campaign: More VoiceOver Voices for iOS

I completely agree with this. I've been asking for this time after time ever since I got my first iPhone in 2012. I am incredibly happy that our voice choices keep expanding with each new iOS release. I have said for 3 or so years now that we should have access to all Vocalizer voices. As I've said before, this shouldn't be toodifficult since Apple is already contracted with Nuance.

As for voice quality, that really can't be helped. Apple gets these voices from Nuance so they have no control over the voices. I suppose they could use premium high instead of premium, but that would take up more space. Still, it's my device, and if I want to fill it with high quality voices, who cares. We'll see what happens in iOS 10.

I want to see voices fred, viktoria, viky, russian Uri, katya

Has it crossed anyone's mind this might be a good thing not having exclusive access to all of these voices? Think about it. You have a limitted capacity already taken up by the OS, then your books then music, then movies, videos etc. After you factor in all that, where is the room? Sure, look at alex. You wanted it, you realize that's about a gig in size. So you want the four or so voices somone just mentioned. A gig each? That's four, a quarter of a 16gb capacity device. sure, buy a larger size, but what if you add all the voices to enjoy your browsing with? That's what, thirty or forty?
Processing power is next. The a8 I think which is in the iPhone five, I'm still on, can't handle Alex no matter how much i'd like it too. so what, do I spend money I don't have? Or smile, appreciate what I have and wait to upgrade whenI want too. You're going to be limitted with any device you have, because someone's going to be bigger better, unless ou have deeper pockets then the donald, explain your solution?
Third, personal taste. Fred, in disgusting not a voice i'd use, I barely tolerate it for te recovery or installations I do. However, it's probably used, I have no knowledge of fact that it's faster to load. Think of all this when you constantly want better, faster more.

Yes, we have Alex, as long as you have a 64bit device. Yes, there's also the siri voices, which apart from being a little laggy on older devices, aren't all that bad. But we really need to have all the voices available, including compact varients for all the voices, for responsiveness. People who don't like Samantha should be able to switch to any of the other voices as well.

I want to add my thoughts on the voices issue. I understand that some of us are still using an iPhone 5 with 16 GB of memory. With this phone and its variantc, there will always be a limit on the size of the voices you get.

I happen to be using an iPhone 6 with 64 GB of memory. I also recognize that the Alex voice is a large file. Apple is to be given credit for making that voice as clear as they did. Personally, that is my go-to voice because of its clarity. I also like to use it because if anyone uses the Samantha voice as their default, and it turns up in another app, you're not always able to tell the difference. For me, using the Alex voice is the best way to keep the voices apart.

While the two Siri voices are a good option, I think they need some fine tuning. If you select one of them, the speech rate seems to be measured differently with these voices. They're a good backup.

I think that Apple may wish to do what they can to licence the voices from Neospeech, Ivona and A Capella as options for, maybe a small fee per voice. If there is one voice I like, it's the NeoSpeech voice dubbed James. That voice is incredibly clear, and I can only describe it as radio-like. It truly stands out for me, which is why I have included it in the Voice Dream Reader app.

Someone made a good point about the need for multiple voices within the iOS as you move from app to app. The idea of having one voice for navigation and another for extended reading seems like a good idea. Given the processing power of these devices, I'm not sure it can be done. However, it's worth asking if it can be done.

In my "perfect world," scenario, I'd like to have several voices available at various parts of the phone, as well as the ability to select which voice does what. I also recognize, though, that some of you reading this may not agree with me. Some of you may not like any of the NeoSpeech voices, and would prefer Ivona. Others of you probably will have your go-to voice, but also may add some others for variety.

My point is that voices are one of these matters where everyone's taste will be different. Evaluating a voice just based on a sample can give you a general idea of where a voice is strongest, but it will take some time using it before you know if you really like it.

In short, I do agree that Apple could offer more voices, but I'm not going to sit around to wait for the "perfect" voice. Let's work with what we have, but while we do that, please let Apple know how you feel. Let them know which voices you do and don't like, and let them know how they can tweak things.

