Audio, voices and storage

Spoken Dutch is central to Verbie, so audio problems are among the most common support topics. This page covers how playback works, what the customer can change, and where the files live.

How playback works

Verbie plays real recorded audio, not the iPhone's built-in text-to-speech. Recordings are hosted on Verbie's content network and are:

1. Downloaded the first time a clip is needed,
2. Saved to the device's cache,
3. Played from the cache on every later occasion.

The practical consequences:

• The first play of anything new needs a connection. Once heard, a clip works offline.
• Practising the same material repeatedly gets faster and works without a signal.
• Clearing the cache means everything downloads again.

Quiz questions themselves are stored inside the app and do not need a connection.

Voice

Settings → Practice → Voice

One is picked at random on first launch, so plenty of customers do not realise the other exists. Switching is instant and applies everywhere — quizzes, Speaker activities, Bookmarks playback and the Translate tab.

Because each voice has its own set of recordings, switching means new downloads and a larger cache over time.

Voice Speed

Settings → Practice → Voice Speed

The slow version is a genuine slower recording, not slowed-down playback, so it does not sound distorted. It is the first thing to recommend when a customer says the Dutch is too fast — especially for numbers and long sentences.

Automatic playback

Most quiz categories play the Dutch automatically as each question appears, and again when the answer is revealed. Two behave differently on purpose:

• Separable Verbs — audio plays only after an answer is chosen, since hearing the correct sentence would give the answer away.
• Er Usage — the same.

The speaker icon is always available for a manual replay.

When the speaker icon shakes

A brief shake of the speaker icon means Verbie could not get that clip. Causes, in order of likelihood:

1. No connection and the clip is not cached yet.
2. A recording is genuinely missing for that item, voice or speed. Verbie reports these automatically so they can be recorded.
3. A temporary problem reaching the content network.

What to suggest: check the connection, try the other Voice, or switch Voice Speed — a clip may exist at one setting and not the other. The quiz itself is unaffected; only the audio is missing.

The audio cache

Settings → Storage

• Audio Cache shows how much space downloaded audio is using.
• Clear Audio Cache deletes all of it, after a confirmation. Files re-download as they are needed.

Clearing the cache is safe and loses no progress, bookmarks or settings. It is worth trying when audio behaves strangely — a wrong or truncated clip, for instance.

The cache lives in the device's cache area, which means iOS may clear some of it automatically when storage runs low. That is normal, and the files simply download again.

Recordings of the customer's own voice

Voice recordings made in the Speaker activities are a separate matter:

• Only the most recent recording is kept — each new one replaces it.
• It is stored in temporary storage on the device.
• It is never uploaded anywhere.
• It is not affected by Clear Audio Cache, and it does not survive the app being closed for long.

Common questions

"No sound at all, anywhere." Work through: the ringer/silent switch; the volume; whether other apps play sound; whether Bluetooth headphones elsewhere are grabbing the audio; then the connection.

"Sound works in quizzes but not in Translate." Translate needs a live connection for every phrase, and falls back to iOS's built-in voice when no recording exists. Quiz audio may simply be playing from cache.

"Verbie is using a lot of storage." Check Settings → Storage and clear the audio cache. Two voices at two speeds multiply the number of files a heavy user accumulates.

"The audio cuts off when I switch questions quickly." Expected — starting new audio stops whatever was playing.