Apple has switched on Siri's Pace and Expressivity voice controls in iOS 27 developer beta 3, released today, giving testers the first working version of a personalization feature first shown at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 26) in June 2026. Both sliders were previously visible in the settings panel but marked 'Coming soon' in earlier developer builds. The controls are part of Apple's broader rebuild of Siri around generative AI, and they signal that the company is finally shipping — not just previewing — the pieces of the new assistant.
The two sliders sit alongside a wider set of voice options that let users pick among a range of accents rather than choosing between a single male- or female-sounding voice. Pace adjusts how quickly Siri speaks; Expressivity adjusts how much human-like emotion the voice conveys. As users move the sliders, Siri demonstrates the change by speaking common phrases such as 'You have one new message,' so the effect is audible before it is committed.
The AI version of Siri is threaded throughout iOS 27. Users can start a conversation by speaking, by swiping down from the Dynamic Island at the top of the screen and typing, by tapping the iPhone's side button, or by opening a new stand-alone Siri app that ships with the update. That surface area — four distinct entry points — is a substantial expansion from the invocation model in prior iOS releases, and it reflects Apple's decision to treat the assistant as an always-available layer rather than a dedicated screen.
Key facts
- 01iOS 27 beta 3, released today, activates Siri's Pace and Expressivity sliders that were labeled 'Coming soon' in earlier developer builds.
- 02The voice controls were first shown at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 26) in June 2026.
- 03OpenAI added warmth, enthusiasm, and tone controls to ChatGPT's voice mode in December 2025, giving it a roughly six-month head start on Apple.
- 04Siri in iOS 27 can be invoked by voice, a Dynamic Island swipe, the side button, or a new stand-alone Siri app.
- 05Some users on X report losing access to the new Siri after updating to beta 3, with phones re-entering the data-indexing step.
The competitive context matters. ChatGPT added its own voice personalization controls in December 2025, letting users tune warmth and enthusiasm on top of a base style setting that ranges across friendly, professional, candid, and quirky. OpenAI's implementation goes further than Apple's in one important respect: the style setting shapes not only how ChatGPT speaks but also how it structures written answers. Apple's sliders, at least in beta 3, are voice-only.
That gap — roughly six months between OpenAI shipping tone controls and Apple activating pace and expressivity — is a useful measure of the distance Apple is trying to close. Siri was for years the assistant that shipped on the most devices and did the least with them. The iOS 27 rebuild is Apple's attempt to bring the assistant to feature parity with the generative-AI incumbents while keeping the on-device and privacy commitments the company has made to its installed base.
Beta 3 also carries a handful of smaller changes, including an updated Reminders app icon. These are the kind of incremental cosmetic updates typical of a mid-cycle developer release, and they suggest Apple is now in polish mode on iOS 27 rather than adding major surfaces.
Not every tester is getting a clean upgrade. Reports on X indicate that some users have lost access to the new Siri after installing beta 3, with their iPhones returning to the initial data-indexing step that Siri uses to optimize on-device search. That regression is a known pattern for AI features that depend on locally built indexes — any change to the model or the indexing schema can force a rebuild — but it is a friction point for beta testers who had already completed setup once. Apple has not publicly addressed the reports.
Voice customization is a small feature in isolation, but it points at the harder problem Apple is trying to solve with Siri: making a rebuilt assistant feel personal enough that hundreds of millions of iPhone owners will actually talk to it. The competitors that Apple is measuring itself against — ChatGPT voice mode, Gemini Live, Claude's voice interface — have all moved in the same direction, treating the voice itself as a product surface rather than a fixed asset. Apple shipping pace and expressivity in beta 3 is a signal that the WWDC roadmap is on track for the fall release, and that the more consequential pieces of the Siri rebuild — the model itself, the app-integration layer, the on-device execution — are close enough to shipping that Apple is willing to let developers start tuning the edges.
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