These are my thoughts, for all their worth. Thanks.

Here's another idea. Instead of Apple being the only provider of voices, why don't they open the TTS API so that third party text to speech engines can be developed and used? This would allow other TTS makers like Neo Speech and iVona to create TTS engines that can be used for iOS. I see it as being no different than opening the keyboard API. I think Apple is only going to provide Nuance Vocalizer voices because that engine offers the widest number of languages. Plus, Apple and Nuance have a very tight relationship since Siri is using some kind of component provided from Nuance. The previous poster is correct in that a lot of these issues are a matter of personal choice.

Just for clarification, I don't have the 16gb model, though the five, I do have. I have the 64 which, still is decent though whenever i choose i'll go for the biggest eventually. Ok so maybe calling Fred disgusting was rude, no doubt it was, I'm sorry for that. as for opening the speech API given that apple sandboxes itself, do you really think they would go for that, seeing as how the pretty much only opened it because of the mainstream aspect? Let's be real here, we are still a small community no matter how much we want to show the big bad apple people we matter too blind people unite crusade. Unless a few strong minded and intelligent folks get on the developement team, to sow apple hey this is where you need improvement, without being shown what they need to fix they may not be able to understand what we need. No, I don't have knowledge of more then one person being totally blind who works for apple and I don't know his or her affiliation. Just saying that a lot of the discrepancy here is that, we're working with sighted people who don't know how we use it, why we want it changed, what it would do to make it a stable more developed system.

I know the heading is a bit provocative, but I honestly wish some folks would stop fussing about the voices on their iPhone and look at more substantive changes to the capabilities of Voiceover. For instance, it would be fantastic if Voiceover read numbered and bulletted lists and heading levels correctly. It would also be great if a braile display could track the cursor as you run your finger line by line down the screen in aps like iBooks. More sophisticated formatting feedback would enable iOS to be a true productivity device. But instead of lobbying Apple, who have limited resources, to work on these issues which enhance the productivity of blind people, we winge about the voices! And we complain about them in an environment where Apple has just made a whole bunch of extra voices available through iOS 9. Honestly on the scale of things I think more voices is way down the list.

I understand people will disagree, but I honestly think you can get used to any voice - I use different voices on my mac, my pc and iPhone, and have no issues adjusting between them.

Just my two cents worth.

cam

I agree with Cam on this problem. We should be campaigning Apple for more important fixes. There are things in VO on the MAC that I wish Apple would put into place. However, things like this force everyone to fight for true changes, or make their phone sound like a virtual human.

One thing I would like to see with voice over his the ability to go to a specific type of heading. as well as going from one heading to another, I would love to maybe go to the heading level 2 or heading level 4 at a specific point.

I have a 5S. Couldn't find the Alex voice. Found other English, Brittish, etc. but not Alex. Wanted to give this voice a try.

I installed the female Siri HQ-voice (for French) on my device running French as default version. But I notice it drains my battery trice as fast as the previously present voice (Thomas HQ). Now I've removed Siri HQ, battery consumption seems to have returned to what I had in iOS 8.4.1.
Did anyone else experience that issue?

Cam and Andy, you both are absolutely right. So we have two new voices, that's not functional enough. To whom decided to tell me let someone only download what they want, is it not conceivable that someone with the correct storage configuration many not wish to download every single voice per their preferences? This may be quite few and far between. No one besides a few of us, seem to understand, we aren't running mobile laptops who can take on so much more of a task then the phones. Why do you think the phones get warm when you charges them? If you really wanted everything out of what you're asking for, think how much of a hardware redesign would need to be innovated. It's the same, every IOs update, someone wants this, someone wants that. Until we have an adequate representation of accessibility shown to us, sighted users who only know what they know, are going ot be the ones we keep asking, hinting, suggesting too.

