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New languages for Siri?

iMacBooked

iMacBooked

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 19, 2013
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Is it possible that new languages will be released for Siri on iOS 7 final? I remember when iOS 6 came out, a lot of new languages were added. Though those new languages had then been announced during the Apple event, whereas now at WWDC nothing was mentioned about new spoken Siri languages. As a dutch speaking iPhone 4S user, I think adding support for more big languages is a lot more important than Apple making new voices or integrating Siri into cars.
 
Maybe, remember only 23 million or so speak dutch, so it's not one of the 'big' languages IMO.
They still need to fix many of the other languages they have first.
 
Carlanga said:
Maybe, remember only 23 million or so speak dutch, so it's not one of the 'big' languages IMO.
They still need to fix many of the other languages they have first.
Click to expand...
You're right about the fact that they should fix the other languages they have. But for people like us who haven't been able to use Siri in our own language, it's like some sort of dead feature. We all thought Siri would be Apple's priority after launching the iPhone 4S, that they would add more languages soon. They promised doing so too. And yes they did so, when iOS 6 was released. Not dutch, but other languages were added then. So it would be logical for Apple to do the same thing for iOS 7. I just don't get how it can take more than 2 years, for a big company like Apple, to form a Siri team specialised in all languages. Google managed to add our language in like 2 months. We were all hoping of dutch support in iOS 7, but they even didn't say a word of it at WWDC, which really is a shame. Instead, they announced Siri with a male voice... Come on! :)
Anyway, I still hope for new languages in the final version of iOS 7. :D
 
I understand and hope you get it w/ iOS 7 :)
Just don't expect it to work as smooth as google's version.
 
...and you both will get your Dutch and Norwegian long before I get Polish.
 
And you all will get your dutch norwegian and polish way before I get Turkish, even tough almost 85-90 million people speak it. They are opening the first official Apple store in about a couple of months here tho so you never know
 
216 million people speak portuguese... Gess I'll be getting it first :)

6th most spoken language in the world!

FYI

1 - Mandarin
2 - Spanish
3 - English
4 - Hindi
5 - Arabic
6 - Portuguese
 
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Your list is most likely based on native speakers meaning the fols above would not even be included in the "English" number.

Most lists that include ALL speakers have English as second most behind Mandarin.
 
MozMan68 said:
Your list is most likely based on native speakers meaning the fols above would not even be included in the "English" number.

Most lists that include ALL speakers have English as second most behind Mandarin.
Click to expand...

In the matter of Siri (people using Siri for daily use), I think the native number is what matters. I also speak english but it's not my native language so to use Siri (english) I have to give her/him commands in english. Imagine someone in Holland speaking Dutch, speaking dutch all the time and talking on iphone in dutch but when using Siri speaking english... A bit annoying/nonsense, that's why people are asking for more Siri languages..

Check it for yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_spoken_languages
 
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This is just my opinion: It doesn't matter how many native speakers there is. What matters is the amount of iPhone users in the specific country. That's why for example Sweden might get Siri before Turkey.
 
Kevcay said:
This is just my opinion: It doesn't matter how many native speakers there is. What matters is the amount of iPhone users in the specific country. That's why for example Sweden might get Siri before Turkey.
Click to expand...

I agree that there are a lot more factors besides language popularity. Looking at both the above wiki page and the currently supported languages, Apple supports 9 languages with the following popularity rankings: 1,2,3,9,11,17,18,23,24.

Regarding the topic, I wouldn't expect any additionally languages at launch. Apple may add a few more around January, but at this point languages are going to be a slow addition
 
If you look in which countries Apple launches iPhone first, then you'll see which countries Apple prioritises. Next most likely is Portuguese
 
I don't really care for Russian language for Siri (nor do I think it's possible to implement it with synthetic language without making Siri dull beyond imagination) but I do wish it would search places in my country. Language is minor, I don't mind that (usually I prefer being alone with my phone or tablet when I talk to them lol, so who's to hear or care?)
 
I guess Apple want to serve countries which have the most iphone users and the highest population

Languages in iOS 6

English
German
French
Spanish
Japanese
Chinese (mandarin)
Italian
Korean

Most spoken languages

Mandarin
Spanish
English
Arabic
Hindi
Bengali
Portuguese
Russian
Japanese
German
Javanese
Others
 
Carlanga said:
I understand and hope you get it w/ iOS 7 :)
Just don't expect it to work as smooth as google's version.
Click to expand...
Thanks, we'll see what iOS 7 brings. :)
I don't care wether Google Now would be better than Siri or not, I just want the feature Apple promised us, to finally be available.
silvermx5 said:
In the matter of Siri (people using Siri for daily use), I think the native number is what matters. I also speak english but it's not my native language so to use Siri (english) I have to give her/him commands in english. Imagine someone in Holland speaking Dutch, speaking dutch all the time and talking on iphone in dutch but when using Siri speaking english... A bit annoying/nonsense, that's why people are asking for more Siri languages..

Check it for yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_spoken_languages
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I mean. :)

MozMan68 said:
Yet you are all on a US based site writing/speaking English very well....not much of an incentive for Apple if they read this. ;)
Click to expand...
Lol, that's true. :D But writing in English isn't the same as talking. ;)
 
I feel you... I speak English well but my accent is terrible. I speak Hebrew and I doubt it will ever be released in this language. Not only it's a complicated language, it has a different alphabet.
 
Ballis said:
If this is anything to go by, here are the next languages:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1493218/
Click to expand...
Thanks. :) I knew Apple was hiring people for more Siri languages support, but that job offer was placed back in November 2012, it's almost been a year, whereas Google Now did it in like 2 months.. I hope they still have a team working on it anyway. :)
Naor said:
I feel you... I speak English well but my accent is terrible. I speak Hebrew and I doubt it will ever be released in this language. Not only it's a complicated language, it has a different alphabet.
Click to expand...
Indeed. :) And without our language, Siri is more for having fun like asking 'I need to dump a body' or 'Tell a joke' and that kind of stuff. It's not practical for daily use at all. I'm really waiting for Siri being able to read a text message in my language, when recieved while having my earpods in. :)
 
Naor said:
I feel you... I speak English well but my accent is terrible. I speak Hebrew and I doubt it will ever be released in this language. Not only it's a complicated language, it has a different alphabet.
Click to expand...


I think the numbers will get you. After all Mandarin is complicated and it doesn't even have an alphabet -- it has pictures of broken pieces of furniture!
 
Gutwrench said:
I think the numbers will get you. After all Mandarin is complicated and it doesn't even have an alphabet -- it has pictures of broken pieces of furniture!
Click to expand...
Sadly just a few people in this world speak hebrew... Not more than 7 million native speakers.
 
I suppose there haven't been any new languages for Siri in the iOS 7 beta's? I don't know if the languages Apple added in iOS 6 did also appear in the beta's back then, but I hope this won't be an indication for not getting new languages in the final version either.
 
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