Wearable devices have become a very large market within the field of technology. Mainstream products such as the Apple Watch will track fitness, allow you to read and work with notifications, and much more. There are many other wrist-worn devices that attempt to do some or all of these functions as well, and the Apple Watch is certainly not without its limitations. For example, if you are blind with a significant hearing impairment, VoiceOver may not be loud enough for you to hear. If you are completely deaf-blind, the watch would only benefit you through the Taptic Time feature. The Apple Watch also requires that you have an iPhone and enough money to pay for it. The adaptive technology market also has a large number of wearable technologies aimed at solving various issues for individuals with disabilities. Devices such as the smart glasses from Aira allow a user to get sighted assistance through a connected iOS app, the ComPilot can send sounds directly to hearing aids and is worn around the neck, and the BuzzClip, worn on an outer garment, provides vibratory feedback about nearby obstacles. These are just three examples of such products. This review examines another option on the market called the Ditto, which can be clipped to a garment or worn on the wrist.

Description

The Ditto is a small piece of technology that can provide vibratory feedback of alerts from either an iOS or Android device. From my testing, it seems to have a range of about 75 feet. It was designed to offer users the ability to be notified of incoming alerts when their phone vibrating may not be strong enough to grab their attention, or for use in loud environments where the sound of a notification may not be heard or felt.

In the Box

You will find four items in the box: a small battery (known as a coin battery), a wristband, and two oval objects. The thinner of the two ovals is the part of the Ditto that holds the battery and serves as the clip. The thicker is the alerting device. You will notice a small hole in each of the two ovals. To put the Ditto together, first place the battery in the clip with the more narrow part of the battery facing down. Then, put the thicker oval over the thinner one, at a slight right angle, with the hole lining up with the battery compartment. Then twist the clip together until it is even with the alert device itself. I'm describing this because the manual refers to pictures and the video does not have audio.

Once put together, the device becomes a clip that you can affix to an article of clothing. While this works, I did find that the clip kept coming undone. As the Ditto is rather small, this could be a problem depending on where it comes unclipped. As such, I would recommend using the included wristband.

How the Ditto Works

To set up the Ditto, you must first download the app from the iOS App Store or Google Play store. Though I'm told the experience of the Android app is quite similar to that of iOS, I am unable to use Android successfully enough with braille to carry out testing. As such, iOS 12 was used to conduct this evaluation on an iPhone 8. It is important to know that you do not pair the Ditto through the standard Bluetooth menu, but through the app itself.

The iOS App

The Ditto app, when first launched with VoiceOver, will present you with a welcome screen. You can watch an introductory video, get started, or you have the option of purchasing a Ditto. The video simply tells you what you can do with the Ditto, it does not offer anything in the way of explaining how the Ditto works. Lucky for our AccessWorld readers, though, I'm here to give you what the video does not.

Selecting the Get Started button will take you to a series of steps which will assist you in setting up the Ditto. The first step instructs you to install the battery. There is also an unlabeled button here, which will launch a video that will visually show you how to install the battery. There was no audio at all when I played this video, so these instructions are useless for those who can't see the content. As written above, the process itself of putting the Ditto together is rather complex and may pose a significant challenge for someone with any sort of motor impairment. In fact, I struggled to put the device together myself, due to the lack of accessible instructions and the design itself.

The next step is where you pair the Ditto with your phone. If you installed the battery correctly, The Ditto will show up under the list of devices. After selecting the Ditto, you will need to confirm that you wish to pair the two devices by activating the Pair button on your phone. If the Ditto fails to connect, you can retry or scroll back to the first set-up page to start the process over again.

If the Ditto's firmware is not up-to-date, you will then be prompted to update it. The update will download on your mobile device and then transfer to the Ditto. Once this is done, you are congratulated on setting up the Ditto, and can then begin customizing it to your liking.

Main Screen

The main screen of the Ditto contains several options. The first is what VoiceOver calls the "hamburger icon." To the right of this, you will find an unlabeled button followed by the text of what that button is. Activating the unlabeled button or the corresponding text to the right of that button will take you to that option. Separated by an unlabeled button before each labeled text element are the following options: notifications, Apps, Favorites, Tether/Leash, Alarms, Timer, Do Not Disturb, Vibrate Now, Test, and Update. Each of these items will be reviewed briefly below.

The Hamburger Menu

As indicated above, the "Hamburger Icon," as VoiceOver calls it, is in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Activating this will give you a list of FAQs (there is no text description of how to install the battery there, either), videos, an option to contact the company, the option to check your battery level (not useable with VoiceOver), the option to turn on Do Not Disturb, reset the Ditto to factory default, forget the Ditto's pairing, and a few other options related to social media. I found the FAQ section to offer minimal help as a blind user. It would have been helpful if there had been a text description here to help me put the device together.

Notifications

The Ditto can be set up to notify you of certain alerts from your phone. However, not every notification is supported. In the Notifications screen, you have the ability to turn notifications on and off. Beneath the on/off switch, you will find specific options such as for a phone call, text, emails, the Tether, Calendar, and alarms/timer. At the bottom, you will find an option for "other apps," to be discussed in detail further along in this article.

