Upgrading from the legacy Soundscape iOS app

This page is for users of the legacy Microsoft Soundscape iOS app who are updating to the new Scottish Tech Army release. The new app is a complete rewrite that shares its codebase with the Android version. It ships under the same bundle identifier (org.scottishtecharmy.soundscape), so an App Store / TestFlight update keeps your saved data in place — but a few features have changed or are not yet present.

What carries over

When you launch the new build for the first time, a one-shot migration reads the legacy database and preferences out of the app’s existing container and writes them into the new app’s storage. It copies rather than moves: the legacy database and settings are left exactly where they were, untouched, so nothing is lost if you go back to the legacy build or if support needs to look at them later.

Your markers and routes are imported on a screen shown once, just after the app opens, with a progress count. You’ll need an internet connection for this, or an offline map covering the places you saved: the old app didn’t store a name for markers you created from a place on the map — it looked the name up each time it drew the list — so the new app has to look those names up too. If it can’t, nothing is imported and you’re offered a “Try again”. You can also skip it with “Not now” and be asked again the next time you open Soundscape; your saved data stays where it is in the meantime.

Migrated automatically:

  • All saved markers — name, address, latitude/longitude. Markers you gave your own name to keep it. Markers you saved from a place on the map are named from current map data instead, so a few may come across under a slightly different name than before — the underlying map has moved on since the old app’s data was frozen. Temporary “audio beacon” markers (the ones the old app created when you started a beacon) are not migrated; only the markers you explicitly saved.
  • All saved routes — name, description, and waypoint order. Each waypoint is reconnected to its underlying marker.
  • Most preferences with a direct equivalent in the new app:
    • Measurement units (metric / imperial)
    • App language
    • Beacon style (mapped to the closest equivalent in the new beacon set)
    • Speech rate (rescaled from the old 0–1 slider to the new 0.5×–2× range)
    • Master “automatic callouts” toggle
    • Mix-with-other-audio
    • Marker sort preference (distance / alphabetical)

The migration runs only once, and never deletes anything belonging to the legacy app. If something goes wrong (e.g. a damaged database file, or no connection to look place names up with), it imports nothing at all and tries again on the next launch rather than discarding anything or leaving you with a half-finished set of markers.

What’s new

  • A fully accessible, Compose-based UI shared with Android — the iOS and Android apps now look and behave the same.
  • GPX recording, plus GPX and Soundscape route file import/export through the standard iOS share sheet.
  • Offline map downloads — pre-download an area for use when you’re off the network.
  • Apple Maps / share-sheet integration via a Share Extension — share a location from Maps, Safari, etc. directly into Soundscape.
  • AirPods head-tracking — when you’re wearing AirPods that report head orientation, beacons spatialise relative to where your head is pointing rather than where the phone is pointing.

What’s missing or changed

These were available in the legacy app but are not present in the rewrite. Some are deliberate trade-offs and some are simply work that hasn’t been done yet — none of them block the migration, but you should know about them before upgrading.

Removed

  • Apple Watch app. No watchOS companion is shipped.
  • CarPlay support. Not implemented.
  • Push-notification subscriptions for service announcements.
  • The custom .soundscape document file format. The new app uses industry-standard GPX and a JSON route format instead. Legacy .soundscape files cannot be opened directly — re-export them as GPX from the legacy app if you have a copy installed, or from another device that still has them.

Reduced or changed

  • iCloud sync of markers and routes. The legacy app used iCloud’s key-value store to mirror your markers and routes between devices automatically. The new app keeps a backup of them in iCloud instead, so that deleting the app or replacing your phone doesn’t lose them: it is restored automatically into a fresh install. It is a backup rather than a sync, so it isn’t meant for keeping two devices in step — use GPX export/import to move data between devices.

  • Siri Shortcuts. The legacy app donated NSUserActivity shortcuts so you could say things like “Hey Siri, what’s around me?”. The new app provides App Shortcuts instead, which Siri and the Shortcuts app offer without any setup: hear your surroundings, start or control a route, start or stop a beacon, list your markers or routes, and change Callout Detail. Your old donated shortcuts are not carried over. The standalone voice command UI is not implemented on iOS.

  • Per-category callout toggles. The legacy app had seven separate switches for callouts (places, landmarks, mobility, information, safety, intersections, destination) plus a master switch for automatic callouts. The new app’s Manage Callouts settings work differently:
    • Callout Detail — Silent, Essential, Simplified or Detailed — sets how much is said as you walk. Silent replaces the master switch: no automatic callouts, while beacons, routes and the home screen buttons carry on.
    • Streets and Junctions turns intersection and road callouts on or off.
    • Places to Call Out is a list to tick: Everything, Landmarks, Public Transit, Food and Drink, Groceries, Banks, or No Places.
    • Distance to the Audio Beacon, as before.

    Your old settings are carried over in two steps. On first launch the upgrade collapses them into an intermediate set: “places” and “landmarks” become one switch (on if either was on), “mobility” is kept, and the master switch is copied. The first time Soundscape then starts its callouts, those become the new settings: the master switch off becomes Silent, “mobility” becomes Streets and Junctions, and places and landmarks on becomes Everything — otherwise Public Transit if mobility was on, or No Places if both were off. “Information”, “safety”, “intersections” and “destination” have no equivalent and are dropped.

  • Per-channel audio gains. The legacy app exposed separate gain controls for TTS, beacon and effects, plus three per-channel volume sliders. The new app has a single speech rate plus a “mix with other audio” toggle; per- channel gain is no longer adjustable. These settings are not migrated.
  • Marker notes. The legacy “annotation” field on a marker (free-text user notes) is not carried over by the migration — the new schema doesn’t include a notes field. The legacy database still holds them, so nothing is lost, but the new app has nowhere to show them.
  • Beacon variants. The “haptic-only” beacon and the legacy “Classic” / “V2” beacons are mapped to the closest current beacon style. The new catalogue is broader (Original, Current, Tactile, Flare, Shimmer, Ping, Drop, Signal variants, Mallet variants) — you’ll likely want to revisit Settings → Audio → Beacon style after upgrading.
  • Headphone-motion calibration. The new app auto-detects head tracking from AirPods and skips the manual calibration screen the legacy app had.

I had a problem with the upgrade

If you find that markers or routes are missing after the upgrade, don’t delete the new app yet. Send the support team:

  1. The model and iOS version of your device.
  2. Roughly how many markers and routes you had before upgrading.
  3. Whether you’d previously enabled iCloud backups for the legacy app.

You can reach support from Settings → Help → Contact support inside the new app.

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