Apple rolls out changes to female British voice on HomePod and iOS

Posted:
in iOS edited March 2019
Apple has made another change to the British voice of Siri on its devices, with iOS and HomePod users now able to hear an updated version of the female voice following similar upgrades recently made to the male version in February.

HomePod


Following a similar pattern to last month's upgraded British male voice rollout, users are starting to notice that changes are made to the way the British female voice sounds. The update is slowly rolling out across both iPhone and iPad this week, along with the HomePod, the first device to have the changed male voice.

The update to the voice seems to be in a similar vein to the male version, in that it is the same core voice but clearer and sounding more natural. The changes seemingly only affect the voice quality, and not the capabilities of Siri itself.

It is unclear if the rollout will initially apply just to British users of Siri or if it is available to all users around the world who have selected that voice option within the virtual assistant's settings. It is also plausible that the alterations to both the male and female British voices could lead to further improvements in other regional accents for Siri in the future.

Apple started the push for more natural Siri voices starting with the launch of iOS 11 in 2017, and has seen gradual improvements since then. Further improvements are anticipated, with June's WWDC 2019 the likely venue for Apple to showcase the upcoming changes, along with previews of the next major versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

The alterations to the British female Siri was first noted by 9to5mac.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    Man, I’ve been waiting for this!!

    Now roll out the VocalIQ upgrade. 
    stanhopeelijahg
  • Reply 2 of 17
    stanhopestanhope Posts: 160member
    This is where they commit their energy instead of raising siri’s idiotic IQ?  I asked Alexa about this and she laughed so hard the echo show 2 landed on the floor..before doing so on the screen she pointed at the 2 homepods in the same room that were downgraded to music only.
    seantheman
  • Reply 3 of 17
    jasejase Posts: 8member
    The Australian voice was updated recently as well, at least on my HomePod.. on the iPhone it’s the old voice. 
  • Reply 4 of 17
    seanismorrisseanismorris Posts: 1,624member
    We should be able to change the nationality of Siri...

    This week, change Siri to Jeeves with a British accent.

    Next week, change Hey Siri! to Hey Mate! With an Australian accent.

    Following week it’s Maribelle or just Belle and a Southern accent.  When you ask her a stupid question, she says “Bless your heart”.

    Sometimes Apple is a stoogy as IBM....


    zeus423
  • Reply 5 of 17
    There’s no such thing as a “British” voice...nor accent...just many English, Scots, Welsh and Irish ones...
  • Reply 6 of 17
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    There’s no such thing as a “British” voice...nor accent...just many English, Scots, Welsh and Irish ones...
    Saying that Siri has a British accent isn’t saying that that accent is the only British accent. 

    The accents can be changed btw. 
  • Reply 7 of 17
    macseekermacseeker Posts: 544member
    Editors; Why are some of the paragraphs repeated twice in the article? Just curious. Thanks.
  • Reply 8 of 17
    YamYam Posts: 6member
    Still waiting for the Whitehaven (British) accent: “Hey Siri, what’s the weather like?” “Git oot thi sen an tek a deek marra.”
  • Reply 9 of 17
    kiehtankiehtan Posts: 38member
    How about Scottish?
  • Reply 10 of 17
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    stanhope said:
    This is where they commit their energy instead of raising siri’s idiotic IQ?  I asked Alexa about this and she laughed so hard the echo show 2 landed on the floor..before doing so on the screen she pointed at the 2 homepods in the same room that were downgraded to music only.
    Why are people like you so damn limited and obtuse, that you believe they can't be doing both?
    It's like the stupidity of people that go nuts when Apple adds new animojis or something, as if this is keeping them from working on iOS13. 
    elijahgfastasleep
  • Reply 11 of 17
    zeus423zeus423 Posts: 231member
    What I'd like to see is some functionality returned to Siri on my iPod. Last year she quit giving me the battery percentage when asked, instead directing me to the Settings and how to turn on the percentage. It doesn't work on an iPod. Then last week Siri will no longer give me the weather, saying that she can't get the weather for my favorite locations. I have Location Services turned on, Siri has access, Weather has access, and it just stopped working suddenly after working fine for over a year. I submitted a bug report, but until then I'm flurried.
  • Reply 12 of 17

    I want rhyming cockney!

    Hopefully, in Michael Caine's voice!

    edited March 2019
  • Reply 13 of 17
    bluefire1bluefire1 Posts: 1,301member
    I wish Siri could replicate voices of famous people from Winston Churchill and JFK, to Marilyn Monroe and Kathleen Turner.
  • Reply 14 of 17
    badmonkbadmonk Posts: 1,285member
    I love the British Siri voice Stateside and it is the one I use.  I went through all the English speaking voices and I love the rich sibilance of it...South African Siri is sexy but doesn’t have the vocal detail maybe because of bandwidth issues in that country.
  • Reply 15 of 17
    mcbanjomcbanjo Posts: 11member
    Australian voice too! I knew the female Aussie voice sounded different...
  • Reply 16 of 17
    RokkrgurlRokkrgurl Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    The previous British Siri was much friendlier... new one sounds curt, abrupt, bordering on annoyed 😒 wtf Apple?
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