I don't see anything wrong with wanting more choices in voices. Voice preferece is a lot like someone's preference in soda or beer. What one person loves can sound absolutely horrible to someone else. There are people who would love to have E-speak on their iPhones, but I would hate that because it sounds straight out of the '80's.For me, I find it's just easier to work if my device already sounds familiar. Me? I would pay to have eloquence on my iPhone because I grew up using it.

... I want the ability for a pronunciation dictionary. That's a big feature that I can't believe hasn't been implemented in iOS yet. Once we get that, I think more voices would be okay, but quite frankly, if I can't find a voice to tolerate among all of the English voices that are available, maybe I should go back to the Apple II voices.

1) apple should stop tweaking the voices. i don't know if they thing they have humor or the engineers just have very bad taste, they have consistantly made the voices sound worse with each major release.

2) wanting a better sounding voice isn't asking for extra. unless one use braille exclusively, voice is the only way a visually challenged person uses and interacts with the device, it is equivalent to the display to an ordinary user. if retina display is so important to a sighted user, then voice is just as important to the blind. and i don't care what others say about this, but when there are people around, i want my phone's display to look great even though i can't see it myself; and i want my screen reader to sound pleasant, too. i want better productivity and better sound, and i don't think it's too much to ask. i still have a good old reading edge machine here, and the synthesizer sounds great. this is like 20 year old machine, so i don't think it is too hard to have great voice today.

3) people are asking for many more voices, what they are really saying is they are not satisfied with current voices. just give me two really high quality voices and allow me to adjust the pitch Intonation, etc, and i'll be very happy. i don't need 10 crappy voices, just one or two really quality voices and customization.

I have no issue with people wanting more voices, but frankly I'm glad that my phone sounds different from my computer. Sometimes in my office, it's the only way to know which one is talking to me.
As for the quality of the voices, I honestly haven't noticed that the voice is any worse than when I started using ios 5. Maybe just me. I have been reading people saying that Samantha must have taken up smoking and such things, but I just haven't noticed any change.
I really do support the need for a pronunciation dictionary though.

True, but I Think that no mac or iOS voice doesn't speak exclamation marks. You just cant tell when there is an exclamation mark. I think that apple should fix this. I have an braille note, and the voice synthesizer at least the eloquence voice does. The voices for apple's devices are good, but you should know when there is an exclamation mark.

Like one of the posters said, it would be nice if VoiceOver could speak expressions like question marks.

Voiceover can speak question marks. What it doesn't speak is exclamation marks. What I mean by this is that you can't tell whether it was a Period or an exclamation.

Hi all,

I can honestly say that Samantha's voice has lost a lot of quality from iOS 8 to iOS 9. To me, she sounds as if she has come down with a cold that's getting worse and worse in each major iOS version. I think that we, as a community, should put pressure on Apple to improve the quality of VoiceOver voices in iOS. Do you agree or not?
All the best,
André

This is probably far-fetched and ridiculous. However instead of having high quality voices, wouldn't it be just better if Apple had a feature that allowed you to record voices, in high quality and then use them for voiceover?

We can't put pressure on apple to improve the voice. That's Nuance's job. Apple uses those voices because that's what they have to work with.

To the poster who had the suggestion about recording voices, good concept, but it's not easy to make a speech synth. It's not like you can just take a bunch of random voice samples and put them together and hope everything works. It takes a damn good knowledge of programming and what not if I'm not mistaken.

So far, I think only one user has mentioned that they would like Eloquence. I agree. I would pay to have Eloquence on my iPhone. I grew up with it, can understand it at far higher speeds than I can other voices, and it speaks dear old exclamation marks! In my case it would have to be british English Eloquence, which i know many people don't like, but I would be a very happy bunny indeed if I had that. I know it ain't gonna happen before everyone starts telling me it ain't gonna happen, but I wish it would. As it is, I'm very happy that we have the HQ Siri voices that we can now use. The British female is excellent, except the way she pronounces the word 'phone' is very tea and scones, fee-paying girls' school etc. although actually I can forgive her even that. I would quite like to use Brian from Ivona if I could, but British female HQ Siri I think definitely outstrips Daniel now for clarity and expression. I have no problem with this campaign for more voices. The voice is extremely important and I agree that when your iPhone voice is messed with it's one of those things that can prove quite difficult to adjust to.

