This page covers the accessibility features in the Merrin app for iPhone and Android: what’s there today, where to find the settings, and the gaps we know about. It describes the current version of the app. We haven’t had Merrin formally audited against a standard such as WCAG, so we don’t claim conformance with one.

If something gets in your way, tell us using the contact details at the end of this page. It helps to include your phone model, its operating system version and which accessibility settings you use.

Screen readers

Merrin works with VoiceOver on iPhone and TalkBack on Android. Buttons, icons and controls across the app have spoken labels, including chat, the journal, insights, onboarding and settings.

In a conversation, each message is read with who sent it, as “You: …” or “Merrin: …”. Formatting symbols are left out of Merrin’s replies so the screen reader doesn’t read out asterisks and hashes. The message box, suggested replies and the button that jumps to the latest message have their own labels.

Some things are announced as they happen, without you having to move focus to them:

  • error messages and notices
  • when Merrin is thinking or preparing a reply
  • when the app goes offline
  • progress while the on-device model loads
  • status changes in voice conversations
  • the result of each attempt on the lock screen

A few moving parts hold still when a screen reader is on. The hint text in the message box stops rotating, and the weekly story in insights waits for you instead of moving to the next card on its own.

The PIN pad reads each key as a button, has a labelled delete key, and tells you how many digits you’ve entered (“2 of 4”), so you can unlock the app without seeing the dots.

Text size

Open Settings → Appearance and use the Text size slider. It has nine steps, from 82% to 200% of the standard size, and there are buttons for smaller and larger text next to it. The slider reads its value as a percentage.

To use your phone’s text size instead, turn on Match device. Merrin then follows the setting in Accessibility → Display & Text Size on iPhone, or Display → Font size on Android, up to 200%.

Match device is off by default, so Merrin keeps its own text size until you turn it on. Some layouts, such as the journal’s week view and parts of insights, rearrange themselves at larger sizes so text isn’t cut off.

Motion and vibration

Merrin follows your phone’s reduced-motion setting: Reduce Motion on iPhone (Accessibility → Motion), or Remove animations on Android (Accessibility). With it on, animations are replaced by instant changes. That includes screen and sheet transitions, button effects, the animated Merrin character, numbers that count up, and the shake when a PIN is wrong.

Merrin uses vibration sparingly: when something you made is saved, when an action fails, when you’re asked to confirm a deletion, and when the microphone starts or stops listening. Typing, scrolling and Merrin’s replies never vibrate. Turn it off with Haptic feedback in Settings → Appearance. Merrin also respects your phone’s system setting for haptics.

Seeing and tapping

Choose System, Light or Dark under Settings → Appearance → Theme. System follows your phone’s setting.

Every button and control is at least 44 by 44 points, the minimum Apple recommends for touch targets. The keys on the PIN pad are larger than that.

Voice and typing

You can always type. Voice is there if you’d rather talk, but no feature requires it.

  • Voice input. Tap the microphone to speak a message instead of typing it. By default, speech recognition runs on your phone. The Privacy Policy explains the optional mode that uses your phone’s built-in recognizer instead.
  • Voice conversations. Talk with Merrin hands-free: what you say is sent when you stop speaking, and Merrin answers out loud using your phone’s voices. You can change how fast Merrin speaks with Speech rate in Settings. An experimental Talk over Merrin setting lets you interrupt a reply by speaking.
  • Text afterwards. Voice conversations are saved as text in the chat and in your journal, so you can read back what was said.
  • Read aloud. Journal entries have a Read entry aloud button.

Unlocking the app

App lock is optional, and it’s off unless you turn it on. When it’s on, you can unlock with your phone’s biometrics, such as Face ID or a fingerprint, and switch to your PIN or password whenever biometrics don’t work for you.

Languages

The app is available in English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Voice input also understands Arabic and Chinese.

Known limitations

We’d rather you know these before you rely on the app:

  • Bold text. Your phone’s bold text setting is only used when Match device is on.
  • PIN pad digits stay the same size whatever your text size setting. Screen readers still read them.
  • No live captions in voice conversations. The full-screen voice view shows status, not the words, and the transcript appears in the chat when the turn is done.
  • Read aloud is available for journal entries but not yet for individual chat messages.
  • No high-contrast mode, and the system high-contrast setting isn’t used yet.
  • No in-app reduce-motion switch. Merrin relies on your phone’s setting.
  • Some spoken labels are in English whatever language the app is set to, including “You” and “Merrin” on chat messages and the buttons for rewriting a draft.
  • No right-to-left languages in the interface yet.

This website

The site follows your device’s reduced-motion setting. The one exception is the short demo chat on the home page, which keeps its small message animation because it shows how the app behaves. The site has a light and dark theme, and you can switch it from the header.