Downloading the enhanced siri voices under iOS 10?

By Moopie Curran, 17 November, 2016

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi,
I have an iPhone 6 running iOS 10, and I also have an iPhone 7 set up as another iPhone which is also running iOs 10. I can't download the enhanced siri voices on either of the iPhones? If I remember correctly in iOs 9, you could use the enhanced siri voices as voiceover voices. So how can I download these under iOS 10? They'd make MIGHTY NICE options for reading books in voice dream reader. Any help would be appreciated.
Moop

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Comments

By Simon on Friday, December 2, 2016 - 03:48

In US English - the male and female Siri both have enhanced downloads as do the Samantha and Tom voices. Alex and Ava are enhanced voices by default I think - you'll probably have these downloaded already. There are also enhanced versions of voices in other English dialects - British, Irish and such.

You install and choose the default voices using the main Settings app....

In settings go to General, then Accessibility, then Speech, then Voices.

You're then in a menu of languages - the top option will be English - if you're using English as default language on the phone.

All the English dialects are within that - in the US English there are actually 10 voices to choose from now. Each name is a button - some like Siri open up when you double tap to allow you to choose the normal or enhanced voice - swipe up to download the enhanced library if you hear the size in megabytes announced.

The last voice you touch in the voices menu becomes the default voice for VO - and other apps which make use of text-to-speech.

By Missy Hoppe on Friday, December 2, 2016 - 03:48

I encountered the inability to download the enhanced Siri voices when I got my iphone 7 plus; they were all installed on my 5S and working just fine under IOS 10. I reported the issue to apple, and at the time, I was told that they were aware of the problem and working on a way to fix it. Now, a co-worker claims that the issue will be resolved when ios 10.2 is released, but I'm not sure how reliable a source this individual is. Anyway, if you haven't done so already, you may wish to contact the Apple accessibility line to let them know that you're experiencing this issue. The more of us who report it, the better the chances are that it really will get fixed.

By Bobcat on Monday, January 2, 2017 - 03:48

I just updated to iOS 10.2 from nine. Siri's voice is much more distorted and a lot quieter Van it used to be. Why? !
I checked all of the voice settings everywhere and can't figure out why it's different.

By Simon on Monday, January 2, 2017 - 03:48

You might need to download the enhanced voice again via the Settings, General, Accessibility, Speech, Voices route - or you might have the standard buzzy voice selected even though you've downloaded the enhanced one. It's possible to select either version even when you've got the enhanced installed.

There's also an option to choose a different voice and language for Siri than you're using for VO in another menu - accessed via the Settings,Siri, Siri Voice and Settings, Siri, Language routes. So you can setup Siri's language as US English for recognition and such but have it talking in British or Australian accent for instance. If the accent sounds wrong, this could be the problem - if you like the accent but it's buzzy made sure the enhanced voice is downloaded for that accent too - using the first route via Settings, General, Accessibility etc