By the way, looking at the voices dialogue on IOS, we have British English, Irish English, scottish English...but hang on a moment, Scotland is still a part of Britain! Really, Daniel and the Siri male and female are English english. just my blast against the monstrous regiment of Nicola sturgeon.

I agree with the poster who posted about. It would make the iPhone much better. Besides, I am used to eloquence voice, since I have had an apex for a long time.

My only complaint with that is pretty funny actually. It took me a while to realize that when it said "Cap Play" it really meant "Cap J." Such a stupid error!

She obviously went to a very, very good school. Have listened to a bit more of her, and her pronunciation gives it away. Ballet, hockey sticks and midnight feasts in the dormitories. The British male sounds a little whimpish, can't see him playing in the front row of the scrum.

I like the siri brijish english voice but, it hear weak than from other voices.
I am happy if will be one from the voices like sreana, or alison. it's will be very nice and refresh change.

@Armando I had this too, but it is sort-outable as I no longer have it. make sure you're using British Siri enhanced. Even if you think you are, select it again and it will appear to download it again, or at least that's what I think happens. Either way, once done, your location services settings will revert to saying settings, like all the other voices. She has a problem saying twenty as well, incidentally. Not sure whether that's due to a bad experience in her past with someone who was twenty, but if Apple could help her through that in time for the next release I would be enormously grateful.

People are talking about switching voices, but I only have one US English voice... Are the changeable voices for VO? I've recently updated to ios 9.2 from ios 8.3 and I cannot understand most things said by my default US English voice... :(

I've been an iOS user since getting my first iPhone in 2010. To me, the built-in VoiceOver voices sound as good as ever. In fact, as long as the quality is good enough that it is easily intelligible, I don't need an Oscar-worthy voice actor -- I just need a reliable screen reader. What I have noticed over the years, however, is a steadily degraded experience with Voiceover in general. In the early days around iOS 4 or so, voiceover worked so tightly and seamlessly with the operating system and Apple's apps, and it worked pretty good with most third party apps as well. Now voice dropouts, unlabeled screen elements, sloppy or incomplete voiceover compatibility implementation or other glitches have become par for the course -- even in Apple apps and iOS itself. I'd say this is a far more critical concern than how many voices we get. Give me a return to the stable, reliable voiceover of the past and I don't care if we only get one voice. Priorities, people.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Let's get the Voiceover reliability back up to what it used to be; then we can worry about additional voices.

Couldn't have said it better. As you said, it is all about priorities. though for me, the glitches encounter with voiceover are somewhat minor. Though I may be wrong, I mean, I haven't noticed much. For now, we must be thankful with what we have. I mean, voiceover is a very good screen reader, and even though it has some glitches, it is still great. I mean, better the voiceover that we have now, then no voice over at all.

Perhaps I disagree because I have not experienced the same frustrations with Voiceover that you appear to have. That's not a reflection on you or me or anyone else, of course, rather my point is that frustrations are subjective. The reason I don't agree that Joe has nailed it is because localisation is important. Speaking for myself I want my content read by a British voice as I am British. In that way I'm like most consumers. When AOL started over here they rightly appreciated that they needed to localise their product, with sections to discuss cricket, rugby, real ale, Only Fools and Horses and Blackadder as opposed to baseball, nFL and so forth. That's why I like a local voice, and a local voice that says Clarkenwell not clerkenwell, Darby not derby, Barclay Square not Berkeley Square, Southwark not Southwalk. For me, listening to the iPhone is something i do so often that it's an integral part of the iPhone experience. I do accept that other frustrations will be higher priority for some though of course.

