Soon Apple’s Siri Will Speak to You in a ‘Desi’ English Accent

Apple rolls out a new update with iOS 13 to make Siri sound more natural for Indian users.

Siri gets ‘Desi English’ accent with iOS 13

Photo: iStock

As Apple iOS 13 is set to reach India this fall, the new operating system on iPhones is loaded with India-specific features like a "desi” English accent for virtual assistant Siri that would now speak to you in a more natural and expressive way – in both male and female voices.

Users will be able to access content drawn from Indian languages in a seamless conversational style. Siri will also allow users to play their favourite Bollywood music just as easily as an English rap or rock number.

Multi-lingual interactions that define the Indian vernacular would also seamlessly co-exist with English interaction in iOS 13. On Siri, content from several Indian languages would be accessible by voice, but with simple English phrases like “find” or “play”.

There is now support for events found in Apps and Safari for flights, restaurants, hotels, car reservations and ticketed events. Users in India will be able to track their online reservations in calendar with iOS 13.

Enhanced language Setup

iOS 13 would also come with an enhanced language setup.

During the setup of a new device, users can choose their languages, including those for keyboard and dictation, and customise their language preferences from the start.

The keyboard would now support all 22 Indian languages, with the addition of 15 new Indian languages – Assamese, Bodo, Dogri, Kashmiri (Devanagari, Arabic), Konkani (Devanagari), Manipuri (Bangla, Meetei Mayek), Maithili, Nepali, Sanskrit, Santali (Devanagari, Ol Chiki), and Sindhi (Devanagari, Arabic).

The Devanagari Hindi keyboard includes typing predictions that suggest the next word as you type and learn from your typing over time.

Siri will also support ‘When/Where' queries for local events in India like sports, awards, music/literature festivals, exhibitions, summits or exams. With iOS 13, users will be able to keep track of the dates and locations for popular local events happening in the country.

Four new system fonts for Gurmukhi, Kannada, Odia, and Gujarati are also there that would help deliver greater clarity and ease when reading in apps like Safari, typing in Messages and Mail, or swiping through Contacts.

There are 30 new document fonts in iOS 13 for Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Sanskrit, Bengali, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Kannada, Gurmukhi, Malayalam, Odia, and Urdu.

Apple Maps also get an Update

Maps in India would now help users find the way to their destination with turn-by-turn directions. Along the way, it can factor in real-time traffic information, so you'll know exactly how long until you arrive.

Maps now searches a vastly expanded list of places in India to help you find just what you're looking for. There are improvements in auto-complete, including faster performance and better spelling correction.

Maps would also offer an Indian English voice when using turn-by-turn directions. This voice will be selected by default for the Indian market.

For app downloads above 150MB, the App Store team has updated the policy to allow large applications to be downloaded over cellular network if the user wants to. Large apps previously required Wi-Fi to complete the download.