Hello everyone,
My friends, I want to buy an Apple Watch. Unfortunately, I’m not like you who live in an English-speaking country or are native speakers of English. That’s why I need to change the language. My language is Persian (Farsi). On my iPhone and MacBook, I set the voice to Persian. Actually, I tried two Persian voices — one is the built-in Persian voice in Apple’s settings called “Dariush,” but since I didn’t like the pronunciation, I use an external engine instead. Maybe you know it: it’s an app called Speak NG, which I installed from the App Store, and now I use it on both my iPhone and Mac.
Now I want to know how I can change the Apple Watch language to that external engine or at least to a Persian voice. ChatGPT told me that after the watch is connected to the iPhone, all the voices installed on the iPhone should appear on the watch.
I would really appreciate it if someone could help me. Or, if you don’t know, maybe contact Apple Support. I would call them myself, but my country is under sanctions. In this world, we only have each other, so please help me if you can. Thank you so much.
Also, please tell me honestly — is an Apple Watch really worth it?
By Babak, 6 September, 2025
Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps
Comments
App
If that is an app that has different voices that you use, see if there is an app for the watch. Most apps have it for the phone and watch. Do not think will work with the watch if there is no app similar to what you are using. If wrong someone will let us know.
What's the question
I don't think your question is very clear, so let me state how it's coming across and if I'm mistaken you can correct me: You want to buy an Apple Watch but not without someone assuring you that the eSpeak NG synthesizer is supported. Is that it? If that's it then I can test that myself and report back here, otherwise you'll have to be clearer on what you really want help with.
As for the Apple Watch itself, to me it's useful but not essential, meaning that for my use case there's currently nothing that I would only be able to do with it that I could not do with my iPhone, however for example when I'm working out or have both my hands busy holding my white cane and carrying groceries, it's convenient for making phone calls and reading notifications, and in other cases it's also useful to make payments, read my account balance, check all kinds of real-time information from its watch face complications, and even automatically unlock my Macs when I get close to them. In the future I plan on doing a lot more with it, since I'm a developer and have some accessibility orientation stuff to work on in my pipeline, which I also intend to make available as open-source software so even if the App Store is not available in Iran you can still download and build it there.
salution
after some testing, I found out how to do this. open the Watch app, and go to settings>accessibility>VoiceOver>speach>voice. . ensure the persion voice is downloaded. . then go to settings>general>language and region, and select custom. then select persion. it will say, if you prefer persion, this setting will restart your Apple Watch. keep in mind, espeak is unavailable on the watch, so the default and enhanced voices are the only option. . . I can submit a request through Testflight, for eSpeak NG to be added to the Apple Watch. best of luck, and hopefully, you can be the proud owner of an Apple Watch some day.
persion is alive and well on watchOS
so, when I went to unlock my Apple watch, it was in persion. so I had to do some guesswoek unlocking, as the passcode screen was all in persion. VoiceOver works well there, and I am not a native presion speaker, that's all I can verther test. safice it to say, my previous advice stands strong, and I[ll help out with Apple Watch, where I can, with VoiceOver. there is a getting started with Apple Watch section of AppleVis for new users. there are podcasts, which are in English unfoortunetly for you. but if you can understand spoken English, as your native language is persion, or that's what it seems like, I can help if needed, typing transcripts of these. contact me at [email protected]. say you are the persion speaker, from AppleVis, and I can work with you, barring being persion, where I can. good luck , and I hope to hear from you soon. pleas comment on this thread so I know if these comments you have read.
Daniel
just a note to all
a note to all,
the original poster of this topic, and I have taken this off sight. just putting this here so the thread doesn't look dead. on the AppleVis podcast on the be my eyes aquasition, the BME founder, hoped for people working with people, one-on-one. I know this is exciting for me, and hope that this teaching I am doing, is the first of many oppertunities.