Bingo Little, of course local voices are a must, so VO understands what we are saying. :) When I agreed with Joe, I was just thinking of the US English VO... :P Having different languages is so awesome, since I use Korean too~ heehee

I agree about the storage. I bought my device, I will choose how I wish to fill it up. If I want to fill it full of voices and a couple of apps, that is my business. As I keep stressing over and over, this really isn't hard, nor should it take this long to implement. I think we're certainly bettter off than we used to be. Over the past couple of years, Apple has added more andm ore voice choices to iOS. I think this trend can only continue and get better. As I said earlier, I want an OS X like voice manager in something like iOS 10 that would allow downloading and deleting of many different voices. Again, I stress that this isn't that difficult to do. If you think a voice is taking up too much storage, remove it. If you don't want to use Alex, fine. I really don't care. The point is choice and we certainly have it on the Mac with the nearly full range of Nuance Vocalizer voices. The arguments about processing power are not relevant here. Maybe they are for Alex, but I've personally used other Vocalizer voices when I was jailbroken and it works just fine. I'm not going to go into how I did that on here, but trust me when I say it can be done. So really, what's the big deal? Why can't Apple make this part of the operating system? I guess we can keep asking all day with no apparent answers.

Finally, voices really do matter. Samantha gives me a headache and sounds like an angry robot who is about to stab me in my sleep. Voices are our main interface to these devices. How long do you think Apple would last if, for example, they shipped devices with really low resolution screens or something like that? That's howI feel about voices. A bad voice for one person is like a bad screen for a sighted person. Maybe this isn't a complete comparison, but I think you get the idea. I remember getting so excited when Alex was announced with iOS 8. Who cares if it takes up a gig of storage. Again, it's my device, and I will choose how I want my storage used. While we're talking about Alex, there is no reason Apple couldn't include the smaller version of Alex as an optional download along with the main Alex. This would make people happy since less storage is used for a really good voice. In fact, I've switched to the standard Alex on my Mac and it sounds just as good as the full download, yet it saves me nearly 500 mb of disk space. This has been possible since Yosemite, so it should be a relatively simple thing to add to the 64 bit iOS devices. I think this nonsense needs to stop. We have been asking for this kind of thing for years and years. I think Apple is finally responding, albeit at a slower rate than I would have hoped. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for iOS 10.

Hi. Chris I agree with you, it's our business what we do with the devices. I'd love even more control, I'd love to delete anything to do with say the OS10 voices of bad news and the in my view stupid voices that are only in there because we can't get rid of them. Switching a nicer way of saying this, If I had the ability to delete any non english speaking voice, any one I disliked, I would. If I had the option to use the small Alex on a phone that is still a five, I'd want that. The problem is simply that apple isn't building a screen reader, but an operating system they make sure something is included. I admit i'm surprised someone dislikes Alex only because he's the clearest of all of them. I use the male siri voice and even tht I wish pronunced things better then it does. I don't alex had near the words the other voice does. but I'm stuck with that if I don't want Samantha. As long as it works for us, and until we actually have a blind person or three working in the depths of Apple, we need to accept what we have, ask for what we want, and appreciate what is given.

Responding to the question about removing the novelty voices, there is a convenient way to do this on OS X. Go into system prefferences and select the dictation and speech settings. In the main voice list, select the bottommost option (customize). Then, simply uncheck the voices that you no longer want. This will clear them from your voice lists, and in the case of the large vocalizer ones, also delete the voice files. A few of the compact voices remain in the system for when it is necessary to speak in a different language, but if they are unselected, they will not appear in lists and the files are extremely small. You will end up with a list containing only the voices you typically use. I have myself done this as quickly changing voice settings for my multiple languages is made difficult by long voiceOver voice lists.

Just a thought as many people rave about how good alex is, but he is not from round here, so to speak. I would love Apple to develop his British brother, or as I know that's a hot potato north of Hadrian's Wall, his English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish brothers. At the very least a British English Alex would be great.

I was just curious, how does one go about getting Alex? Sounds like that is a good voice but on my phone, I only have Samantha and the female and male siri voices