If you want to send a message to someone, you have a few options. For example, you can write, dictate, or send a voice message. Apple wants to go a step beyond as it’s just been granted a patent to make a text message read by the sender’s voice.
The patent was granted by the US Patent & Trademark Office and discovered by Patently Apple. Here’s how the Cupertino firm describes this idea:
Text communication between users of electronic devices has become an integral part of society, especially in the context of social media and instant messaging communications. However, conventional systems do not include personalization of message playback, such as personalized audio playback of received messages. These systems are also lacking with respect to user customization as to how messages are played back among various message senders. Relatedly, traditional systems are not equipped to produce personalized voices for text messages based on a small amount of audio input. Accordingly, improved systems for personalized voices are desired.
Apple even explains why this feature would be helpful. For example, in response to receiving a message from a contact named “John,” a user may desire to listen to the message in John’s voice, which enhances the user experience while increasing the efficiency of the device by eliminating the need for the user to read the received message.
BGR’s Take
While this sounds like an exciting idea, as it could be a nice accessibility feature combined with a personal touch, it could raise some privacy concerns. Who could guarantee that the user will only use their own voice to create this personalized experience?
With deep fake and Artificial Intelligence showing us every day how things aren’t black and white, ultimately, this patent is just another idea Apple had and wants to secure. That said, the best idea to hear someone else’s voice is to ask them to send a voice message.
Other than that, let’s keep Siri reading our text messages when we cannot see them by ourselves while driving or running with AirPods on.
