Create a Personal Voice on your iPhone, iPad or Mac

With Personal Voice, you can create a synthesised voice that sounds like your own to communicate with family and friends. Use your Personal Voice to type to speak in FaceTime and phone calls, assistive communication apps and in-person conversations.

Here's what you need

  • iOS 17, iPadOS 17 or macOS Sonoma or later

  • One of these devices:

    • iPhone 12 or later

    • iPad Air (5th generation)

    • iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) or later

    • iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation) or later

    • Mac with Apple silicon

  • Face ID, Touch ID or a device passcode or password

Personal Voice is available in English.

Create a Personal Voice

To create a Personal Voice, read a series of randomly chosen text prompts to record 15 minutes of audio. Your speech will be processed securely on device overnight while your device is charging and connected to Wi-Fi.

You can create multiple voices on each device.

On your iPhone or iPad

  1. Open the Settings app. Tap Accessibility, then tap Personal Voice.

  2. Tap Create a Personal Voice.

  3. Follow the onscreen instructions to record your voice.

To pause your recording session, tap Done or close the Settings app. Your progress will be saved.

To resume a recording session:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Personal Voice.

  2. Tap the Personal Voice you want to continue creating.

  3. Tap Continue Recording, then follow the onscreen instructions.

On your Mac

  1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Personal Voice.

  2. Click Create a Personal Voice.

  3. Follow the onscreen instructions to record your voice.

To pause your recording session, click Done. Your progress will be saved.

To resume a recording session:

  1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Personal Voice.

  2. Click the Show Detail button No alt supplied for Image next to the Personal Voice you want to continue creating.

  3. Tap Continue Recording, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Delete a Personal Voice

After you’ve deleted a Personal Voice, you won’t be able to recover it.

On your iPhone or iPad

  1. Open the Settings app. Tap Accessibility, then tap Personal Voice.

  2. Tap the Personal Voice you want to delete.

  3. Authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID, or enter your passcode.

  4. Tap Delete Voice, then tap Delete Voice And Recordings to confirm.

On your Mac

  1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Personal Voice.

  2. Click the Show Detail button No alt supplied for Image next to the Personal Voice you want to delete.

  3. Enter your password.

  4. Click Delete Voice, then click Delete Voice And Recordings to confirm.

Type to speak with your Personal Voice

With Live Speech, you can type and have your words spoken out loud using your Personal Voice that sounds like you.

Find out how to use your Personal Voice with Live Speech

Use your Personal Voice on other devices

You can sync your Personal Voice to other devices that have been signed in to iCloud with your Apple ID.

On your iPhone or iPad

  1. Open the Settings app. Tap Accessibility, then tap Personal Voice.

  2. Turn on Share Across Devices.

On your Mac

  1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Personal Voice.

  2. Turn on “Share across devices”.

About Personal Voice and privacy

Personal Voice is designed with privacy and security in mind. Personal Voice is encrypted and stored securely on device, so only you can access it with Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode or password. When you share your Personal Voice across devices, iCloud will store your Personal Voice using end-to-end encryption.

Personal Voice can only be used with Live Speech and third-party apps that you allow, such as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) apps. You can control app access to Personal Voice in Settings (or System Settings) > Accessibility > Personal Voice. Additionally, the third-party apps you grant to access can’t capture speech from Personal Voice.

You can only use Personal Voice to create a voice that sounds like you on device, using your own voice and for your own personal, non-commercial use. Your Legacy Contact won’t be able to access your Personal Voice.

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