How to change Siri’s voice

Apple continues to play a cautious game of catch-up with Google and Samsung by rolling out agentic AI features and AI assistant capabilities. But the company is looking to change that with the upcoming release of iOS 27 and a complete overhaul of Siri. But if you want to change Siri’s voice or make a few more tweaks to the iOS mascot, you don’t need to wait for the new update to roll out in mid-September.

On current versions of iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > Apple Intelligence and Siri > Voice. Select one of the available options, listen to the reading and decide if it is the right option for you. You may have to wait a while while the new accent or voice downloads, but it doesn’t take long. Just make sure to stay connected to WiFi or your carrier’s network until it’s finished.

You can also change how Siri responds by going to Settings > Apple Intelligence and Siri > Speak and type with Siri Or Siri Responsesdepending on your software version. From there, you can choose whether Siri speaks out loud, responds softly, or responds only with on-screen text. However, if you jumped on the iOS 27 train a little early with the iOS 27 beta, you might have a few more Siri-related options to play with.

Siri Expressive Voice is Apple’s next term for a more versatile and natural Siri in iOS27. Unfortunately, a fully customizable expressive Siri voice will be limited to iPhone 17 Pro, Pro Max, and Air and iPads with an M4 chip or newer and 12GB of RAM. Compatible devices will allow iPhone, iPad and Mac users to customize the expressiveness and rhythm of Siri’s voice. You’ll have more control over Siri’s broadcast, but not necessarily a larger list of voice varieties in the current Siri menu.

If you have access to and download the iOS 27 beta, you won’t see much difference in the Settings menu. However, by typing Settings > Siri > Voice will open a new screen, all black with a white orb radiating in the center. Selecting a voice presents a drop-down menu. As of this writing, only the US and UK options will reveal the Rhythm and Expressiveness sliders. Other options and English languages ​​lack tuning features. Dragging the button to the right increases the feeling of emotion, dynamic emphasis, and inflection of Siri’s voice. Swiping left makes the voice more robotic and neutral.

If you want to speed up Siri, slow things down, or create a little breathing room between your query and Siri’s response, you don’t need the new iOS 27 update to do it. Open Settings > Accessibility > Siri. Apple groups several behavior controls in this menu, with a long speech rate slider on the screen. Depending on your device and the update status, you will have the choice between several adjustable options:

• Speaking rate: Adjust Siri’s voice to a slower or faster pace.

• Siri pause time: Sets how long Siri waits before responding to your typed or spoken request.

• Oral responses: Controls whether Siri speaks out loud or appears as text on your screen.

• Listen to the atypical speeches: Allows Siri to expand recognizable speech patterns so Siri can understand you when you’re speaking over a mouthful of food.

• Require “Siri” for interruptions: Saying “Siri” out loud will cut off Siri mid-sentence.

• Always show the request: Displays a transcript of your speech on screen.

There are several others that have more or less to do with Siri, and they are useful even if the expressive voice feature of iOS 27 is not available to you. Ultimately, iPhones going back to the second generation SE and the iPhone 11 will receive the iOS 27 update, but the degree of Apple Intelligence features will vary and only the latest iPhones will get the full feature set.