Siri on HomePod can now speak to you in French, German, Canadian English

AppleInsider · May 30, 2018 1:04AM

With HomePod primed for launch in Canada, France and Germany, Apple on Tuesday expanded Siri's capabilities to provide compatibility with languages -- and dialects like Canadian English -- spoken in those countries, and announced future support for French Canadian.

After updating to its latest firmware version, HomePod users will have access to the three additional language options regardless of the region. That means someone in France who picked up a HomePod in the U.S. can switch to French by navigating to HomePod settings.

To enable one of the new languages, simply go into the Home app, select a HomePod, tap Details, then Language. There are now six language options for HomePod users. Apple on its regional webpage serving Canada says support for French Canadian will be included in a software update by year's end.

HomePod will be made available in Canada, France, and Germany on June 18. Rolling out support for the languages ahead of time should make the launch process smoother, as well as appease existing owners who were able to get their hands on one outside their home country.

New Siri languages weren't the only thing that was new in version 11.4 for HomePod. The latest firmware delivered AirPlay 2, stereo pairing, and calendar support as well, making it the biggest HomePod software update to date.

anantksundaram · May 30, 2018 1:43AM

What’s Canadian English, eh?

ihatescreennames · May 30, 2018 2:22AM

AppleInsider said:

To enable one of the new languages, simply go into the Home app, select a HomePod, tap Details, then Language. There are now six language options for HomePod users. Apple on its regional webpage serving Canada says support for French Canadian will be included in a software update by year's end.

Unfortunately for me, it’s not so simple. “Why?”, you may ask. I’ll tell you why. Because my Home app doesn’t work. I’ve been dealing with AppleCare literally for months now and continually being told my issue will be resolved with “an update”. So far I’ve gone through 3 (at least) updates with not changes for the better and today it actually got worse. I can’t use HomeKit, I can’t add accessories to Home or do anything with it. It’s literally a useless app for me right now. But the only way to access settings for the HomePod is via the Home app, where my HomePod isn’t listed.

So, great new HomePod features that I can’t take advantage of because of the stupid, mostly unrelated Home app.

daalseth · May 30, 2018 2:29AM

anantksundaram said:

What’s Canadian English, eh?

Was wondering the same thing. Does it call you a Hoser? Start using Red Green's voice? Maybe calling the last letter Zed. Uses Metric? Is more polite?

bobolicious · May 30, 2018 9:11AM

...the article suggests wireless connection issues - oye...

I've ever had a wireless speaker that has been 100% reliable, and updates seem a dependency... No minijack in. Is Apple serving Apple vs the customer? My vintage 1970's copper wire and non-ic based audio gear never needs updates, can be repaired relatively easily, and connectivity has been 100% reliable. Is such efficacy also more sustainable, given Apple's brandishing of such...?

edited May 2018

franklinjackcon · May 30, 2018 10:03AM

DAalseth said:

anantksundaram said:

What’s Canadian English, eh?

Was wondering the same thing. Does it call you a Hoser? Start using Red Green's voice? Maybe calling the last letter Zed. Uses Metric? Is more polite?

They spell words slightly differently, some would say, more correctly, e.g. colour, honour, centre, but they Americanize analyze so perhaps if HomePod sends a text message it'll use Canadian English. Or there could be some words that are Canadian-specific that Siri would use.

dkhaley · May 30, 2018 3:27PM

anantksundaram said:

What’s Canadian English, eh?

As far as I've noticed, there are handful of words that are pronounced slightly differently. And spelling generally follows British rules.

If you want to know more, watch Strange Brew.

mknelson · May 30, 2018 3:32PM

At least nobody said anything stupid aboot it. Some "Canadianisms" like Eh are more regionalisms.

cujoyyc · May 30, 2018 3:45PM

dkhaley said:

anantksundaram said:

What’s Canadian English, eh?

As far as I've noticed, there are handful of words that are pronounced slightly differently. And spelling generally follows British rules.

If you want to know more, watch Strange Brew.

You misspelt "huh". ;-)

Spelling follows Canadian rules, not British or American. There's some overlap both ways. We don't say "oot and aboot" so neither should Siri. We say kilometre properly, where it rhymes with pillowfeeter (and centimetre, and millimetre, and kilolitre, and …) rather than speedometer. Bob and Doug were lovable fictional characters, not learned men of elocution. ;-)

The best we can hope for is that Siri will say hockey, not 'ice haw-key', and she won't say MON-tree-all for Montréal, or trip over her digital lips when saying attempting to say Saskatchewan or Kapuskasing.

greg uvan · May 30, 2018 4:00PM

anantksundaram said:

What’s Canadian English, eh?

Not whatever you just said. That is not how a Canadian uses Eh. Eh is used to request affirmative confirmation after making a statement of opinion.

"Siri will now support Canadian English.[can't use "Eh" here.] That's pretty cool, Eh?" I opine that it's cool, and request your confirmation with the question word, Eh.

