Back to Mobile View

Skip to Content

The man who provided Siri's voice in the UK

Despite Apple's request that he remain anonymous, British voiceover artist Jon Briggs revealed to The Telegraph that he is the voice of Siri in the UK. Briggs received a call from an Apple PR representative last month after the iPhone 4S was launched, and was told that he should not talk publicly about Siri.

Briggs was told by the PR rep that Apple employees were not authorized to discuss products. He responded by noting that he had recorded over 5,000 sentences over three weeks for a company called Scansoft. That company merged with Nuance, which provides the voices for Siri. As a result, Briggs had never had a contract with Apple, which is why he's gone public.

When Briggs was doing the recordings, he was told to speak a very specific way, reading "flat and even." The recordings were then ripped apart to grab specific phonics to build the voice file that is used in Siri in the UK. Those phonics allow Siri to speak just about any word, even if Briggs hasn't recorded a specific word.

Briggs's Siri persona is also used to create announcements at the Kings Cross railway station in London, and is heard in other applications as well. UK readers may also recognize him as the voice in the BBC quiz show The Weakest Link.



Categories

Apple iPad

Despite Apple's request that he remain anonymous, British voiceover artist Jon Briggs revealed to The Telegraph that he is the voice of Siri in the UK
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

9 Comments

Filter by:
MaryBeth

Interesting that those chose a woman's voice in the U.S. and a man's voice in the UK.

November 11 2011 at 10:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
zenogen

His accent is quite ridiculous. Choosing someone with such an outdated British accent is beyond me. It borders on comical. This is a British accent, yes, but from about 50 years ago. They should have used someone with a softer, more modern accent like the female announcer on the tube.

I'm a Londoner by the way.

November 11 2011 at 3:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anphase

Ha! Great video to embed - Siri meets maker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUsW6LNuPaQ

November 10 2011 at 4:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ainivolsord

Best. Job. Ever!

November 10 2011 at 3:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

Whhhhyyyyyy?! Why did you tell me he's the Weakest Link man. I'll never get that out of my head now.

November 10 2011 at 3:21 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
Randy Murray

I suspect that we'll see a new UK voice for Siri shortly.

When Apple asks you to keep your mouth shut, you should listen.

November 10 2011 at 2:32 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Randy Murray's comment
gormster

He's not getting royalties or anything, it's not like they can cut him off. Like he said, he has no relationship with Apple at all.

November 10 2011 at 4:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JHam

Just like Top Gear's first Stig. Apple's press release will have Eric Idle saying "Siri, assassinate Jon Briggs."

November 10 2011 at 7:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
thewiccaman

Can I rename my Siri to 'Jon' then?

November 10 2011 at 2:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.