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When you choose a voice for Siri, you’re choosing not only which voice will be used to answer your questions. You’re also choosing which voice will be used for giving directions on Apple Maps, reading your text messages aloud, and confirming your requests. So selecting the Siri voice that works best for you can be an important decision, depending on how much you use Siri.
An interesting new feature is coming to Siri in iOS 14.5. Instead of Siri defaulting to its traditional female voice, it will offer new options for both male and female voices. With iOS 14.5, users will actively choose which voice Siri will use on their new iPhones and iPads.
Siri’s Voice Options in iOS 14.5
iOS 14.5 offers new American voice options for Siri. You can try all options to see which works best for you.
This tweet from John Gruber of Daring Fireball lets you hear samples of the American Siri voice options in iOS 14.5:
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
Two new American voice options are available in iOS 14.5, one male and one female. All the other voices are currently available on iPhones and iPads.
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Availability of Siri Voices
Siri’s two new American voice options are available for iPhones and iPads whose language is set to English. These two new American voices are available in iOS 14.5, which has not been released to the public yet by Apple.
If you’re eager to use these new voices on your iPhone or iPad, you can download the public beta of iOS 14.5 to your device. Or you can wait until Apple releases iOS 14.5 to the public.
For instructions on downloading iOS 14.5 to your iPhone or iPad, check out Tom’s Guide: How to download the iOS 14.5 public beta right now.
Note that sometimes Apple removes features that were included in a public beta version of iOS when that version is released to the general public. But more often new features from the public beta version are included in the release to the general public.
How to Choose a New Siri Voice (Whether or Not You Have iOS 14.5)
You can choose from many different Siri voices even if you have not yet updated to iOS 14.5.
When you purchase a new iPhone or iPad using iOS 14.5 or later, you’ll be offered an option during setup which Siri voice you’d like to use.
But if you have an existing iPhone or iPad, you can choose your preferred Siri voice easily in Settings at any time.
Unfortunately, you can’t simply ask Siri to change its voice. Well, you can ask but you won’t get Siri to change its voice just by asking…
The good news is that changing Siri’s voice in Settings is simple and quick. To change Siri’s voice, go to Settings => Siri & Search => Siri Voice.
On the next screen, you’ll see a list of available voices. Choose the one you want to use. You’ll hear a sample of that voice.
Siri Voices
With iOS 14.5, you’ll see four choices under American: 1,2,3, and 4. Voices 1 and 3 are male-sounding voices while voices 2 and 4 are female-sounding voices. Voices 2 and 3 are the new Siri voices.
Even if you have not yet updated to iOS 14.5 you can choose from a male and a female voice with each of these accents:
- American
- Australian
- British
- Indian
- Irish
- South African
When you first try a new voice, a new file will download to your phone. The download takes just a few seconds, but you must be connected to the Internet for the download to happen.
My advice is to try all of them to see which you prefer. When I got a Garmin GPS device back in 2004, I had just started watching the TV series Lost. I chose a female Australian voice for my Garmin and named her Claire after one of my favorite Lost characters. Every time we started a trip together, she announced, “Ready to navigate!” as if we were off on an exciting adventure.
Which voice will you choose to make your trips more fun?
Your Thoughts
Have you tried different Siri voices? Which voice do you use for Siri? Are you excited about the two new voices coming to Siri?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
*iPhone image (edited) courtesy of Miguel Tomás via Unsplash and PicMonkey
