Apple fans - do you miss the old Siri voice?

[bcla]

I was kind of disappointed when the old monotone Siri voice derived from voice actor Susan Bennett was changed in favor of a different voice. It does sound more natural, but that voice was used for 6 years and was iconic. I've heard the voice actor was actually hired to do the same monotone for The Lego Batman Movie. I've read articles on how she came to record a series of what sounded like nonsense but would essentially be enough to cobble the sounds into any word.

The new voice sounds "younger" and it does sound more natural, but I'm wondering why they couldn't just leave it alone or perhaps hire the original voice actor to do it over again.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

I was kind of disappointed when the old monotone Siri voice derived from voice actor Susan Bennett was changed in favor of a different voice. It does sound more natural, but that voice was used for 6 years and was iconic. I've heard the voice actor was actually hired to do the same monotone for The Lego Batman Movie. I've read articles on how she came to record a series of what sounded like nonsense but would essentially be enough to cobble the sounds into any word.

The new voice sounds "younger" and it does sound more natural, but I'm wondering why they couldn't just leave it alone or perhaps hire the original voice actor to do it over again.

OMG yes! I do not like the new voice at all. And since the update, she has had a hard time recognizing my voice.

 

[cinnaminny]

Yes! I wish they would have used the same voice actor.

 

[thinkerbell]

Yes! I have even googled to see if I could get the old Siri back. My husband has an iPhone 5s and when he downloaded the most recent update, it didn’t change his Siri voice. Wonder if something went wrong with the update or if it didn’t change because his phone is older? I still get to hear her on his.

 

[bcla]

Yes! I have even googled to see if I could get the old Siri back. My husband has an iPhone 5s and when he downloaded the most recent update, it didn’t change his Siri voice. Wonder if something went wrong with the update or if it didn’t change because his phone is older? I still get to hear her on his.

Well - I was looking into experimentally changing the voice this morning for Siri, and for whatever reason it said I had to be connected to WiFi (I had switched to cellular because I was having problems with my Comcast internet service) in order to download the voice files. So it does apparently need to download the voice files as a package.

It sounds like they didn't update the default voice package. I could be due to a lack of storage space. I used to run into that often with my 16 GB 4s.

 

[bethbuchall]

Yes! Though I now use the British male voice.

 

[diznygirl]

Yes. I miss the real Siri.

The new one sounds less formal, a little more “Americanized.” I also switched to the British male voice.

 

[bcla]

I noted in another thread that Stephen Hawking doesn't change his synthesized voice that he's been using for over 30 years. He originally said that he wished it could have been an English accent, but these days it's just too iconic for him to switch.

 

[soccerdad72]

I never use Siri these days, so I wouldn't have noticed a difference, to be honest.

 

[wenrob]

OMG yes! I do not like the new voice at all. And since the update, she has had a hard time recognizing my voice.

Me: Play the album “Brother.”
Siri: Sure, here is the song “Remember Now” by Queensrÿche.
Me: Play the album “Brother” by Cry of Love.
Siri: Sure, here is “For the Sake of Our Brother” by Trans-Siberian Orchastra
Me:
My kids in the backseat:

I too, miss the old Siri. I think part of the fun was that monotone voice. Even though she sounds more natural she still mispronounces things the way she always did. I also noticed CarPlay takes longer to kick in since the update.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

The change in voice doesn’t bother me but she never seems to be able to understand me anymore. “Hey Siri” is pretty much useless now since 75% of them time she gets what I said wrong.

 

[usnuzuloose]

The change in voice doesn’t bother me but she never seems to be able to understand me anymore. “Hey Siri” is pretty much useless now since 75% of them time she gets what I said wrong.

That is why I am so reluctant to get those things. Do they really understand most of what is said.

 

[bethbuchall]

I also miss the nice chart I used to get when I asked how long to a certain date with months, days, weeks, hours, etc. And Siri can't answer, "How many days until Spring?" anymore.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

They traded her voice in for a younger model I see....

 

[bigbabyblues]

I can't stand Siri with any voice. I've had mine turned off since I had an iPhone 4S.

 

[bethbuchall]

Ok, Siri can tell me how many days until Spring if I include the year. I guess maybe it was trying for Spring 2017 when I asked the first time.

Overall, I don't use it much.