Apple just announced a new voice for Siri, listen to it here

The news: Included in the latest beta of iOS 15.4 is a fifth American English Siri voice, Apple confirmed to Axios.

  • Axios reports that the new voice “is less explicitly male- or female-sounding” and “was recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community”
  • The new voice, called Voice 5, is the most notable change included in iOS 15.4 beta 4, which released to developers and public beta testers earlier this week

Sam’s take: Inclusivity is important to me, and even though there is still a more feminine aire to Voice 5, it’s certainly more neutral than the 4 voices we have currently. It’s wild that this new voice was announced just after I spent some time talking with Jon Prosser about Siri and gendered voice options on our podcast the other day…

First voice is new, second voices are the existing options

iOS 14.5 beta 6 released with new Siri voices & more

The news: Apple’s latest iOS 14.5 beta release makes significant changes to Siri, as first reported by TechCrunch.

  • Siri no longer defaults to female: You’ll have the ability to choose which voice you want on setup
  • There are also two fresh Siri voices that “sound pretty fantastic”
  • iOS 14.5 also includes ‘Mask ID,’ new emojis and more

What’s new?

  • Video showing the new Siri voices
  • New battery recalibration tool for iPhone (via 9to5Mac)