Re: EchoVision and hotspots

[Gene Warner]

Buddy,

Well, I guess you were right, today I decided to test whether the glasses would make the switch on their own from my home WiFi to my mobile hotspot so I put my phone in my pocket, put the glasses on, and headed to my mailbox to get my mail. I know that my mailbox is beyond the range of my home WiFi so somewhere along the way the glasses should switch to my mobile hotspot. I got my answer when I was about four fifths of the way to my mailbox, my glasses announced that they were no longer connected to my WiFi. While at my mailbox I tried to get the glasses to read the envelopes my mail came in to see where they were from and no joy, no AI to do the reading. Then on my way back from my mailbox, when I reentered my apartment, my glasses announced that they were again connected to my home WiFi. So the answer is, No, the glasses do not automatically switch to the mobile hotspot. Now that I know that, I will probably have my glasses forget my home WiFi and always connect to my mobile hotspot. That way there is no switching by the glasses required, the phone can do it. Disappointing? Yes. But at least there is a work around.

Gene...


----- Original Message -----
From: Buddy Brannan <echov...@agiga.ai>
To: Gene Warner <genew...@gmail.com>
Cc: sup...@agiga.ai
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2025 10:49:05 -0500
Subject: Re: EchoVision and hotspots

> Hi,
>
> Ideallyh, switching to the hotspot once wi-fi gets out of range would happen automatically. It certainly does when switching from hotspot to regular wi-fi, but given that hotspot doesn’t always turn on and make itself discoverable on its own, I need to do some further testing to find the most seamless way to accomplish this. I’m hoping we can maybe distribute something like the shortcut that was mentioned on the list. I’m fairly certain there’s a way to save and share such shortcuts. I hope to have a more concrete answer sooner rather than later.
>
>
> Best,
> Buddy and the AGIGA Team
>
> --
> EchoVision Smart Glasses – built with and for the blind & low-vision community
>
> Website: https://echovision.agiga.ai
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> Google Group: https://groups.google.com/a/agiga.ai/g/echovision-discuss
>
> > On Dec 22, 2025, at 11:50 AM, Gene Warner <genew...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Y'all!
> >
> > Got a quick question. Will the EchoVision glasses automatically switch to my phone's hotspot when it loses the signal from my home WiFi or do I have to use the EchoVision app to make the switch? I am thinking that since my phone will automatically switch between my home's WiFi and the cellular network for internet access, and the hotspot will follow right along, if the glasses requires that the switch be done manually using the EchoVision app, I will have my glasses forget my home WiFi and use my phone's hotspot exclusively. That way I won't have to mess with an app that is mostly unusable because it can't handle not being able to pair with my glasses.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Gene...
> >
>
>
>

[Elizabeth Phillips]

I don't have the glasses but I am really grateful for all of your emails that are explaining your experience. It does sound frustrating and disappointing. I do hope that the final version allows you to seamlessly connect to your hotspot so that you only have to set it up once.
I wonder if the optional Bluetooth connectivity will help with that?Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 24, 2025, at 12:49 PM, Gene Warner <genew...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Buddy,

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>
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[Gene Warner]

It might but it would be slower. If possible I'd prefer to use a WiFi connection. Especially for live AI.

[patrick....@gmail.com]

Mine connects automatically to the hotspot on getting out of range of my home Wi-Fi if the hotspot is switched on.

[Gene Warner]

AS far as I know my hotspot is on, in settings I have the option to allow others to join turned on and the hotspot password is displayed. When I set up the hotspot with the EchoVision app, the glasses connected without a problem. So you would think that since the glasses knows about both my home WiFi and my hotspot that it would switch to the hotspot when it loses the WiFi signal, but it doesn't.

[gregg boss]

hi,
If your hotspot is set to discoverable and your turn compatibility mode on, it works fine.
Here's how the setting should look on your iPhone.
Even though the warning in iOS with compatibility mode on, ignore that. It somehow needs to have it on to guarantee of connection.
Allow Others to Join on
password xxx
Maximize Compatibility on




Gregg Boss



On Dec 24, 2025, at 6:00 PM, patrick....@gmail.com wrote:

Mine connects automatically to the hotspot on getting out of range of my home Wi-Fi if the hotspot is switched on.

[Gene Warner]

OK, I had left the maximise compatibility turned off since the glasses connected with the hotspot with no problem when I initially set it up so I didn't think that it was needed. I hope that needing that setting turned on isn't an indicator of possible future compatibility problems.

I will try going out to my mail box again tomorrow and see what happens.

[Gene Warner]

Well, today I had to take my garbage out to the dumpster in my
apartment community so I decided to try the glasses again to see if
they would automatically switch from my home WiFi to my mobile
hotspot. This time I decided to let live AI tell me what it sees
around me as I make my way to the dumpster and back.

