The latest beta of iOS 15.4 adds a fifth American voice to the Siri voice assistant. In Apple’s user interface, this voice simply calls it “Voice 5,” but iOS developer Steve Moser reports that the filename refers to the new voice as “Quinn.” The voice comes a little less than a year after Apple added the last two American Siri voices and stopped using female voice by default.
Axios states that the new voice sounds like “more gender neutral” than previous Siri voices. It was confirmed by Apple that it was recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community, but the company did not provide further details about the identity of the voice actor. As Apple notes, the voices last year were recorded by black actors as part of the company’s “long-standing promise of diversity and inclusion.”
Apple says, referring to the new fifth American voice, “We’re excited to introduce a new voice for English speakers to users that speaks to themselves.” trusts us, so we strive to make the experience feel as personalized as possible.”
Other new features included in the latest beta of iOS 15.4 include a new anti-spying privacy statement when setting up AirTags. An official release date for the software has yet to be announced, but it is expected to become widely available next month.