How to Use Personal Voice on Your iPhone

What to Know

  • Personal Voice is an accessibility tool that allows you to create a computer-generated voice that sounds just like you.
  • You can set this up in the Accessibility settings of your iPhone.
  • After setting up Personal Voice, you can use it with Live Speech to speak using your iPhone.

Have you ever wanted a computer-generated version of your own voice? The iPhone's Personal Voice feature allows you to do just that. This accessibility option is a great tool for those at risk of losing their voice, but it can be used by anyone. Below, we'll dive into how to create a Personal Voice on your iPhone.

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What Is Personal Voice on iPhone?

With Personal Voice, you can create a digitized version of your voice that will read all of your Live Speech text. It's a cool feature and does a pretty convincing job, but it is still very obviously a computer-generated voice. Still, it's a neat feature to play around with, and it's a great asset to anyone who might be at risk of losing their voice. By creating a Personal Voice, you can have the iPhone speak for you using your own voice.

This feature differs from your iPhone's text-to-speech in that Personal Voice is meant to be used with Live Speech so that you can use your iPhone to speak for you. The text-to-speech feature simply reads off text that is on your screen.

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Note:

Personal Voice can only be used with the Live Speech accessibility feature. You cannot use your Personal Voice as a Siri voice. However, you can have Siri read messages aloud for you.

How to Use Personal Voice

Personal Voice is an accessibility feature that can be set up in the Settings app. Keep in mind that it will take about 15 minutes to set up, and your iPhone will likely need to spend some time processing the audio files of your voice, which can take an entire day. For more hidden iPhone accessibility features and settings, check out our free Tip of the Day newsletter. Now, here's how to set up your iPhone's personal voice:

  1. Open the Settings app and tap Accessibility.

    iphone settings app with a red box around accessibility
  2. Scroll down and tap Personal Voice.

    iphone accessibility settings with a red box around personal voice
  3. Tap Create a Personal Voice.

    iphone personal voice settings with a red box around create a personal voice button
  4. You'll see on-screen information about Personal Voice, such as how how to get ready to record your voice, and even name your voice. Tap the Continue button on each screen.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around a blue continue button
  5. After naming your voice, your iPhone will prompt you to check the sound quality of your environment. Tap the record button and say the phrase displayed on the screen.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around record button
  6. Tap Listen to listen to the recording you just made, or tap Continue to start setting up your Personal Voice.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around a blue listen button and a red box arounda blue continue button
  7. You will then be shown 150 randomly selected phrases which you will need to record. Tap the record button to begin.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around the red record button
  8. Throughout the process, you can tap the pause button to stop a recording.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around the red pause recording button
  9. You can tap the circular arrow to start over a particular recording.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around the red restart recording button
  10. If you want to go back to a previous recording, you can tap the skip forward and back buttons to go back or forward through the phrases you've already recorded.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around the blue forward and backward buttons
  11. You can tap the Continuous Recording button to customize how the recording goes.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around the continuous recording button
  12. Select either Stop at Each Phrase or Continuous Recording. The former will make it so that you have to manually tap the record button on each new phrase, while the latter will automatically start recording once the new phrase pops up.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around the recording customization menu with options for stop at each phrase and continuous recording
  13. You can tap Done at any time to take a break from the recording process.

    iphone personal voice set up with a red box around done button
  14. If you want to come back later, follow the first two steps, then tap your Personal Voice at the top of the list.

    iphone personal voice settings with a red box around an in-progress personal voice recording
  15. Then, tap Continue Recording and the process will resume just as in step 7.

    iphone personal voice settings with a red box around the continue recording button
  16. After you finish recording all 150 phrases, tap Continue and make sure to Allow notifications from Personal Voice so that you can be notified when the process is complete.

    iphone personal voice set up displaying a window asking whether or not the user wants to allow notifications with a red box around the allow button
  17. You will need to wait several hours while your iPhone processes the recordings. You can check the progress by repeating steps 1, 2, and 14 to access the voice you've created.

    iphone personal voice settings with a red box around the progress percentage under the user's personal voice recording. It reads, "Preparing... 0%. Charge iPhone to continue."
  18. Once your Personal Voice is ready, you will receive a notification.

    iphone notification center displaying a notification from personal voice, letting the user know that their personal voice is ready

That’s how to create a Personal Voice on your iPhone. If you want to know how to use your Personal Voice, all you need to do is enable Live Speech. To do this, open the Settings app, tap Accessibility, tap Live Speech, and enable the Live Speech toggle. Then, just triple-click the side button and type in the phrases anytime you want to have text read aloud in your digital Personal Voice. Next, find out how to use voice control on your iPhone to issue commands with your voice.

FAQ

  • Why is my Personal Voice not showing up in Live Speech? If your Personal Voice is not showing up in Live Speech, it could be because your device is not compatible. Personal Voice only works on the iPhone 12 and newer. Additionally, you may need to restart your iPhone to get the feature working.
  • What is Live Speech on the iPhone? Live Speech is an accessibility feature that allows one to use their iPhone to speak. Simply type what you want to say in the Live Speech box, and your iPhone will speak it aloud with your selected voice. If you set up a Personal Voice, you can even make your iPhone speak with your voice. This feature also works over the phone and on FaceTime calls.
  • How do I turn off Voice Over? Voice Over is a feature separate from Personal Voice and Live Speech. If you are having trouble disabling it, our how to turn off Voice Over article should help you.
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Author Details

Rhett Intriago's picture

Author Details

Rhett Intriago

Rhett Intriago is a Feature Writer at iPhone Life, offering his expertise in all things iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. He enjoys writing on topics related to maintaining privacy in a digital world, as well as iPhone security. He’s been a tech enthusiast all his life, with experiences ranging from jailbreaking his iPhone to building his own gaming PC.

Despite his disdain for the beach, Rhett is based in Florida. In his free time, he enjoys playing the latest games, spoiling his cats, or discovering new places with his wife, Kyla.