The female voice of Siri has lost its expressiveness with the iOS 8.1.3 update

By Josh, 17 February, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Has anyone else noticed this. If so, please let me know. Since the 8.1.3 update, Siri has lost its energetic/expressive nature. In other words, it just isn't as chipper/cheerful/peppy, whatever word you want to use. Has anyone else experienced this? I first noticed it when I asked it to tell me the temperature. Remember the way it used to say BRRR, I can't even type the way it said it, but anyway now it just says the word brrr, it doesn't have the expressiveness anymore. You'll also notice it when you ask it to do other things, like send a text, call someone, email a contact, it's just not as, human sounding, maybe? Anyway, if anyone else could test this out on their devices and let me know if it happens with you. And if you do have the same issues, report it to Apple Accessibility like I did, there email address is: accessibility@apple.com. I am running iOS 8.1.3 on an iPhone 6, and in case anyone is wondering, yes I am using one of the VoiceOver enhanced voices, Alex, so the enhanced voice is downloaded. That was the first thing I double checked. Thanks,

Josh

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Comments

By sockhopsinger on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

If that is the case, it's not an accessibility issue. Siri is not part of accessibility. Frankly, I'm more interested in whether or not Siri gets its instructions right than whether it is expressive. Luckily, it seems to be pretty responsive in 8.1.3. You might try other voices if the one you are using is not as expressive. Under settings, general, Siri, you can find more language options.

By John Lipsey on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

Are you using the male or female Siri voice? My dad's phone uses the female voice, and I noticed the other day that she sounds... different. I couldn't put my finger on precisely how, but I didn't like it. The male voice, that I use, seems unchanged.

By Toonhead on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

It sounds like when the 8.1.3 update was installed, Siri went back to compact siri, and not the hq voice we all know and love. The only way I know of to fix this is to go into settings on your iDevice and turn off Siri. Then wait a minute or so and turn it back on again. When you do, make sure that you're connected to Wi-Fi and your iDevice is plugged into AC power and the hq Siri voice *should* download. This happened on my room mates iPhone 5S when she updated it to iOS 8.1.3 so I've seen this happen too. Note, it may take some time for the voice to download so keep checking it and hopefully it'll be back to normal soon.

By Josh on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

Funny you should ask that, because I literally just tested that out right before I got your comment. I can confirm these issues are with the female gender voice of Siri only.

By Josh on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

John, I tried your suggestions. Thanks for them, but no change.

By Diego Garibay on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

I noticed this different behavior when I ask Siri to tell me that restaurants nearby, it sounded really different like it had an echo going on or something. At least now I know it's not just me and a few other people have found this effect.

By Joey on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

Before she would say:
"The current temperature is about 28 degrees celsius, <em>hooot!</em>"
Now it has become like this:
"The current temperature is about 27 degrees celsius, <em>hot.</em>"

By Chris on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

Hi.

I think this may be a server wide issue. I'm running a jailbroken iPhone 5s on 8.1.2 and Nicky appears to have less expression. She sounds like a robot with no inflection. Is this the behavior you guys have been experiencing? If so, I beleive this is a server issue, not a specific version.

By Josh on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 21:19

I am no engineer, but yes, that sounds like that could be the problem, because as I said yesterday, the male voice of Siri is unaffected. Yes, the inflection is gone from the female voice, definitely sounds more robotic. Hope they can take a look at ther server and see if there's an issue there. Hopefully, that's all it is.