The first thing I noticed is that live must be a hopeful title because
it was always so far behind that what it was telling me was only
useful if I was standing still or walking backwards.
I don't see how it could be even close to useful as a passenger in a
car except maybe for entertainment or just having an idea of where
you are. It will probably be a whole lot more useful for things I am
doing at my desk or in the kitchen where I am pretty much stationary.

Now for the real purpose of this exercise, and the answer is, no it
did not automatically switch to my mobile hotspot, even with
compatibility mode turned on. So I will have to consider forgetting my
home WiFi and tethering it to my mobile hotspot all the time, so while
I'm at home traffic will have to go through my phone to my home WiFi,
but at least now I don't have to always switch the glasses to a new
WiFi connection when it loses its current connection. My phone handle
that without any problems so I will let it deal with maintaining
network connections instead of hoping that the glasses will, because
at the moment, they don't. I guess that is something Agiga will have
to work on.

Gene...

[Haylie Gallacher]

They need to work on that for sure. Also, another thing on this topic is that if you have more than one device with mobile hot spot turned on, it will see all of them.
Haylie

[Gene Warner]

There's nothing wrong with that because it can only connect with networks it has credentials for. The others it should just ignore.

Something else I could do, if I know I'm going to be leaving the range of my home WiFi, I could take a moment before leaving to switch the glasses over to the mobile hotspot, then leave. Still in this age of technology, and with phones demonstrating that it's possible, automatically switching from one network to another seems to me to be a rather basic ability rather than an advanced one.

[annetten...@att.net]

I also had problems switching from home wi-fi to the hot spot once I left home.  I had turned on maximum capability but  an Apple Accessibility agent told me to turn it off.  Today, when I got a certain distance from my house, the   glasses said wi-fi disconnected network unavailable. Then a few feet later, it said wi-fi connected.  I started live AI again and then the hot spot was connected.   I agree the transition should work seamlessly, because it does so in reverse. The live AI works best for stationary objects I am passing.  It does not work for moving objects  where it lags behind in its announcements and description.   Sometimes it repeats itself with the same information which is no longer useful.  I like it best when it tells me when it sees someone walking toward or away from me, or when it sees a person with a dog walking towards me  which I especially want to know since I have a guide dog.  Though live AI still has its problems, I like it.

Annette    

---

From: echovisio...@agiga.ai <echovisio...@agiga.ai> on behalf of Gene Warner <genew...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2025 2:56 PM
To: echovisio...@agiga.ai <echovisio...@agiga.ai>

[Gene Warner]

Understand that I am not complaining about live AI, I am just making observations and reporting on them. I agree that live AI has some issues, but it is still new and still in beta, it will get better as time goes by and experience builds. I am definitely looking forward to making a lot of use of it. That is why I bought one of those wearable battery packs that go around your neck. That gives me 10000 mAh of battery power for live AI. I wonder what that translates into in minutes of use.

I think that for now, the best practice is that if you are going to leave your home WiFi's range, stop and switch manually to your mobile hotspot, that way there should be no lapse in service while the glasses switch WiFi connections.

[Gene Warner]

One irritating "feature" of the EchoVision app is that it often does not display remembered WiFi networks, it seems that every time I go to the WiFi settings to switch my glasses to my Hotspot I have to jump through hoops just to get it to display my mobile hotspot so I can switch to it. This should always be available, especially since it is on the phone with the hotspot and it is a remembered network because I've been logged into it before. It makes switching to my hotspot a royal pain in the butt.

Some people have said that this was one reason why they chose not to buy into the EchoVision glasses.

Gene...

[Sieghard Weitzel]

Since the EchoVision glasses were only just sent out to the first 300 people and prior to that were only in the hands of a smaller beta tester group, how would people know that what you said about Wi-Fi and personal hotspot is an issue?
And then of course there is the fact that we were all aware we are not yet getting a finished product.
Anyways, so far I used the hotspot only once and once I had walked out of my home's Wi-Fi coverage and I asked Siri to turn on my personal hotspot, the glasses connected right away that time. Just this morning somebody else mentioned they had previously connected and then were away from home and could also not see the personal hotspot in their list of networks. Out of curiosity I opened the EchoVision app and went to Settings > Wi-Fi and even though my glasses were in my backpack in their case, they did show as connected to my home Wi-fi. I then again asked Siri to turn on my personal hotspot and at first I did not see my iPhone listed because I was already in the list, once I tapped on back and then went back in, my iPhone showed as an available network I could connect to.
If your glasses do not show the personal hotspot if it's on or fail to connect, I would probably try to Reset Network Settings on my iPhone to see if that helps. Keep in mind if you do this, you will also have to log back into your wi-fi on your iPhone and if you called your iPhone anything like "Gene's iPhone" or similar, you have to go to Settings > General > About and rename it as resetting network settings also resets the name of your iPhone to simply "iPhone".

