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Apple Broadens Siri Pace and Expressivity Controls in iOS 27 Beta 5

The update lets users adjust Siri’s speaking speed and emotional emphasis on-device for more American and British-accent voices on very recent iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Overview

  • iOS 27 beta 5 expands the Pace (speed) and Expressivity (emphasis/emotion) sliders from two new American voices to additional American voices and existing British-accent options.
  • Users can find the controls in Settings → Siri → Voice and choose from five discrete levels for each slider to change how Siri talks.
  • Apple runs the new voice features on an on-device speech model, so the controls are limited to recent hardware such as iPhone 17 Pro/17 Air, M4 iPad Pro models and Macs with M3 or newer and at least 12 GB of RAM.
  • Coverage differs slightly on the exact voice counts reported by outlets, with one citing eleven total supported voices and the other reporting a different split of American and British options, but both confirm substantially broader support in this beta.
  • Apple has said the wider Siri AI upgrade will enter a public beta later this year and requires at least an iPhone 15 Pro for the full Siri AI experience, while older devices will keep the prior voice synthesis.