This has been today's lesson in how to speak Canadian English.

dewme · May 30, 2018 4:47PM

I'm kind of confused why the HomePod doesn't have the same dialect selections that cover both Language and Siri Voice. Choosing English (Canada) as the Language is cool but why can't I choose Canadian Female/Male as the Siri accent and gender? I'm not saying that they have to be locked, though having the option to do so makes a lot of sense, but at least allow for matching the language/dialect options on both.

Odd, very odd.

dewme · May 30, 2018 5:03PM

ihatescreennames said:

AppleInsider said:

To enable one of the new languages, simply go into the Home app, select a HomePod, tap Details, then Language. There are now six language options for HomePod users. Apple on its regional webpage serving Canada says support for French Canadian will be included in a software update by year's end.

Unfortunately for me, it’s not so simple. “Why?”, you may ask. I’ll tell you why. Because my Home app doesn’t work. I’ve been dealing with AppleCare literally for months now and continually being told my issue will be resolved with “an update”. So far I’ve gone through 3 (at least) updates with not changes for the better and today it actually got worse. I can’t use HomeKit, I can’t add accessories to Home or do anything with it. It’s literally a useless app for me right now. But the only way to access settings for the HomePod is via the Home app, where my HomePod isn’t listed.

So, great new HomePod features that I can’t take advantage of because of the stupid, mostly unrelated Home app.

Just curious ... what Apple device hardware and iOS software versions of Apple devices are you using? What brand and model of wireless router/access point and what type of WiFi security are you using? I assume your Home app is the the same Home app that everyone else is using and it's working just fine for tens of millions of other people running it on a variety of iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Apple Watch. Curious.

ihatescreennames · May 30, 2018 7:28PM

dewme said:

ihatescreennames said:

AppleInsider said:

To enable one of the new languages, simply go into the Home app, select a HomePod, tap Details, then Language. There are now six language options for HomePod users. Apple on its regional webpage serving Canada says support for French Canadian will be included in a software update by year's end.

Unfortunately for me, it’s not so simple. “Why?”, you may ask. I’ll tell you why. Because my Home app doesn’t work. I’ve been dealing with AppleCare literally for months now and continually being told my issue will be resolved with “an update”. So far I’ve gone through 3 (at least) updates with not changes for the better and today it actually got worse. I can’t use HomeKit, I can’t add accessories to Home or do anything with it. It’s literally a useless app for me right now. But the only way to access settings for the HomePod is via the Home app, where my HomePod isn’t listed.

So, great new HomePod features that I can’t take advantage of because of the stupid, mostly unrelated Home app.

Just curious ... what Apple device hardware and iOS software versions of Apple devices are you using? What brand and model of wireless router/access point and what type of WiFi security are you using? I assume your Home app is the the same Home app that everyone else is using and it's working just fine for tens of millions of other people running it on a variety of iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Apple Watch. Curious.

I have an iPhone X, a 12.9” iPad Pro, an iPad mini, Apple TV 4, and Apple TV 4K, all on iOS/tvOS 11.4. At the request of AppleCare I disabled the router functions of my Comcast supplied modem/router and am only using an AirPort Extreme and an AirPort Express (which sucks, BTW, because I got much better range out of the Comcast router).

I haven’t updated either of my Apple Watches yet.

This is problem manifested itself a few months ago when Home would get stuck on the “Loading Accessories and Scenes” screen. The only option was to reset Home configuration. That’s a bad option as adding all my devices, Scenes and Automations would take several hours. And then a week or two later the issue would come back and resetting the Home configuration would again be the only option. After resetting Home yesterday (after a month of being stuck at “Loading Accessories...” and working with AppleCare) I can now not add any of my devices to Home. After entering the 8-digit code I just get the “working” spinner in the upper right corner and it stays that way for hours until I hit cancel.

It’s frustrating, to say the least, and AppleCare is getting slower and slower at responding to me. But even when they have responded they have yet to be of any real help. Also, I’ve been bounced between about 5 advisors so far, 2 of whom have become unreachable. I’m sure that isn’t helping.

jony0 · May 30, 2018 7:34PM

CuJoYYC said:

dkhaley said:

anantksundaram said:

What’s Canadian English, eh?

As far as I've noticed, there are handful of words that are pronounced slightly differently. And spelling generally follows British rules.

If you want to know more, watch Strange Brew.

You misspelt "huh". ;-)
Spelling follows Canadian rules, not British or American. There's some overlap both ways. We don't say "oot and aboot" so neither should Siri. We say kilometre properly, where it rhymes with pillowfeeter (and centimetre, and millimetre, and kilolitre, and …) rather than speedometer. Bob and Doug were lovable fictional characters, not learned men of elocution. ;-)

The best we can hope for is that Siri will say hockey, not 'ice haw-key', and she won't say MON-tree-all for Montréal, or trip over her digital lips when saying attempting to say Saskatchewan or Kapuskasing.

I would speculate that only a handful of words at most are pronounced differently, like Sorry ironically (Sari vs Sawry) apparently.
I set Siri back to American English because unfortunately —and annoyingly— when you ask to translate something it simply responds :

"I'm sorry, I can't translate from Canadian English" !

Siri on HomePod can now speak to you in French, German, Canadian English

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