-----Original Message-----
From: echovisio...@agiga.ai <echovisio...@agiga.ai> On Behalf Of Gene Warner
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2025 10:15 AM
To: echovisio...@agiga.ai
Subject: Re: [echovision-discuss] Re: EchoVision and hotspots

[Gene Warner]

Because they didn't, they decided against EchoVision because they didn't want to have to deal with always having to find a WiFi to connect their glasses to. For somebody who warmed people about assuming in another thread, you assume a lot yourself. Maybe you should practice what you preach.

Gene...


----- Original Message -----

[Sieghard Weitzel]

Thanks for the explanation Gene, I was actually just asking because to me it was not clear how people decide not to order something nobody really had before. But of course maybe just the idea of having to use a personal hotspot is perceived as negative.
It is, however, unfortunate that you instantly feel you have to chastise aggressively if somebody questions anything you say when sometimes it was really just somebody asking for clarification. I will make sure not to reply or comment on any of your messages any more. As EchoVision supporters one would think there is more consideration and enough common ground for us to be supportive and understanding of each other.

Happy New Year,
Sieghard

[Haylie Gallacher]

I have noticed a similar issue myself. In my case, two devices had mobile hot spot turned on, and the EchoVision app could only find the one coming off the Samsung device. It should have also seen my iPhone's as well.
Haylie

[Elizabeth Phillips]

As one of those people who did not purchase their glasses specifically because of the hotspot issue, I can say that reading about all of the challenges that people are having is continuing to give me pause. A cell phone will switch seamlessly from cell cellular data to Wi-Fi depending on if it's in range. The echo vision glasses ideally should do the same. I don't understand why people need to go through the app to switch networks. Shouldn't the glasses simply latch on to whatever network is available, and if that network is your cellular hotspot it should pick that up as a signal. It's the app is needed for you to enter the information from your hotspot the first time you connect that's understandable. But after that I can't understand why you need the app at all to connect.
Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 30, 2025, at 4:33 PM, Haylie Gallacher <hayli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have noticed a similar issue myself. In my case, two devices had mobile hot spot turned on, and the EchoVision app could only find the one coming off the Samsung device. It should have also seen my iPhone's as well.

[Dee Jay]

Someone had posted directs on creating shortcuts to turn hotspot on when disconnected to WiFi and turn hotspot off when connected to WiFi. I have an iPhone and followed the directions. I created both shortcuts. Now it connects both ways without any issues. 

[Gene Warner]

One big problem Agiga is going to have with their glasses and iPhones is that Apple likes to turn off the hotspot when it is not connected. I can understand why they do this but there should be an option to disable this. It is going to make using the EchoVision glasses with iPhones that much more inconvenient and could affect sales as some people will decide they don't want the hassle. I guess that this is what I was running into yesterday when my hotspot would turn off seconds after I turned it on. If this can't be resolved, it will be a factor in my decision whether to keep the EchoVision glassess when the Pioneer's edition program ends.

[Gene Warner]

Would you mind sharing where you found these shortcuts? I think that they would be very useful to other EchoVision users.

Gene...


----- Original Message -----

From: Dee Jay <donnave...@gmail.com>
To: echovisio...@agiga.ai
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2025 05:43:51 -0600

[jimr...@gmail.com]

I just tell Siri to turn on the hotspot and it reconnects again. Would be nicer if it would just stay connected. I did not see any shortcuts so will be watching for them if they get reposted.

[Gene Warner]

I gave up on Siri because it was always misinterpreting what I said and it didn't seem like it was getting any better so I disabled it.

I have a feeling that those shortcuts they mentioned were posted somewhere else. Hopefully they will share them here.

Personally I think it should be an option to keep the hotspot always available like they do in Android. I also think that the glasses should switch to the hotspot when the home WiFi signal fades out. Some people say they do and others, like me say they don't, that shows that switching is inconsistent and that needs to be fixed.

I will say that once I had jumped through all the hoops and had my glasses using my hotspot, my doctor's office gave me a sheet of paper which I used the reading mode to read to me and that worked great!

[Gene Warner]

Isn't there any way to have my EchoVision glasses forget a WiFi network? Since my glasses won't connect to my mobile hotspot by themselves, I've decided to make my mobile hotspot the only WiFi my glasses know so they'll connect to it automatically, so I need to have them forget my home WiFi.

I am doing this because of Apple's extremely aggressive handling of the availability of the mobile hotspot. I have learned that it is normal for the hotspot to be turned off within only a few secconds after being turned on which is way too short an amount of time to switch to the EchoVision app to select the mobile hotspot. This way the glasses should connect to the hotspot as soon as it becomes available without needing the EchoVision app.

Apple needs to take a hint from Android and provide an option to disable this behavior.