There is not a single Apple user on the planet who does not know who Siri is and what she does. The company’s voice-activated personal assistant has become a staple of Apple products for the last couple of years, becoming a favorite among many, including outside of the Apple ring. The majority of us are familiar with the voice of Siri as an American female voice. What some of you may not realize is that there are other Siris around, ones with a different accent, gender, and language.
Long thought to be software-generated patterns (some really are, we’ll get to that later on), the voices behind Siri are actually human, for the most part. What’s most interesting is how these people came to be voice of Siri. Namely, most of them didn’t even know their voices were behind Siri’s interaction as Apple never publicly acknowledged them. No, they didn’t even let them know privately, if that’s what you are thinking. In this post, we’ll present to you the real people behind Siri’s voice and how they got the gig. Ladies first.
American Voice Of Siri – Susan Bennett
When someone mentions Siri, the first thing that comes to mind is the original Siri voice. That is the courtesy of Susan Bennett, the now classic voice for the North American Siri that has ultimately become synonymous with the voice agent. Ever since Siri first came out on the iPhone 4S on October 4th, 2011, we’ve been listening to the 68-year-old voice-over artist the entire time.
It all began back in June 2005, when a software company called ScanSoft started work on a database project involving speech construction. They needed a voice-over artist and chose Bennett for the job. The recording sessions were four hours long and took five days a week for the entire month of July. Bennett recorded thousands of words a day. Then, the material would go through concatenation – a process of smoothly combining two different words and sounds into one. That is the main reason why Siri sounds natural, especially compared to the available tech at the time. The perplexing part of the story is that Bennett found out on the day of the release that she was the voice of Siri. Despite Apple’s weird policy of not acknowledging or confirming Bennett, audio-forensics experts later established with a 100 percent certainty that Bennett was indeed the voice of Siri.
Once again, because Apple didn’t reveal anything about the background of Siri’s voice, people were both surprised and excited. They weren’t just surprised to learn Bennett was a person, they were excited to learn there was a person in the first place. Up to that point, the majority of speech technology was of a Hawking-esque type, with stuttering, breaks and several other inefficiencies. General public accepted it as a standard, which is probably the main reason for the enormous publicity that followed. Thanks to the newfound fame, Susan became a part of numerous tech conferences, did a Top 10 list for David Letterman, and had guest appearances on several television shows. Today, she’s the voice of Delta Airlines and doing voice work while also dabbling in singing. Not bad for someone who “broke out” on their own.
Australian Siri Voice – Karen Jacobsen
Siri was a smashing success for Apple from the get-go, perhaps in small part thanks to market personalization. The company broadened Siri’s voice spectrum to different regions and countries, one of them being Australia. Unlike in Bennett’s case, this time candidates auditioned specifically for the job. The role went to Karen Jacobsen, an already established voice-over artist in her home country. Her voice was one of the Australian English options in various GPS systems like Garmin, TomTom, Navman and more, as well as other telephone and computer software systems. Jacobsen fully embraced the role and branded herself “the GPS girl”, thus creating a business brand. The previous experience most likely played a pivotal part in getting the role of Aussie Siri. She auditioned for the role and immediately got the job on the spot after reading a brief.
Unlike Bennett, Jacobsen had a direct contact with Apple regarding voicing Siri, making it much easier to oust herself. She has since turned her ambitions into a second career on the inspirational speaking circuit. She is also a singer, a songwriter and an accomplished author.
British Voice of Siri – Jon Briggs
The male among the females on the list, Jon Briggs is a former tech reporter and a TV and radio presenter. He is most famous in Britain for being the voice behind “The Weakest Link”, a popular trivia quiz show. As for voicing UK Siri, Briggs went through pretty much the same ordeal as Bennett. He recorded the original bank of digital voices in 2007 for Scansoft, once again. Nuance Communications bought the company and Apple simply paid for licensing. Briggs recorded thousands of audio snippets that eventually became the Daniel voice for English users. Just like Bennett, the 52-year-old recognized his voice by chance. One morning, he was watching a TV show where the latest iPhone 4S was up for a review. Siri was activated on the programme and, much to Jon’s surprise, it was his voice he heard.
The New Voices Of Siri – Mystery!
In 2013 and 2014, accompanied with the arrivals of iOS 7 and 8, Apple changed Siri voices. They weren’t entirely replaced, as in original Siri’s case, but just modified by adding different pitches and tones to make it even more natural and smooth. That’s still Bennett at the foundation of it, but not quite her. Others, like Daniel aka Biggs, were totally replaced, prompting Twitter users to start a petition to bring it back.
Due to the secretive nature of Apple, the rest of the voice-over bunch is unknown. Ever since Apple replaced “the originals”, there is virtually no information regarding new voices. It is quite possible that a human voice is behind the initial generation of the voice. Nonetheless, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a real voice is actually in the computerized voice. Considering the constant breakthroughs in voice technology, this is a more likely version. So far, Apple is keeping a tight lid and considering that we’ve just learned how they have never really presented nor acknowledged the human voices behind Siri, it’s not surprising.
How to switch Siri to a different voice
To switch to a different Siri voice on iOS 10, open the Settings and tap “Siri.” Then, tap on “Siri Voice”, which is set to “American (Female)” by default. From there, you can choose between American, Australian, and British accents, as well as gender. The selected options will take effect once you connect to Wi-Fi and the new voice downloads.
For Mac users, the process is also straightforward. On MacOS Sierra, you can access Siri’s options from the System Preferences. Interestingly enough, MacOS has two extra voice options, along with the American, Australian, and British accents found on iOS 10. These include a female Irish or South African accent.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. If you didn’t know there were actual people behind Siri, you’re not the only ones. Even the people who voiced Siri were in for a surprise when the voice agent debuted. That’s how Apple tends to work sometimes – quietly and stealthily. The important thing here is that there are options to customize Siri and adapt it to your needs. You can give it a number of different voices and switch things up a bit. If you do opt to change Siri’s accent or gender, it will transform to a whole new personal assistant.