How to quickly change Voiceover voice in iOS

By peter, 18 January, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I know I can go to the settings to change the voice that Voiceover is using on my iOS device.

My question is: What is the quickest way to change the voice used by Voiceover on an iOS device? I thought there might be a rotor setting for this similar to switching languages, but apparently not. Is there a quicker way than digging into the settings?

Thanks.

--Pete

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Comments

By Lee on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - 04:50

Hi, The language option in the rotor is how you change voices. So, for example if you have US english as your default and add Siri 3 that is a different voice and shows up in the language option.

By Bingo Little on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - 04:50

If you're using a Siri voice for Voiceover, put your phone on charge. if you're anything like Bingo, that'll change your voice all right - the Siri voice will be deleted! Seriously, I think the languages rotor option is about as quick as you can get and actually, it works pretty seamlessly.

By mr grieves on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - 04:50

Depending on what you are wanting to do, the other way might be to set up different Activities for the different voices. You could also tweak other settings like the rate, pitch or whatever if that helps. I've not tried it on iOS, but you can switch activity automatically when you start a particular app. I have a Slow activity I can switch to if I want to show a sighted person how my phone works. I use the VO quick settings to switch (two finger quadruple tap).

I thought maybe you could add voice selection to that menu too but I can't find the option. I prefer using that menu to the rotor for this sort of thing as my rotor is already clogged up with other things and I like the separation between changing how I'm currently interacting vs VO settings.

By peter on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - 04:50

@Lee: Nice idea of using the language settings, but all of the voices I am using are in the U.S. voices, so I don't think the other U.S. English voices will show up (at least I couldn't figure out how to do that).

Plus, I didn't see a rotor item that I could add for switching languages. Maybe that is only available if I have various language voices installed? Don't know.

--Pete

By peter on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - 04:50

@Mr Grieves: Using Activities is a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.

--Pete