William Gallagher
German users are reporting that Siri is suddenly sounding much more natural, especially on HomePod, following a long-promised update to iOS.
Apple's Siri has a distinctive, immediately recognizable voice — but people in different countries know this technology by very different voices. Some default to a male Siri voice, some to a female, and all have different languages and accents. Now German-language users are reporting that the Siri voice they hear every day has been noticeably improved to sound more human and natural than before.
According to German site iphone-ticker.de, Siri has finally received an update that was actually promised back in 2017.
"Almost three years after Apple's software boss Craig Federighi announced during the launch of iOS 11 that the in-house voice assistant Siri would sound significantly more human in the future," says the site, "Apple now seems to delight German users with new Siri voices."
Federighi announced the update for all Siri voices, starting with the US one, during his presentation at WWDC 2017. "We're making a big upgrade to your primary interface in dealing with Siri, and that's Siri's voice," he said. "We've used deep learning now to create a really natural and expressive voice for Siri."
Readers of iphone-ticker.de say that the new Siri voice is more melodic, as well as natural, and that this is particularly noticeable on HomePods. However, there have been certain problems. Some readers are saying that since the update, "Siri always sounds like helium." Apple has yet to comment.
However, there are cases where Siri's voice will revert from the now human-sounding normal to a more robotic one, and this may be what's happening for these users. It happens when your iPhone or iPad is particularly low on space and the device offloads the richer Siri voice.
Keep up with all the Apple news with your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider Daily," — or bookmark this link — and you'll get a fast update direct from the AppleInsider team.
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Charles Martin
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8 Comments
Perhaps it is worth considering showing the German flag (and not the Belgian one)...
Siri (in the UK) has started making weird popping noises on both my HomePods after an update that seemed to make the voice slightly softer. Quite often at the start or during the reply there’s several fairly loud pops. It’s weird.
Let's hope Siri is also upgraded to be less stupid in German.
Stuff that works totally naturally in English has me banging my head on the steering wheel in German.
"Hey Siri! Call Hansi's cellphone!"
"I don't have a cellphone number for Hansi. Call landline or iPhone?"
I wonder when we'll get the "neural text-to-speech" demoed for iOS 13 last summer and then forgotten by everyone it seems.