Apple has introduced a new feature for cognitive accessibility called Personal Voice for iPhones. With the new iOS 17, you can create your own synthesized voice to communicate with family and friends. Personal Voice has a greater meaning that we will learn more about in this guide. Here’s everything you need to know about Personal Voice and how you can set it up on your iPhone.
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What Is Personal Voice
Personal Voice for cognitive accessibility has arrived with the latest iOS 17 update. With Personal Voice, you can record your own voice to create a synthesized voice that sounds quite like your own. It’s like using AI to clone your own voice on an iPhone instead of a famous celebrity that you can use to communicate with your friends and family.
Personal Voice will come in handy for people who might be at risk of losing their voice, such as those diagnosed with ALS or any disability that can affect their voice in the long run. iOS 17 uses Machine Learning to synthesize your voice and keeps your info private.

You can use Personal Voice while on FaceTime or even voice calls, assistive communication apps, and in-person conversations too. The idea is to preserve your voice forever so that when need be, it can be used when needed to communicate.
Furthermore, with the macOS Sonoma update coming soon, Personal Voice will be available on your MacBooks as well.
Prerequisites to Create Personal Voice on iPhone
You need to meet the below criteria before creating a digital replica of your voice using Personal Voice.
1. Operating System: iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma or later.
2. 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, and Mac with Apple silicon.
3. Make sure to have set up a Face ID, Touch ID, or a Passcode.
How to Create Personal Voice on iOS 17
Now that we have understood how Personal Voice works and what is needed to create it, let’s look at all the steps to actually clone your voice using Personal Voice on iPhone and iPad.
1. Open Settings on your iPhone.

2. Scroll down and go to Accessibility

3. Under the Speech section, tap on Personal Voice.

4. Open Create a Personal Voice
5. Tap on Continue twice.
6. Give a name to your Voice.
Now, keep reading the on-screen instructions to record your voice. This might take a while as you will be given 150 phrases to record your voice. You need to speak these phrases clearly when you see Listening at the bottom of the screen.

Once you are done recording, it might take some more time to fully prepare your Personal Voice. Hence, you will be asked to keep your smartphone on charge and locked for the entire process.

The best time is to leave it overnight and wait until the next morning.
How to Resume Personal Voice Recording
If you were unable to complete the entire process of creating a Personal Voice you started, you can resume it again. Here is how you can do it.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and go to Accessibility
3. Under the Speech section, tap on Personal Voice.
4. Here, tap on the Personal Voice Name to resume recording.
5. Choose Continue Recording to keep going with the process.
And that is all you need to do to record your Personal Voice.
How to Use Personal Voice on iPhone
After you have successfully created Personal Voice on your iPhone, it is time to put it to use. Before using Personal Voice, you need to activate Live Speech first.
1. Turn on Live Speech
Let’s see how you do it:
1. Open Settings.
2. Tap on Accessibility
3. Now, scroll down and open Live Speech.

4. Enable Live Speech here.

2. Choose a Voice
After you have enabled Live Speech, we will now select the Personal Voice we recorded.
1. Open Settings.
2. Tap on Accessibility
3. Now, scroll down and open Live Speech.

4. Under Voices, select the language.

5. Then, choose the Personal Voice and select your voice.
3. Use Live Speech
Now that you have selected your Personal Voice, let’s put it to use. Personal Voice can be used while you are on a FaceTime call, voice call, any communication app, or even in-person conversation.
1. Turn on Live Speech from the steps above.
2. Now, triple-click on the right-side lock/wake button.
3. Choose Live Speech if multiple options are shown on the screen.
4. Then, tap on Phrases to select from your favorite phrases.

5. You can also type a phrase if you want.

Your iPhone will then say the phrase out loud in your digital voice. It might sound a bit robotic, but it has a pretty good resemblance.
How to Add or Remove Favorite Phrases
You now know how to create and use Personal Voice using live speech on your iPhone. We discussed how you can use your favorite phrases while activating Live Speech by pressing the side button thrice on your iPhone.
Here is how you can add or remove your favorite phrases from the list next.
1. Open Settings.
2. Tap on Accessibility
3. Now, scroll down and open Live Speech.
4. Choose Favorite Phrases.

5. Tap on the + icon on the top-right of the screen.

6. Enter the phrase you want to add to the list.
You can add as many phrases here and it will appear when you press the side button three times. You can also delete them if you do wish to use them anymore.
7. Tap on the Edit button at the bottom left of the screen.

8. Select the red (-) beside the phrase you want to delete.

9. Tap on Delete to remove it.

Keep repeating these steps to add and remove the phrases as and when needed.
How to Delete Personal Voice
The steps to delete the Personal Voice are equally simple. However, be aware that once you delete the voice, it will be deleted permanently, and you will have to go through the whole process from scratch.
1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down below and tap on Accessibility.

3. Tap on Personal Voice.
4. Choose the voice you want to delete and tap on it.
5. Now, tap on Delete below.

Your Personal Voice will be deleted from the iPhone immediately.
Keep It Personal
Have you recorded your Personal Voice yet? It is one of the coolest features by Apple. We have been enjoying this and love it so far. Even though the voice may sound robotic, it is close to your original voice.
You can add multiple instances of your Personal Voice and create it in different languages if you are multilingual. Amazing, right? Not only is it helpful for those who have lost their voice, but also great while you are on FaceTime call or even voice call. Let us know how was your experience with this new feature.
Did you know you can now lock your apps on the iPhone? There is a way to do it finally.