How to Change the Voice and Language of Siri on the iPhone

Siri is one of the more useful features on iOS devices. Siri can make phone calls, input calendar events, search the web, and give you directions. But, what if you want to customize Siri? What options do you have and how do you do it?

In this article we’ll show you how to change your Siri personal assistant and give you some other helpful Siri tips too!

How to Change Siri’s Voice

To start, we’ll review how to change Siri’s voice. Most users stick with the default female Siri voice, but you can change that if you’d like.

While you can’t add your own audio file to use as Siri, you do have a lot of options available. You can also do this on a wide variety of Apple devices so we’ll review that too!

How to Change Siri’s Voice on iOS Devices

If you’re an iPhone or iPad user, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings and tap on Siri & Search.
   
2. Tap on Siri Voice.
   
3. Choose an accent and Siri’s gender by tapping on one of the many options available. Siri will update with her new voice immediately.
   

Now, instead of Siri’s native gender and accent, you will hear a noticeable difference in her voice. Keep in mind, this will also change the voice on your Apple Watch too.

How to Change Siri’s Voice on a Mac

If you’re a Mac user don’t worry, you can do this too! Follow these steps to change Siri’s voice on macOS.

1. Tap on the Apple icon in the far upper right corner of your Mac. Then, tap on System Preferences.
2. Click on Siri.
   
3. With Siri enabled, click the dropdown next to Siri Voice and select one of the options available.

That’s all you need to do to change Siri’s voice and accent on a Mac.

How to Change Siri’s Language

Whether you’re multi-lingual or you accidentally changed Siri’s language, we’ll show you how to choose a new language for Siri in this section. Of course, you can do this on both iOS and macOS devices.

Note: If you did accidentally change the language, we’ve highlighted the options in the screenshots below so you can easily make the right selections.

How to Change Siri’s Language on iOS

This section will show you how to change the language on both iPhones and iPads.

1. Open Settings on your device and tap Siri & Search.
   
2. Next, tap Language.
   
3. Make a selection from one of the many options available.
   

Now, Siri will talk to you in your preferred language.

How to Change Siri’s Language on macOS

If you’re a Mac user, follow these steps:

1. Tap on the Apple icon in the far right corner of your Mac. Then, tap on System Preferences.
   
2. Next, click on Siri.
   
3. Finally, select one of the languages available in the dropdown box next to Language.
   

Now, when you talk to Siri on your Mac, she’ll/he’ll respond in your preferred language.

Frequently Asked Questions

Most Apple users know with most functions there aren’t a lot of customization options. Fortunately, Siri does offer quite a few. If you’re new to Siri, or you just want to learn more, keep reading!

Siri stopped responding to me. What can I do?

Over time, your voice may change, or Siri can’t recognize your voice. Fortunately, Apple already thought of this and made it easy to update your voice. You can retrain Siri using these steps:

1. Go to Settings.

2. Tap on Siri & Search.

3. Toggle the Hey Siri switch off, then back on again.

This should fix Siri if she isn’t responding on any of your devices. If you’re having trouble with only one device make sure the microphone is clean and free of debris and that your OS is up-to-date.

How do I customize Siri for individual apps?

Apple does give you some options for customization on a per-app basis. Following the same instructions as above, go to the Siri & Search settings. Now, scroll down and tap on the application that you want to work with. You’ll see quite a few toggle switches. Turn them on and off as needed.

How do I activate Siri?

If you want Siri to respond, you have a few options.

Assuming you have Hey Siri turned on (as explained above), you can say “Hey, Siri.” If this option is not turned on, there are various ways to wake her up. This all depends on the device you’re using.

If your iOS devices has a home button at the bottom of the screen, long-press it to wake Siri up. If your device does not have a home button, press and hold the button on the right side of your device (formerly the power button).

If you’re using a Mac, you can use click on the Siri icon in the menu bar (located in the very top right-hand corner), you can use ‘Hey Siri’ (if enabled in the System Preferences), or you can set a keyboard shortcut to activate the virtual assistant.

Siri is Your Friend

Now that you know how to change Siri’s voice and language, let us know in the comments what other neat things you’ve done with Apple’s virtual assistant!