Your iPhone Will Soon Speak For You During Calls

Navigating today’s digital world is almost impossible without a mobile phone. We use these devices to share photos and videos, access social media, catch up on news and communicate with friends and family. But not everybody can speak into the microphone or read the text on the display. That will soon change when Apple rolls out several new accessibility features on the iPhone. 

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Giving Others a Voice

There are millions of people globally who are at risk of losing the ability to speak or communicate effectively. When tragedy strikes, it will be an incredibly frustrating journey to relearn what many take for granted. Even simple requests or making a phone call to a loved one can be infuriating. However, Apple is working on making it easier for impaired iPhone users by introducing new accessibility features to the iPhone and iPad. 

One of the features planned for release later this year is Personal Voice, where you can train your iPhone to mimic what your voice sounds like. Read a few random sentences aloud until your device has about 15 minutes of voice recordings. Then, combined with another new feature called Live Speech, you can type what you want to say, and your iPhone will reply aloud in your voice. The technology is compatible with real-time phone calls and FaceTime.

“At the end of the day, the most important thing is being able to communicate with friends and family. If you can tell them you love them, in a voice that sounds like you, it makes all the difference in the world – and being able to create your synthetic voice on your iPhone in just 15 minutes is extraordinary,” said Philip Green, board member and ALS advocate at the Team Gleason nonprofit.

Apple didn’t give an exact date for when the updates would be made available, only saying that it’s coming later this year.

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Image credit: Apple