Will new voices be backported to earlier MacOS (and iOS) versions?

By Daniel Parker, 16 September, 2022

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi everyone,

Title pretty much says it all. I'm using iOS 16 and love the new voices and languages, including Eloquence. My Mac is too old for Ventura, so I was wondering what the likelihood is that the new voices will at some point be backported to the old software. Unless they totally redesigned the OS it wouldn't seem to me to be very difficult, but I don't know much about the development side. I'm sure there are also money considerations involved here... But if Apple put in the work to port Eloquence and the rest of the Vocalizer roster, and although it might cut into their bottom line, I figure it's the moral thing to do to backport these voices, especially given the new languages. Apple should be making it easier, not harder, for disabled people to get the voices and language support they need. I can't imagine that this is even a position that the top dogs at Apple are thinking about much - it would probably come down more to the accessibility and development teams. Unless, that is, whatever contract Apple drew up with Serence stipulates that the new voices only be used with new software. But this is just speculation.

Any clarification that anyone can give here is much appreciated. And well done to Apple on the new voices in any case.

Cheers,
Daniel

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Comments

By techluver on Friday, September 30, 2022 - 22:01

Doubt it.
You may be able to find a workaround to get Ventura on your Mac though depending on what patchers come out. I don't know much about it, just have heard such things on YouTube.

By Chris on Friday, September 30, 2022 - 22:01

I highly doubt it. Older software is relegated to security patches, and Eloquence probably couldn't be backported because it's using the new API in Ventura. As has been said, you may be able to install Ventura on your Mac via a patcher, but that's all.