This is a good trick for opening apps that are installed on your device but hidden out of view in an unknown folder. The always-on Hey Siri prompt works for the iPhone 6S and later whether or not it’s plugged in and charging, but the function won’t work if your iPhone is face down or if your case cover is closed.Siri will not work without a direct connection to the internet. To use Siri for these tips, you must have a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.Finally, toggle on Allow Siri when Locked. Next, toggle on Press Home for Siri for the iPhone 8 and earlier, or Press Side Button for Siri on the iPhone X and later.If this is your first time using this feature, you will be prompted to record your voice, so Siri recognizes when you speak. Under the Ask Siri heading, the first option is Listen for Hey Siri-toggle this on to enable hands-free use of your digital assistant. In the Settings app, tap on Siri & Search.But, you can hear it any time if you play Persona 5 Striker.Before you can start using your virtual assistant, the first step is to make sure you’ve enabled Siri on your device. One voice you’re unlikely to see come back to Apple is Siri’s first one. None have eliminated picking one out as a default however. Russia’s newly minted tech giant Sber offers four very different voices for its voice assistant, even going as far as to make up biographies and personalities for each of them. New voice assistants bring more than one choice as well. There’s also evidence that the voice contributes to how people perceive the AI’s personality.Įvery major voice assistant has multiple voice options, adding new ones every so often. On the other hand, with Siri responding in 21 languages to more than 25 billion requests on 500 million devices every month, the sound of the voice is everywhere. Placing the choice of voice upfront might reduce those criticisms, but it’s worth pointing out that while the female voice has been the default in the U.S., other markets use a male voice as the default Siri voice instead. The shift might also just be a way for Apple to draw attention to the change as it works to avoid accusations that Siri’s female voice enforces an image of women as subservient. Forcing a choice of voice, as a mandatory part of device setup elevates what would appear to be a purely cosmetic element of the device to greater importance. “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,” Apple said in a statement.”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.” Choice and DefaultsĪpple choosing to develop two new voices for Siri is interesting, but the shift in how and when the voice is chosen seems more notable.
Apple has been expanding NTTS globally, with the newest update bringing the tech to Siri’s voices in Ireland, Italy, and Russia The new voices are in beta testing right now as part of the upcoming iOS 14.5 release.
Like their predecessors, the new voices were built by running a person’s recorded voice through Apple’s neural text-to-speech engine (NTTS) to teach the AI how to mimic the voice and generate natural-sounding speech that was not spoken by the voice artist. Voices 1 and 4 are the current options and voices 2 and 3 are the new ones.
You can hear all four options in the tweet above. The update doubles the catalog with a new male and female voice. Siri currently includes the option for a male and female voice, with the woman’s voice the well-known default. Voices 1 and 4 are the existing ones, voices 2 and 3 are the new ones.
Here’s a recording of Siri’s new lineup of American voices in iOS 14.5. As first reported by TechCrunch, setting up any Siri-enabled device will include picking how the voice assistant will sound right away, not just making it an option to change later. Apple’s Siri voice assistant will include two new English voice options and won’t use the current female voice as the default choice anymore.