iPhone - Siri Voice Incorrect (and sounds awful)

Question

iPhone - Siri Voice Incorrect (and sounds awful)

I have iPhone 12 w. iOS 15.5 (current), and I have cycled my phone many times. I have checked Siri to ensure my Irish/Female option is enabled.

This is a weird one, but about 25% of the time I use Siri, whether via my Air Pod Pros, or via voice, she comes back with not only a voice that is not listed/available in settings, but it sounds awful. Like some dystopian computer voice. I have also confirmed that when this occurs, it's a lot more difficult for her to understand what I'm asking or stating, and when she transcribes my text for examples, what she comes up with is quite poor, worse then if this voice does not occur.

This has been going on for about 2 months now if not more.

Posted on Jun 17, 2022 2:24 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

brbo

Level 8

35,554 points

Jun 18, 2022 11:24 PM in response to KrautMcFriend

Hi KratMcFriend,

The strange Siri voice seems most unusual!

You might want to double-check the settings for Siri

Change Siri settings on iPhone – Apple Support

If you wish, you can also learn which Siri features are supported in your country or region:

(ie: Scroll to "Siri" in the list that opens from the link)

iOS and iPadOS - Feature Availability - Apple

There are things you can do to help train Siri to work with you:

If "Hey Siri" isn't working on your iPhone or iPad – Apple Support

Find out what Siri can do on iPhone – Apple Support

Eg: Scroll to: " Personalize your experience with Siri"

Hope something here helps improve the situation for you :-)

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Answer 2

Alancito

Level 7

28,072 points

Jun 20, 2022 12:23 AM in response to KrautMcFriend

KrautMcFriend wrote: "There was an “enhanced” version to download which made this voice no longer awful…but now I’m curious why this voice comes into play ever. "

My understanding is that that Accessibility Settings voice should be heard for the following cases, not when Siri responds to questions:

Hear iPhone speak the screen, selected text, and typing feedback

...Do you still hear the "dystopian computer voice"?

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Answer 3

jd2020

Level 1

67 points

Jun 23, 2022 11:33 AM in response to KrautMcFriend

@KrautMcFriend Thanks for your post. I believe you.

I'm experiencing the exact same problem, but on Apple Watch. I have American Siri Voice 4, but periodically Siri responds in what sounds like a garbled Voice 2. Restarting fixes this. Until it happens again.

I found there are a lot of reports of this going back to iOS 15.1, maybe even before, so you're not alone.

https://nerdschalk.com/why-does-siri-sound-weird/

https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/04/10/stop-siris-voice-reverting-to-a-robot-on-ios

Siri's voice sounds weird on iOS 15.1 - Apple Community

One frequent suggestion is to make sure you have enough storage space on your device and a good connection to the internet; then switch to a new Siri voice; then switch back. This worked for me, but did not stop the problem from returning.

As a next attempt (educated guess) I'm going to try changing Siri to a different voice, then disabling Siri completely; restart device and then change to the voice I want. Good luck!

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Answer 4

Jun 19, 2022 5:01 PM in response to Alancito

Yes sir -

Okay - I got something from your idea to access Accessibility. When I access the:

Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices > (Language) > Siri

English (Ireland) is selected like in my Siri Settings (Voice 2 and it sounds great). Saying that, there’s another voice called Moira listed under English (Ireland) versions. And this voice is the same horrible voice that I hear 25% of the time. There was an “enhanced” version to download which made this voice no longer awful…but now I’m curious why this voice comes into play ever.

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Answer 5

Jun 19, 2022 7:49 AM in response to brbo

Hi, I’ve doe that. I have tripled checked. It’s a voice that isn’t available that comes into play from time to time. My friends have heard it and it literally freaks them out. Maybe I have a one in a million issue. Fun!

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