a tablet. Each game with a pack has its own section: tap the Buy button under the pack, which shows its price. You can also tap Get on a game's card in the Games tab, open a game's menu and tap More stories and levels, or wait for the end of the free part, which offers the pack. The pack downloads straight after you buy it.

I bought a pack, but it isn't there.

Open the Shop tab and tap Restore purchases. Use the same Apple Account or Google account you bought it with. The app also checks by itself each time it starts. On iPhone, packs work with Family Sharing.

The download stopped or failed.

Check your connection and your free space: a pack needs room to download and unpack. Then tap Download under the pack in the Shop tab to try again. On iPhone, a download the app starts by itself waits for Wi-Fi. Tap Download now to use mobile data instead.

Can I get a refund?

Apple and Google handle payments, so they handle refunds too. For the App Store, go to reportaproblem.apple.com. For Google Play, see Google Play's refund help.

Saves

Where is my progress?

On your phone. Each game saves your place at every question. Games you left part-way show In progress and Carry on in the Games tab, and the game picks up with "Welcome back!". Deleting the app deletes your saves.

I've got a new phone.

Install the app and tap Restore purchases to get your packs back. Your saves move across only if your phone's own backup brings the app's data with it.

Tablets, keyboards and watches

Can I play on a tablet?

Yes. The same app runs on iPad, and on Android tablets, foldables and Chromebooks, in any orientation. On a wide screen the tabs are at the side or the top, and a game shows its words beside the picture. To get your packs there, tap Restore purchases in the Shop tab, using the same Apple Account or Google account. Saves stay on the device they were made on.

Can I use a keyboard?

Yes. Press Space to tap the picture, unless you're in the answer box. Return or Enter sends your answer, Escape pauses the game or closes a sheet, and Control with 1 to 4 switches between the tabs (Command with 1 to 4 on an iPad). Tab and the arrow keys move around the screen, with a ring around whatever has the focus.

Can I use my watch?

Yes. Now Playing on an Apple Watch, and the media controls on a Wear OS watch, show the game. Press pause to stop the voice or the listening, and play to carry on, or to start listening when it's your turn.

Our watch app does more. It shows what the game is doing, its big button does what tapping the picture does (skip, talk, stop listening or carry on), and it buzzes when the microphone opens, so you know when to answer even if you can't hear the sound. To add it to an Apple Watch, open the Watch app on your iPhone; on a Wear OS watch, open the Play Store on the watch. Your phone still does the talking and listening.

The watch says it can't reach my phone.

Keep your phone close, with Bluetooth on, and try again. If the watch says to open a game, open one on your phone: the watch app controls the game that's open there.

Accessibility

Hear Out Games is made for blind and partially sighted players first. Every line the games speak is also shown as text, and every question can be answered by speaking, typing or tapping. The accessibility statement lists everything the apps do, and what we're still testing.

Using VoiceOver on iPhone and iPad

With VoiceOver on, the microphone doesn't open by itself, so VoiceOver isn't heard as your answer. Use Magic Tap (a two-finger double tap anywhere) to skip the voice, start talking, stop listening, or carry on, whichever comes next. Your headphones' play button does the same. A short sound plays when the microphone starts listening.

Using TalkBack on Android

With TalkBack on, the microphone doesn't open by itself either. Double tap the picture or the mic button to talk, or press your headphones' play button. TalkBack's two-finger double tap, its play and pause gesture, should do the same as tapping the picture, but we're still testing it on real phones: if it doesn't work for you, please tell us.

Text size, colours and voice speed

Settings has a High contrast theme, bigger text, voice speed from 0.75 to 2 times, more time to answer, and the option to have the microphone open by itself even with a screen reader on. The apps also follow your phone's text size, dark mode, bold text and reduce motion settings, and every help topic can be read to you.

Privacy and usage data

What does the app send you?

Usage data: which tabs and games are opened, how far stories get, and whether packs are bought and downloaded, under a random ID the app makes. Never your name or email, never your voice or what you say or type, and nothing about accessibility settings or whether you use a screen reader. The privacy policy's usage data section lists every event.

How do I turn it off?

Open Settings, then Privacy, and turn off Share usage data. The app stops sending, deletes what it hadn't sent yet, and forgets its random ID. That doesn't delete what it sent before: to delete that too, tap Delete my usage data first. You can also tap Turn off on the welcome page the first time you open the app, before anything has been sent.

How do I delete my usage data?

In Settings, Privacy, tap Delete my usage data. It deletes everything we hold under the app's random ID, and the app starts again with a new one. The ID is the only way we can find your usage data, so once you've deleted the app, or turned usage data off, we can't tell which records were yours; they're deleted after 13 months anyway.

Still stuck?

Email [email protected] and we'll help. Hear Out Games is made by Hugo FM.