If you adore the usual female Siri voice on your iPhone, you may be getting more options to choose from. With the release of iOS 14.5 beta 6, many Apple users will get the option to choose which voice to help them when they say the infamous line of “Hey Siri”. The two newest voices bring much-needed variety to the voices of Siri. Which also offers more diversity in speech sounds and patterns for Apple users.
The latest voices use source talent recordings that are run through Apple’s Neural text to speech engine. Which makes the voices flow more organically through phases that are actually being generated.
The newest voices will be making changes to the formerly accent section in previous versions of iOS. Which Apple will be changing the name of that section to the variety section. This section will display the various accents available for the language that a user have Siri configured for, while the Voice heading allows you to choose between the available voices within that language. Just like before, choosing a new voice will download the new voice on-demand, right from within the Siri & Voice preferences panel.
“We’re excited to introduce two new Siri voices for English speakers and the option for Siri users to select the voice they want when they set up their device,” a statement from Apple reads. “This is a continuation of Apple’s long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion and products and services that are designed to better reflect the diversity of the world we live in.”
Here’s a recording of Siri’s new lineup of American voices in iOS 14.5. Voices 1 and 4 are the existing ones, voices 2 and 3 are the new ones. pic.twitter.com/6emei4B3Z9
— John Gruber (@gruber) April 1, 2021
This latest beta also upgrades the Siri voices in Ireland, Russia, and Italy to Neural TTS, bringing the total voices using the new tech to 38. Siri now handles 25 billion requests per month on over 500 million devices and supports 21 languages in 36 countries. The most recent voices are available to English-speaking users around the world and Siri users can select a personal preference of voice in 16 languages.
The latest iOS update 14.5 beta 6 would not only include the newest voices, but also a battery recalibration tool. Which will be allowing users to recalibrate their iPhone’s internal battery when performance isn’t meeting expectations The beta version of the newer voices should be live now and available to program participants.
