Apple will add a fifth Siri voice in English to iOS 15.4

There are already four American-accented English voices for Siri, but Apple will be adding a fifth in iOS 15.4. As reported by Axios, the new voice is intended to provide a gender-neutral option for the first time.

The voice is labeled “Voice 5″in the Settings panel in the current beta, although developer Steve Moser noted on Twitter that the voice is called “Quinn”under the hood. Apple has confirmed to Axios that the voice is based on recordings by a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Moser also tweeted an example of what the new voice sounds like:

Most of the time, since Siri first became a core iPhone feature in 2011, a female voice has been the default. That changed last year when Apple changed the iPhone setting to prompt the user to choose a male or female voice when they first launch the iPhone, without choosing a default choice.

Apple sent the following statement to Axios regarding the new voice added to the iOS 15.4 beta:

We’re excited to introduce the new Siri voice for English users, giving users more options to choose the voice that suits them. With millions of people around the world relying on Siri every day to get things done, we’re working to make their experience as personal as possible.

Apple also added a third and fourth English-language Siri voices in the US last year—female and male voices designed to represent African-American speech.

Other changes in the upcoming iOS 15.4 include the ability to use Face ID while wearing a face mask, 5G dual SIM support, the ability to set your preferred music streaming service, and more.