Old iPhone 4, better VoiceOver voice?

I think they changed the engine for a supposed new one around ios 12 and starting with the french siri voices they all factually sound slightly worse nowadays, in fact to hear the difference the test is simple, for those who have access to jaws see their vocalizer voices and compare them with apple's, vispero still use the older engine and they are more crisp.
As for siri voices, only voiceover is affected as the sample voice there (true for nuance voices too) is the original unchanged voices, which siri still have, whereas voiceover get a crappier version.

The voices were updated a while ago to be more compressed with smaller file sizes. This isn't entirely Apple's fault, other than upgrading to an inferior version. Then again, this may have been a requirement for their contract to continue licensing the voices, but we'll never know for certain. Apple made the change with iOS 16 and macOS Ventura.

My ipod touch 7 is on ios 15 and its alison voice is the same as current vispero for example. But I believe that for siri voices in voiceover it started around ios 12.

I sort of remember what Samantha used to sound like, and it sounds a lot different now and not something I'd use. So yes, I do somewhat remember what some voices used to sound like compared to what they sound like now.

The original Samantha U.S. English voice in iOS 3 and 4 was far superior to the offering available today. I read in another post here that VoiceOver used the Vocalizer Automotive platform back then. The voice was rather monotone and there wasn't a whole lot of inflection, but it was predictable in how it spoke things. And that predictability is what made it good.

My first iPhone, the 4S, running iOS 5.X, use Samantha for both voiceover and Siri. It was a very smooth transition between using VoiceOver and using Siri.
I miss the way iOS used to run back then, things were a lot better, simpler, but a lot better. 🤷

The vocalizer voices that Jaws gives us now are much better than the ones that we have in the phone. I don’t really think this is Apple spelt licensing the Voice out from whatever contracts they had to sign so the Voice quality can’t really be helped. I think it was has changed a lot once we got to iOS 16 that’s when I noticed a quality shift in the book. And currently using the regular current voice on the device devices. I wish we could go back to having voices from the ones that are in VoiceOver, but we can’t do that anymore. But we’ll just have to see what happens with the 27 I guess. If we could use the voice voices as part of Siri like they used to let you know that would be cool. I don’t remember this because my first iPhone was an iPhone 8 iOS 13.3 something so I just know that from old podcasts.

I notice that with the voices as well, although I prefer eloquence on my phone than my computer. On my Mac, I have Alex. He sounds better on the Mac than the phone and I'm not sure why.

I have a theory about this. I think the voices sound worse on the phones because they are lower quality versions of the same voices. They’re probably smaller files. I also think what’s happening is we’re hearing the voices through smaller speakers so the hardware is automatically not as good as what computer hardware would be. I could be wrong about this, but it just seems to make sense. Because the computer voices for vocalizer are the premium high ones and we are definitely not getting those in our phones. The ones that are called premium are actually the older versions of the premium high voices that Jaws used to get back in like Jaws version 16 or so. This was back before Jaws had the number based on the gear. I remember the voices back when they were the real voices and honestly, some of those were actually better too. So I think that’s probably what’s going on here. We’re not getting the highest quality versions of the voices available. My favorite voices are still Karen and Samantha though. Right now both of my phones are using regular Karen and my laptop are using Karen premium high draws. I have a old laptop running Windows 7 and that one is running jaw 2021 because that’s the highest version of drugs that you can get for that operating system version. I just installed 2026 to my computer yesterday and that one has Windows 10 because that’s what my computer couldn’t run. I don’t have a computer that can run. But I think that’s what’s happening here with the voices. I hope someday we get the higher quality versions of the voices in our phones, but I don’t know that they have a processing power for that and I think that may be why we also don’t have them.

Here are some interesting YouTube links showcasing Siri and VoiceOver on the iPhone 4S. Enjoy. 😀

Siri:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_msK1PrDJs

VoiceOver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf5MDaQw59o

My first iPhone was the iPhone 4 and the UK English voice was IOS Jane. To be fair, it wasn't all milk an honedy in those days. We should remember that Jane was the only voice we got in IOS for UK English. There were no other choices. The very fact that there are now other choices has got to be a good thing. Having said that, Jane was a very good voice indeed. She actually breathed, a bit like Alex apparently does. She was very clear. There were no weird pronunciation issues as there are with even the best of the voices these days. Were she made available again, perhaps I would use her.

i like the way you compared the quality to screen quality. that is a very good argument.
as for the voices - i don't used any enhanced voices - for me they sound better.

