Until recently, the standard voice for Apple’s Siri assistant was stereotypically female. However, studies have found that having standardized AI assistants for female voices can reinforce harmful stereotypes, so Apple tried to fix this on its next iOS 14.5, which is now in beta.
When you upgrade your phone to iOS 14.5, you’ll be asked to choose a default voice for Siri – and Apple is adding two new voice options. However, if you have changed your mind and want to use a different voice (or are using the 14.5 beta and have not been asked), this guide will show you how to change the voice after setup.
It is a reasonably simple process. First, go to the Settings app, then to Siri and Search and tap Siri Voice. There, you will see a list of options.
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At the moment, the American variety is the only one with four voice options; The Australian, British, Indian, Irish and South African versions have only two. The four U.S. voice options are:
- Voice 1, which is a soft-spoken male voice
- Voice 2, an energetic and confident female voice
- Voice 3 is similar to Voice 2, but it has a masculine sound
- And finally, Voice 4, which is similar to the standard Siri voice that has been around all these years
If you want to hear how the voices sound to you, they are in the tweet embedded below.
Touching a voice will reproduce an excerpt of it saying “Hello, I’m Siri. Choose the voice you would like me to use. ”If you choose voices 1 through 3, you’ll need to download them before you can use them, but you don’t have to stay in the Settings app in the meantime. Once the download is complete, Siri will respond with your chosen voice.
This process is unlikely to change in the final version, but if it does, we will be sure to update this manual.