Ever since Apple’s Siri voice generator debuted back in 2011, it didn’t take long for users to figure out they could squeeze a little bit of extra “functionality” out of it. Just like that, the game was on to make Siri say anything. iPhone users flooded the Internet with countless material showcasing Siri’s newfound use. Hundreds of funny, parody videos showed Siri saying things beyond its programming through various tricks and hacks. Heck, we even got some “Yo mamma” jokes – that’s how far things originally went. However, all these attempts to display the funny side of Siri had one thing in common. You needed a bit of expertise to crack the code, so to speak. Some tinkering, tweaking and possibly hacking was in order to ensure hilarity.
As Siri got better over time, so did its capabilities. The personal assistant got programmed with quite a few funny and snarky retorts. It could sing, it could play a game with you and provide all-around entertainment. This includes making it say whatever you want, for better or for worse. It’s almost as if people use Siri more for entertainment than as a bonafide personal assistant. We don’t judge and in fact, we’ll throw our two cents and add to the already impressive list of things Siri can do in that regard. What can we say – we like fun and playing around with digital assistants.
Make Siri Say What I Want
There’s an almost infinite line of things you can say to Siri. Ask the assistant something and it replies instantly every time. Impressive, but somewhat lacking as this means that the majority of those replies are automated, predesigned answers set by developers. When you trigger specific input data points, these answer surface. Still, you can “trick” Apple’s eponymous assistant into saying anything in a few ways. First, we’ll explain how to get a few giggles out of the trusty digital companion on iPhone and other compatible iOS devices.
Under Settings > General, tap on the Accessibility option and select Speech. In the following menu, select the Speak Selection feature. This is a necessary requirement as it will allow Siri to read the text you write or select. This can be done from the Messages app or Notes app. Just type or copy the text you want, select it, tap on the Speak option and voila! Siri will read the entire text and, if you’re particularly inspired, make a fool out of itself, all for your amusement. Do note that this is Siri iOS 8 and 9 version of the voice. This is just to let you know there may be a slight difference between this voice and the actual Siri voice (iOS 10). Also, you can set how slow or fast Siri speaks in the Speaking Rate slider under the Speech menu.
Another way to go about it is to tell Siri to repeat after you. Say something for the voice agent to repeat and it will, after you finish speaking. This is handy for shorter quips and quick commands. Finally, you can utilize the search option. This way is not quite as precise as the speech selection method due to the search command required to perform it. Launch Siri and say “Hey Siri, search Google for {your text here}”. When you finish with your request, it will respond with “Searching Google for” and then whatever you have said
Toying with Siri on Mac
Mac users also have to option to make the intelligent assistant say whatever they want. The basic principle is the same, albeit slightly different than the previous iOS guide. It requires a bit of extra work, but nothing too hard.
The way to do it is to first click on the Apple’s famous logo on the top left side, located on the menu bar, and select System Preferences. Alternatively, you can also access it through Spotlight Search. From there, select Accessibility > Speech. You can change (but don’t have to) the System Voice to Samantha (the female voice for US English language). You want to do this because the voice of Samantha is quite similar to Siri’s, due to the same American English accent. That way, you get the real Siri feel and an almost unnoticeable difference between Siri and the speech feature on your Mac. Otherwise, it’s not a necessary requirement. Note that you’ll have to download and install the voice, as well as set it as the default voice for the Speech feature.
Next, in the Speech menu, you need to enable the “Speak selected text when the key is pressed” option. This simplifies the entire procedure through a press of two buttons. The default combination for the key is Option + Esc but you can change it anytime by using the Change Key option. Now that all is set, all that’s left to do is to actually use the key. You have two options in this case. First, you can open the TextEdit tool, write some text and press Option+Esc (or whatever your combination is) on your keyboard. The assistant will instantly read aloud the text from the editor. In a similar fashion, the same method can be applied to make Siri read a text in any browser. Just select the text, press the magic combination of keys and you’ll get an oral statement in no time.
Different voices
One neat thing about the whole ordeal is that users can change Siri voice per their preferences. Just as the Speech feature offers a different selection of voices, so does Siri voice generator. The default voice in iOS 10 is “American (Female)”, with options to change it to American, Australian and British accents and gender. Mac users get two extra voice options on MacOS Sierra – a female Irish and a South African accent. New voices require download and installation in order to take effect as they are not part of the initial package. iOS 11 brings improvements in that area, with Siri sounding more human. The beta releases so far show better pronunciation and different inflection, taking into account what’s being said.
Fun with Siri
So, that’s how you make Siri say just about anything your heart desires. It’s as simple as typing or copy/pasting into a text app and selecting the Speak option. You just need to know how to enable this feature on your device and what to do. You can also select the text in a browser or a document and have Siri read it on the spot. It’s a great option to kill some time and goof around or be creative with the voice assistant. More important, the feature is rather useful for those who face difficulties while reading the onscreen text, as well as for users with speech impediments. Best of all – there is no third-party involvement and the process is fairly simple and straightforward. In this regard, Siri certainly does make things a whole lot easier. Also, it’s fun to have some harmless chaos every once in awhile. Why not?