iPhone Users Will Soon Listen To iMessages In Their Own Voice! Find Out About This New Apple Patent


Anish Hemant Kulkarni

Anish Hemant Kulkarni

Feb 19, 2023


Apple has reportedly filed a new patent which describes converting an iMessage into a voice note played back in a voice that the user has created with samples of the sender’s voice.

iPhone Users Will Soon Listen To iMessages In Their Own Voice! Find Out About This New Apple Patent

This should appeal to the younger lot who may prefer to share voice notes, while gen X and boomers stick to good old fashioned texts.

Apple seems to be tuning into this demand if going by its patent filing for a new messaging feature that could use AI to mimic your voice is any proof.

What’s new

Currently, iPhone owners can ask Siri to read their texts aloud in the digital assistant’s distinctive, robotic tenor.

With this patent Apple details a way of transforming an iMessage into an audio note.

In other words the message recipient will be able to hear the sender’s text in the sender’s voice instead of the artificial assistant Siri’s.

For it to work the sender will have to share a voice file when sending a message.

How it’s going to work

The recipient will have to agree to receive the voice file as the message, which would then imitate the sender’s voice.

“In response to receiving the message, a voice model of the respective user is received,” the patent reads. 

“Based on the voice model, an audio output corresponding to the received message is provided.”

The iPhone in question would then build a Siri-like profile for the sender’s voice, and then simulate that when reading that message and any future ones it may receive from that sender.

Further personalization

The voice file could also be sent with selected contacts, allowing users to save time when a message arrives.

The file would be automatically created and kept on your phone, based on your use of Siri.

One advantage is the offering of more personalization when friends and family text each other, instead of hearing Siri’s voice during message reading. 

So if this update eventually makes it to the handsets it would make the end result a lot more human-sounding.

Use cases

A personal example could be that couples could also hear messages in a more personal way, such as hearing “I love you” in their partner’s voice.

Another use could be hearing messages hands-free while driving, for instance.

People behind the patent

Qiong Hi, Jiangchuan Li and David A Winarsky are the patent’s inventors.

Winarsky is Apple’s director of text-to-speech technology, Li is a senior Siri software engineer for machine learning at Apple, and Hu formerly worked on Siri at the company.

50-50 chance

As in the usual case of patents, it won’t necessarily become a reality, however there is a possibility given Apple’s recent work with artificial intelligence and voices.

For example, with iOS 11, Apple switched Siri’s voice depending on recordings from voice actors to a text-to-speech model using machine learning.

Consumer opinion

Further, according to TechRound, 33 per cent of respondents aged between 18 to 24 said they regularly use voice notes to communicate with friends, with 59 per cent of the age group saying that voice notes were quicker and easier to send.

In stark contrast just five per cent of boomers use voice notes to communicate, according to WhatGadget.

Embracing AI

This isn’t Apple’s first brush with AI, having earlier used it to narrate specific audiobook genres instead of using humans.

This lends further proof that an Apple device could eventually learn to read messages in a human’s voice.


Anish Hemant Kulkarni

Tech reporter to the core, Anish distills complex tech stories into engaging narratives, making him a go-to author for accessible and insightful updates on the latest industry trends

Subscribe Now!

Get latest news and views related to startups, tech and business

You Might Also Like

Apple
Dec. 7, 2022

Interesting Details Of iPhone 15 Ultra Revealed: Find Out Design, Specs, USPs & More

Apple 14 is barely out of the box and features and rumors of the Apple 15 series are already making rounds of the internet.  The newest reports have revealed that the iPhone 15 Pro Max is to be replaced by the brand-new iPhone 15 Ultra. With the iPhone 15 series, the corporation is also said […]

Apple
Nov. 28, 2022

Sorry, iPhones Not Available? Apple Fans Are Not Able To Buy New iPhones Due To This Reason

Hurt by production struggles in China where Apple manufactures its iPhones, holiday shoppers looking to buy the latest models had to return empty handed. Dire situation The “iPhone shortages are accelerating and were front and center this morning on Black Friday across many retailers, Apple Stores, and online channels,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in […]

Apple
Nov. 15, 2022

The New iPhone SE 4 Can Have These Rumored Specifications: Expected Launch Date?

Apple is reportedly developing the new, fourth-generation iPhone SE.  If we go by the previous launch cycles, this low-cost iPhone could be unveiled by 2024. Display Apple may retain the small display size i.e. a 4.7-inch LCD screen. However for the latest iPhone SE 4, Apple is reportedly considering a bigger display somewhere between 5.7-inch […]

Apple
Nov. 9, 2022

Apple Stung By Rs 136 Crore Fraud Orchestrated By Indian-Origin Employee: Here’s The Modus Operandi

A former Apple employee named Dhirendra Prasad has admitted that he committed fraud that led to a loss of more than $17 million (over Rs 140 crores) for the company. His tenure at Apple He worked as a buyer for Apple’s Global Service Supply chain. He worked at the firm from 2008 to 2018 and […]

Recent Posts

Related Videos

   

Subscribe Now!

Get latest news and views related to startups, tech and business

who's online