It is possible to configure each notification with a specific vibration pattern, which is accessible with VoiceOver. Whichever alert you choose to modify, the process outlined here is the same. As an example, I'll describe modifying the notification for the Phone to demonstrate how it is done. To the right of the label of the notification, in this case "Phone," you will see a series of bullets. Some patterns may have spaces in between them, which indicate a pause, while other patterns may just have a series of bullets. Each bullet represents one vibration. By default, the phone notification has three bullets with a space between each one. This means that you will have three vibrations for phone calls with a slight pause between each one. Select the Phone option. You will then have the ability to turn that specific notification on or off, or to choose a different vibration pattern. There are seven patterns to choose from. If you are using speech instead of braille, it may be best to use the rotor and navigate by characters to ensure you get the pattern you prefer. Double tapping or hitting a cursor routing button on the braille display will select the desired option. You can then hit the Back button in the upper left corner and you will be returned to the list of possible notifications you can configure.

After setting up the few apps listed, you can then activate the Other Apps button. Around 75 others are included such as Skype, Outlook, Whatsapp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Lyft, Uber, several news sources, many Google products, and several other miscellaneous options. Missing apps include emergency alerts such as WIA notifications, many banking apps, the iOS Clock app, Sprint IP-Relay, Skype for Business (different from the standard Skype), and many other apps I use regularly. The Apps button from the main screen takes the user directly to the Other Apps section for configuration of the apps we just discussed. Remember, it's important to not only set the vibration pattern, but to also be sure the notifications for that app are turned on. I made this mistake a couple of times, so I figured it was worth mentioning.

Favorites

Continuing to explore the main screen, the next feature we have is Favorites. This notification allows you to not only use your favorites in your list of contacts, but also gives you the option of adding other people. Selecting the person also allows you to set up any one of the seven vibration patterns. For a while, I had the notifications for just my Favorites turned on, so that I would only be notified when those people contacted me.

Tether/Leash

While this will not keep your guide dog in range of you, it will notify you when you have gone out of range of your phone. If you activate the Tether option, the Ditto will vibrate when it is out of range of your phone. The Leash feature, on the other hand, will make your phone vibrate if it is out of range of the Ditto. This was how I realized that the clip had come detached from my shirt collar at one point. It is also possible to set a delay for when you are notified that either device is no longer within range of the other. This is good to have if, for example, you live in a large house and don't want to be notified every time you walk out of range of your charging phone. However, if you set it to a few minutes and walk off without your phone in a public place, you might not be notified in time to prevent someone stealing it.

Alarms and Timer

Within this section, you have the ability to set alarms. Worthy of noting is that this is different from the Clock iOS app, which will not send an alert to the Ditto. The process is fully accessible as a braille/VoiceOver user, and could be handy for people who hear nothing with their adaptive hearing equipment on, or if you sleep with a partner who you wish not to disturb. You also have the ability to repeat the alarm every 60 seconds for a set amount of time. What I do not like about this is that it will send you the custom vibration one time and then not do so for another minute. I prefer to have an alarm that keeps going off until I make it stop, so that I will not just go back to sleep. You can also add a message, so for example, if you have to take medication at a specific time each day, you can set this. However, it is not possible to configure the alarm to go off on a set schedule. You will have to manually set it each day. It is possible to configure multiple alarms. Setting a timer is also accessible and comes with the same limitations as the Alarms feature. Hours, minutes, and seconds are all adjustable via a picker item.

Vibrate Now and Test

The Vibrate Now option allows you to listen for the Ditto if it has fallen or you cannot find it. It will also let you check if you can feel the vibration once you affix it to clothing or put it on the wristband. The Test option allows you to test each of the vibration patterns.

Update

This simply allows you to update the Ditto. It seems that a new update comes out each month or so, though you should also get a notification in the app that an update is available.

Thoughts, Advantages, and Limitations

As I noted during my TCL Pulse review earlier this year, the Bluetooth connection between my iOS devices and the Ditto was not reliable. This was especially true when using a braille display or Bluetooth audio. While these issues still persist for users of the iPhone 6S and earlier, the connection was much more reliable on both an iPhone 7 and 8. This included a test where I listened to a podcast while texting someone and had the Ditto on. While there was a slight delay in notifications arriving on my wrist, it was less than ten seconds.

It would also be very helpful to know the level of my battery, which is currently not accessible with VoiceOver. The instructions say you will get a notification of a low battery within the app, but I'm not sure this is true.

As someone with no useable hearing with my hearing aids out, it was still nice to be connected to the notifications I cared about. While I couldn't read them, I at least knew when they were there. As the Ditto is waterproof, I could have even gone swimming as long as my iPhone was in range. It would be even better if I could use the Ditto to alert me of smart devices such as smoke detectors and other devices that may be important to know are going off while I'm in the shower. Certainly, it would seem imperative that there be an option for Emergency Alerts as well.

I continue to use the TCL Pulse for my alarm needs as I wrote above. It would be nice to have the Ditto's alarm continue to go off until it is stopped via the app or some other means. It would also be nice if I could turn on Do Not Disturb on my iOS Device and still get notifications on the Ditto. This is possible with the Apple Watch and also the Dot Smart Watch. I find the Ditto still fits within my life, though, having it set up to only notify me of when certain people send me text messages. For $39, it may be worth a consideration if all you need is another way of being notified of certain alerts on your phone, but do not wish to pay for an Apple Watch or have an Android phone.

Product Information

Product: Ditto Wearable
Manufacturer: Simple Matters LLC.
Price: $39.95

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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Author
Scott Davert
Article Topic
Product Reviews and Guides