Siri NZ?

[Nermal]

Hi,

The release notes for 8.3 state that there is now an NZ option for Siri, but I can't get it to work properly. In Settings > General > Siri > Language I've selected "English (New Zealand)" but it hasn't changed to the NZ voice (it seems to be using the Australian one). It DOES make it return local information (for example, asking when daylight saving begins gives the right date) but the voice is wrong.

If I choose a different "language" (such as United Kingdom) then it uses the UK voice, but ignores the "Region" set under Settings > General > Language & Region (if I ask about DST then it gives me UK dates).

Now that I'm thinking about it, it seems that there are two problems here. It looks like A) the NZ option is linked to an AU voice, and B) the language and region are coupled together when they shouldn't be (imagine a tourist wanting to get data for a foreign country, but in their own language).

Has anyone managed to successfully change the voice while still getting results relevant to their country? Has anyone in NZ managed to get a local voice out of it (or at least the UK voice that 8.2 and earlier used by default)?

 

[Playgear]

Hi,

The release notes for 8.3 state that there is now an NZ option for Siri, but I can't get it to work properly. In Settings > General > Siri > Language I've selected "English (New Zealand)" but it hasn't changed to the NZ voice (it seems to be using the Australian one). It DOES make it return local information (for example, asking when daylight saving begins gives the right date) but the voice is wrong.

If I choose a different "language" (such as United Kingdom) then it uses the UK voice, but ignores the "Region" set under Settings > General > Language & Region (if I ask about DST then it gives me UK dates).

Now that I'm thinking about it, it seems that there are two problems here. It looks like A) the NZ option is linked to an AU voice, and B) the language and region are coupled together when they shouldn't be (imagine a tourist wanting to get data for a foreign country, but in their own language).

Has anyone managed to successfully change the voice while still getting results relevant to their country? Has anyone in NZ managed to get a local voice out of it (or at least the UK voice that 8.2 and earlier used by default)?

Siri downloads a higher quality voice file after language selection and uses a temporary voice in the interim.

I'm not sure if that's what is happening here - it should take effect fairly quickly if you're connected to Wi-Fi.

 

[0000757]

Hi,

The release notes for 8.3 state that there is now an NZ option for Siri, but I can't get it to work properly. In Settings > General > Siri > Language I've selected "English (New Zealand)" but it hasn't changed to the NZ voice (it seems to be using the Australian one). It DOES make it return local information (for example, asking when daylight saving begins gives the right date) but the voice is wrong.

If I choose a different "language" (such as United Kingdom) then it uses the UK voice, but ignores the "Region" set under Settings > General > Language & Region (if I ask about DST then it gives me UK dates).

Now that I'm thinking about it, it seems that there are two problems here. It looks like A) the NZ option is linked to an AU voice, and B) the language and region are coupled together when they shouldn't be (imagine a tourist wanting to get data for a foreign country, but in their own language).

Has anyone managed to successfully change the voice while still getting results relevant to their country? Has anyone in NZ managed to get a local voice out of it (or at least the UK voice that 8.2 and earlier used by default)?

I believe it uses the Australian voice, but just adapts for NZ accent/diction and regional locations. Similar to how the Canadian one uses the US voice, or the Singapore and Indian English voices use the British English voice for response. It just adapts to the local region and the regional accent and slang.

 

[Nermal]

That explains "problem A" (although it seems that Apple didn't do any research because I've seen a few posts on local forums about how bad the accent sounds!) but not "problem B": How can I change the voice back to the UK one without losing the local data?