I’m not using any enhance voices right now. I just find that the regular one sound a bit more natural as far as your inflections. They read things more evenly as well. Enhancing premium. Voices tend to put inflections in very unnatural places. It doesn’t seem quite noticeable with jaws on windows in the computers, but it definitely is with the phone. It doesn’t mean that I won’t try them again though. I probably will but right now I’m just using the regular care invoice on both my phones. I’ve never heard Jane’s voice before. I kind of wish that she was there. I’m not the biggest fan of Alex. I’ve tried to waste a few times and I just can’t quite get used to it.

Hey Brian, thanks for sharing the links for VoiceOver back then. Samantha sounded awesome then. She still does now too, but I can see why people lineup liked her better back then. Very cool.

All platforms had their voices changed in ios16, ventura and others, and I believe the same happened when the voiceover specific siri voices got dropped in quality compared to the sample we still have which is outright a lie from apple as only the system siri voices are exactly like the samples.

I know, right!? Back then the fluidity of using VoiceOver and Siri was nye seemless. Ah well, progress and all that jazz... 🙄

Meet Jane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlVVV-jY6C4

At least, I hope that's Jane. 😅

That sounds like the Karen (Australia) voice to me. I still really do miss that classic compact sound though.

Oh, you might be right. I will have to keep scrounging around YouTube. 😇

I believe folks are referring to This Voice

Your YouTube-Fu is strong. 🙇

That voice in the link of YouTube does kind of sound like Karen but it’s definitely higher pitched. At least higher pitch on the current available regular Karen Voice. It’s still really cool out. Kind of wish I had an iPhone back then. Oh well, I didn’t. It’s kind of cool that the really old iPhones are still up on YouTube links.

Was iOS 4 not Serena? That’s what I remember it as

Now I want to go and find a sample of the iOS 3 / iOS 4 U.S. English VoiceOver voice. I have a sort of "First Impressions" podcast done by someone when the iPhone 3GS first came out (I think it was either from the Blind Geek Zone or the now-defunct Blind Cool Tech), obviously I can't post it here because it's not mine to redistribute. But I'm guessing someone somewhere has a video or audio demo of the iPhone 3GS/iPhone 4 from that time period out on YouTube. Regardless, I plan to go back and listen to that podcast, and try and replicate that original voice as much as I can with adjustments to pitch in the current Vocalizer Samantha. In my early attempts at this, a pitch around 40-45% seemed to be close though I am not 100% for certain as I have not compared the two voices side-by-side.

Getting any of the current vocalizer voices to sound as they did a decade and a half ago will absolutely be a monolithic task.
I shall be over here....
**points to a corner**

...eating popcorn and cheering you on. 😇

Based other posts that I’ve read on here but iOS 4 default British voice was Serena. I never had an iPhone that far back though. My first iPhone was an iPhone 8 and it had iOS 13.3 something on it so I don’t remember any of those original voice voices. I like what we have now. But I definitely hear a difference based on those YouTube links. I’ll stick with the vocalizer voices for as long as Apple keeps offering them I think. So that would be a sad day for me. If vocalize are no longer became available over the phone. Karen and Samantha are my two favorite voices so I hope that vocalize will be on the iPhone for a long time. Would be awesome if we ever get the premium high version though. I’m waiting. I think we just don’t have the processing power in our phone get to handle them. I think that’s why we get the old versions of them for the phones. They’re definitely not the same as the ones on the computers. I’ve never heard the voices in the Mac, but I do know what voices are available for Jaws and they are definitely higher quality vocals than what we get. Oh well, it is what it is. I’m just happy we got premium for you. I mean it’s a step in the right direction anyway. We’ll see what happens in a few more years of iOS. I know iOS 27 supposedly doesn’t have any new voices I will just keep waiting and continue to use what I like. It is very interesting to look back at these original voices now they’re pretty awesome.

I was able to download all of the vocalizer and Apple English speaking voices to both of my devices. So now I am currently using Karen premium on my iPhone 15 and Samantha enhanced on my iPhone SE 2022. I wish we had access to a Samantha premium Voice, but we don’t yet. Hopefully that will come someday. I’m really glad that we got Karen premium as one of the first premium voices to become available for iOS. Like I said before, these are not the same as the premium high versions and windows and jaws, but they are still a step in the right direction and there are the closest we will get for now. My speakers are able to handle the higher quality voices. I just figured that I will continue to keep using what I’m using. I downloaded all of the devices so that you can have a lot to play around with, but you and Samantha are always going to be my favorites. Karen and Samantha will always be my favorite, but I downloaded all of the voices so I can play around with different ones.