iOS 17 will let your iPhone speak in your voice; Clone your voice through Personal Voice in 15 min

On Tuesday, Apple unveiled a range of new accessibility features for iOS 17 that will empower those with cognitive, vision, and speech disabilities. One of the most unique features from the list includes Personal Voice, which is a machine learning-based feature that will allow your iPhone to speak in your own voice. Yes, your iPhone can be your clone and speak in your voice. And if you are wondering about the use case of this feature, it can be used by those who either have disabilities with speech or a condition that stops them from speaking for a longer period of time. Let us take a look at this innovative voice cloning technology by the company.

Apple introduces Personal Voice feature

According to Apple, this feature has been introduced keeping those users in mind who are “at risk of losing their ability to speak — such as those with a recent diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or other conditions that can progressively impact speaking ability”.

This feature seamlessly integrates with Live Speech, another new feature being introduced by the company. Live Speech enables users to type what they want to say to have it be spoken out loud during phone and FaceTime calls as well as in-person conversations. Essentially, it is a text-to-speech app. But with Personal Voice, Apple has added another layer of personalization to it.

Apple claims that users will have to read a randomized set of text prompts to record 15 minutes of audio on their iPhone to set up Personal Voice. Once done, the on-device machine-learning capabilities will create a voice clone for the user. Now, when using Live Speech, user can user their own voice instead of the robotic default voice which can sound unnatural to many.

“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, who has experienced significant changes to his voice since receiving his ALS diagnosis in 2018, as per a blog post by Apple.

At present, the technology is likely to be at a basic level and users should not expect it to mimic all the subtleties and modulations that a human voice is capable of. However, it can still be a big relief to those who struggle with conditions like ALS and still want their loved ones to hear their own voice.