Siri

Siri voice actors share tidbits on becoming instantly recognizable voices around the world

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Apple debuted the iPhone 4s with Siri on October 4, 2011. The unexpected arrival of the digital personal assistant was called a life-changing moment bound to reshape how we interacted with mobile devices.

A year later, Siri went live on iPads. Siri is also an important feature of CarPlay and this year got added to the Apple Watch as a crucial method of hands-free user interaction. The digital personal assistant is now in the pockets, on wrists and in the cars of the millions, answering the world’s questions.

But what does it take to become the voice of Siri? Former Siri voice actors have shared secrets of the trade with The Guardian newspaper and talked about becoming instantly recognizable voices around the world.

Here are the juiciest bits.

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Facebook reportedly building ‘Moneypenny,’ a personal assistant for Messenger with a twist

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 14, 2015

Facebook is working on a personal digital assistant of its own, designed specifically for use with its popular Messenger mobile software.

Referred to internally as “Moneypenny” after Miss Moneypenny, a secretary to M in the James Bond films, it will reportedly allow Facebook Messenger users to perform tasks like checking the weather, buying products and more.

According to a report by The Information, hidden behind the paywall, one crucial difference will set apart the James Bond-inspired digital assistant from the likes of Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Google's Google Now, Amazon's Echo and others: it will be human-powered.

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Apple publishes list of supported Siri voice commands for controlling HomeKit appliances

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 25, 2015

Apple has refreshed a support article detailing setting up and using HomeKit-enabled accessories with a list of supported Siri voice commands to control your HomeKit hardware locally or remotely, through your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

After pairing a HomeKit-enabled accessory to an iOS device, you can use Siri commands to turn your home appliance on or off, adjust its settings and more, using just your voice.

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Siri to get much more intelligent in iOS 9

Cody Lee ∙ June 8, 2015

Finishing up with OS X El Capitan, Apple's Craig Federighi moves on to talk about Siri. Apple has been working on a number of improvements to the digital assistant, which has been criticized over the years for lagging behind the efforts of Google and others.

In line with run-up event rumors, Siri is getting more intelligent in iOS 9 thanks to 'Proactive,' which makes your device more contextually aware. This allows Siri to respond to queries more intelligently based on your location, the time of day and other things.

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SoundHound has created a voice search app that will knock your socks off

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 5, 2015

Apple's introduction of Siri back in 2011 was a watershed moment for voice-activated personal digital assistants. Today, a myriad of Siri-like services exist such as Google Now on Android devices and Microsoft's cross-platform Cortana, which will be hitting iOS soon following Windows 10 debut on July 29.

But many if not all of the existing services, Siri included, could be put to shame by Hound.

Hound is a forthcoming digital assistant which promises a groundbreaking smartphone experience, created by SoundHound, the maker of namesake mobile music and audio recognition service.

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Hands-on with HomeKit: the Caséta Wireless Smart Lighting Dimmer Kit from Lutron

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

A couple of hours ago, I got my first real hands-on experience with HomeKit—the connected smart home framework that Apple announced at WWDC 2014. A year later, and some of the very first HomeKit enabled products are now landing on store shelves.

The folks over at Lutron were nice enough to send us the Caséta Wireless Smart Lighting Dimmer Kit ($229.95 on Amazon). This kit comes with a Smart Bridge, two remote controls and two plug-in lamp dimmers. Although the kit in and of itself is interesting, our main interest at iDownloadBlog is with its HomeKit support. With that in mind, this post consists of an unboxing and overview of Lutron's kit and a walkthrough of the HomeKit configuration, including Siri control.

Want to see how HomeKit works in the real world? Then watch our full video walkthrough for more details.

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New report details Siri API, Apple’s Google Now, ‘Browse Around Me’ in Maps and more iOS 9 stuff

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 27, 2015

Apple is reportedly reading a Siri Application Programming Interface (API), according to a new report. Called Breadcrumbs, it should let developers enhance iPhone and iPad applications by implementing Siri intelligence in a limited fashion. Another new initiative seeks to create a Google Now experience for iOS devices.

In addition, the Cupertino firm is reportedly adding augmented reality features to Apple Maps, including one dubbed Browse Around Me.

The way it's supposed to work, you'd point your iPhone's camera toward a particular business or an area and Maps would put up relevant information such as a virtual view of menu items or daily specials, 9to5Mac said Wednesday.

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Cortana is coming to iOS with Windows 10 Phone Companion app, Microsoft confirms

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 26, 2015

Microsoft Cortana, the software giant's Siri-like personal digital assistant available on Windows Phone and Windows 10 mobile and desktop platforms, will expand later this year to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, as well as Android smartphones and tablets.

The company officially confirmed the news in a blog post this morning, basically corroborating an earlier March report by Reuters which claimed Cortana would hit non-Microsoft mobile platforms this fall.

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How to replace Siri sound effects with Jarvis sound effects

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 16, 2015

Ever since Siri's been out, I've seen people comment about how great it would be to replace Siri's voice with J.A.R.V.I.S. from Marvel's Iron Man series.

Apparently, that desire hasn't waned, as there's a fairly large thread on Reddit discussing a method for replacing Siri's stock sound effects with custom Jarvis effects pulled right from the movies.

I've tried this method out, and honestly, it sounds a little bit low budget. Nonetheless, I know some of you will enjoy this, and just the fact that you can learn where the Siri sound effects are, and how to replace them properly, makes this tutorial worth checking out.

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Hey Siri, will you please let me talk back to you?

Sébastien Page ∙ May 13, 2015

Siri has come a long way since it was first introduced along the iPhone 4s and iOS 5 back in 2011. The assistant has gotten smarter, wittier, and all around more helpful, at least on the iPhone, because in my experience,  it's a completely different animal on Apple Watch.

To be fair, I'm not so much complaining about actual voice dictation on Apple Watch. Besides a few missteps that were most likely due to my strong French accent, dictation has been very reliable on Apple Watch. What hasn't though, is to getting Siri to activate, whether it is hands-free or by using the Digital Crown. And when I do get it to work, not being able to interact with Siri with interactive voice commands is also a source of frustration. Allow me to explain.

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Applebot, a web crawler for Siri and Spotlight, unmasked in a support document

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 6, 2015

An official support document updated last evening has confirmed that Apple is using a web crawler service called Applebot to index the web for content used by its Siri personal digital assistant on iOS devices and built-in Spotlight search on both iOS and OS X.

An Apple-operated engine, Applebot is described as “the web crawler for Apple” which gathers useful content for products including Siri and Spotlight Suggestions. The document doesn't state how long AppleBot has been operational in production.

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