iOS 7 voices are confusing me now

By Callum Stoneman, 18 September, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Hello, I don't want to be the first to complain about iOS 7, I haven't fully looked at it yet but I'm sure its great. I updated on iTunes on my mac, and was quite shocked when VO started back up, and I heard this rediculess muffled english voice. I use UK english by the way, but I always had use compact voice turned on which was fine. It was a great clear voice, but now it sounds like a screen reader voice from about 10 years ago. That is, very quiet and not very understandable. I have downloaded the premium voice for british english, and it sounds exactly the same as when I could turn compact voice off, I wasn't massivly keane on that voice either. Is it something I'm doing wrong, or has the compact voice gone terible? I also haven't got the new voice for Siri, that is still using the old voice. So sorry for such a long post, but all I'm really asking is is it something I'm doing wrong or has the british english voice been changed? It just seems strange why apple would put a terible voice rather than the good clear 1 in iOS 6. Thanks for any help and sorry for going on :)

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Comments

By Siobhan on Saturday, October 12, 2013 - 19:40

Hi. just plug your Idevice in and wait a little while. The premium voice needs to download and you need to be plugged into a wall and also having wifi on. Then it will be fine. Note to all, just plug it in and wait about fve to ten minutes or maybe more if your wifi is a snail. ;)

By AnonyMouse on Saturday, October 12, 2013 - 19:40

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
The Compact Mode voices do have seem to have gone back to the iOS 5 sounding. We have noticed the same thing. So it is not just you. Plus, the voices have seem to have gone between a hyrbrid of the iOS 5 and the iOS 6. So it does have appeared they have tweaked it a bit.

By Neo on Saturday, October 12, 2013 - 19:40

I use the Austrailian voice and I've noticed that it is clipping / rushing speaking of words and not leaving longer pauses where it should be and for example on the lock screen it is saying Thursday the 19th of September but there is no real pause between the words Thursday and the word the when it reads it out. Also, whilst typing this message, Voiceover has just stopped speaking for no apparant reason that I can tell and the only thing I can hear is the clicking sounds. I've had to turn it off and on again using the triple press of the home key

By Callum Stoneman on Saturday, October 12, 2013 - 19:40

Another question. Has the share and weather widgets disappeared from the notification center? If not where are they?

I came across a link for weather in the notification centre. Check in settigns -> notifications to see if the share widget has been disabled there. I am definately not liking the changes they've made to the voices in this update. I can hardly understand them at times. It isn't pronouncing certain letters of the alphabet properly and it is clipping words and it sounds like as if it is rushing certain words when it says them.

I have the same problems with the Romanian voice.. I think some one should report to apple. the ios 6 voice was way better than this.

Hi all, 1st off I really want to update to IOS7 but upon hearing that the UK compact voice has changed in this new release from IOS6. I am really concerned that I won't be able to understand the newer one. If someone is willing to do a breif demo of the Daniel UK compact voice in IOS7 I would vastly appreciate this effort. The reason why I am asking is because I have a hearing impairment. Sure there are bugs that I have heard about with the many thanks for everyone who has contributed in our community but and fore most it is essential that I can understand a particular voice that we have with Voiceover and during the time I have had my iPhone 5 since last December, the UK Compact British Daniel voice is the only one that is best for me. No other one will do and if I were to update, and not be able to understand my default voice then that would make my new IOS7 pritty much useless. Thank you for reading and I look forward to a response. Really trying hard to resist updating! LOL

By Brooke on Saturday, October 12, 2013 - 19:40

I sent a link via the email on this site with a link to a demo. Let me know if you need me to do it again at a different volume or speech rate. Hope it helps!

By Joseph Westhouse on Saturday, October 12, 2013 - 19:40

I agree that the muffled compact voices are a big disappointment. In fact they're my only gripe thus far. I like that some features have been made more streamlined (dismissing apps, for example), and thus far the OS itself seems to be working pretty well. But why did they have to ruin my compact voices? I've been forced to use the high-quality U.S. English voice because I can't stand the HQ U.K. English voice and the compact voices are all muddy. I know I'll get used to it, but I miss my old voice. :-(

By Daniel on Saturday, October 12, 2013 - 19:40

Hi Brooke, just want to say a big thank you for your demonstration. All that you showed was clearly understood and I actually have the speed of that voice at 50% myself. From what I heard to me it sounded the same as it were in IOS6. Its just I thought the original poster of this thread was saying that it sounded more muffled or not pronouncing things as it did before IOS7. So obviously, hearing this panic and alarm bells were ringing for me. I am glad this is not the case. I am curious what do others think about the compact UK Daniel voice? Do you the end user find its the same as it was in IOS6? or do you feel it has changed? Would love to hear your own thoughts. So it looks like I'll be upgrading then! :)

I'm really glad I was able to help. :) To me, the compact voices sound muffled; but I'm not a fair judge of them, because I'm used to the premium voices.