Beta

Get the app

Until it is on the App Store, the app comes through TestFlight, Apple's free app for trying apps before release. You don't need to find it first: the invitation brings it with it. Do this on the iPad or Mac you'll read on.

1. Open the invitation. Tap the button above, or point the iPad's Camera at the square below. If TestFlight isn't on the iPad yet, the invitation offers it first: install it (it's free, from Apple), then come back and open the invitation again. TestFlight opens with the app listed.

2. Tap Install. The app appears on the home screen like any other, with a small orange dot beside its name — that just means it's a beta. Updates arrive on their own through TestFlight.

How to scan a square

Open the Camera app — not Photos — and hold the iPad so the square fills about a third of the screen. After a moment a yellow banner appears at the top or bottom; tap it. That's all. If nothing appears, move a little closer or further away and hold still for a second.

Setting up for someone else

If you're installing this on a parent's iPad: do both steps yourself, then open the app once and choose the Simple reading profile under Settings, and follow the Setup page to give it a natural voice. After that they only ever touch the app's icon.

What to tell us

Anything you couldn't hit. Anything you couldn't read. What the microphone heard versus what you said. A Siri phrase that didn't work. A wrong answer in Ask. Anything that felt like one step too many. Email joe.hocker@gmail.com, or use the feedback button TestFlight adds when you take a screenshot.