Please, Apple. I am begging you. Fix the broken Text-To-Speech in macOS

Question

Created 1w

Replies 7

Boosts 1

Views 1.3k

Participants 5

Every new build of macOS 26 further breaks some part of text-to-speech or voice control. I have filed multiple bug reports on this, yet the situation gets worse, not better, with each new build. I am begging you to fix this! I am disabled and rely on these features to work. Accessibility in macOS is more than 50% of my reasons for choosing Macs over Windows.

Here's some of what is currently broken:

Speak announcements only works if the Samantha voice is selected. If other voices are selected either the announcements don't speak, or they default to the Samantha voice. This became broken with 26.1.

Announce the time only works with some voices. I would like to use Australian English Siri 2 but with that voice selected it defaults to Samantha. This became broken with 26.4.

With voice control enabled there are two menu bar icons. The blue voice control icon and an orange microphone "an application is accessing the microphone" icon. This orange icon started appearing with 26.3. For four years of macOS releases, the orange warning didn't apply to system services. And note that with voice control enabled on iOS there is no orange icon. It wastes valuable menu bar space and defeats its purpose. With that orange icon always being there I have no indication if a nefarious app starts recording me. This became broken with 26.3.

Overlay shows numbers even when it is set to none. This has been broken since at least 14.0. I don't remember if it was broken in prior versions but it has been broken in every version since 14.0.

The voice control control center widget is defective. If voice control is not in the menu bar (for example if I've said "Siri turn off voice control") using the control center widget to turn it on brings about the orange icon, but not the blue icon actually used for controlling voice control. If you do have the blue voice control icon and use control center to turn off voice control the blue icon stays but voice control is not enabled. This became broken in 26.0, was fixed in 26.2, broke again in 26.4.

When using voice control to edit text (aka dictation mode) saying "go to the end of the line" invariably goes to the beginning of the line. Once in a blue moon it will go to the end, but there is no rhyme or reason and it's rare that it does. Since this bug was added it has worked correctly exactly twice. This became broken in 26.3 (possibly 26.4).

I know I am missing some issues. Voice control and text-to-speech have new bugs with each new build of macOS 26. My main Mac is being repaired and once I get it back I'll be installing macOS 15 Sequoia on it because of these issues. These issues stop me from buying a new Mac because any new Mac will only run the broken macOS 26. I file bug reports on each build when I discover another new issue, but these reports seemingly go unread.

I would suggest Apple get a focus group of disabled people together and do research into how we use macOS. Find what's broken and what works. And if Apple does this I would be glad to be a part of that group. My place, or yours. Accessibility at one time was something Apple was proud of. It was some Apple showed off. But now, I'm not so sure. It's starting to look like Apple doesn't care. I hope I'm wrong, and that Apple does care, so...

Please, Apple. I am begging you. Fix broken Text-To-Speech and Voice Control!

Boost

Answer 1

happyfeet OP

1w

Hello,

I apologize for the issues you're hitting with Voice Control, these definitely sound like real bugs. When you get a chance, could you please paste the Feedback Report IDs for the bugs you've filed? We are already aware of some of the bugs you've mentioned, but if you can forward the report IDs here, I can ensure we track those as well, so that you are notified when the bugs are fixed in a future release!

Thank you for taking the time to report these issues!

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Answer 2

Etresoft OP

6d

happyfeet, Are you an Apple employee? Usually Apple people have a little Apple logo next to their name.

1

Answer 3

gavers OP

6d

Some issues I've reported more than once. And I forgot about two other issues (which have bug reports below): if your screen is white in the area where the voice control notification appears, you get white text on a white background. Also, when using voice control in dictation mode the text insertion point disappears making it very hard to edit text by hand. This one may be fixed in 26.4 but I'm not sure. It isn't happening right now as I dictate this, but it may be one of those bugs that doesn't happen all the time.

By far the most irritating bug is the one that puts two icons in the menu bar when voice control is on. Since I always have voice control on, having that additional orange icon always on defeats its intended purpose of warning me when a nefarious program starts accessing the microphone. It's also a waste of limited menu bar space since voice control is a system service, like Siri which is also always listening but does not trigger the orange icon, and is inconsistent with how iOS works (in iOS when voice control is on you only have the blue voice control indicator and not the additional "something is using your microphone" icon).

FB22035712 Announce the time not using selected voice

FB22035743 Speak announcements only works if Samantha voice is selected.

FB21768262 Numbers always shown even though overlay a set to none

FB21768220 Menu bar space wasted with useless icons

FB21731437 Double icon in the menu bar for voice control

FB22223001 Cursor vanishes when using voice control in Safari

FB21682806 Voice control notification bubble displays white text on white background

FB20794466 Item Numbers shown when Overlay is set to None

FB20794207 Voice Control widget removes Voice Control menu bar control

FB20785769 Speak announcements only works with "Samantha" voice

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Answer 4

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

6d

@gavers could you please provide the FB number to the Apple Engineer, formally known as happyfeet, from the issue you have reported on your first post? I understand that these issues are related, but it would be more effective if we could resolve one issue at a time.

I can check with the other bugs you reported if you want. But I think makes sense to keep this thread with the issue you have reported.

Thanks

Albert Pascual   Worldwide Developer Relations.

1

Answer 5

gavers OP

6d

I have closed duplicate bugs. These are the individual issues, one bug per report.

FB22035743 Speak announcements only works if Samantha voice is selected.

FB22035712 Announce the time not using selected voice

FB21731437 Double icon in the menu bar for voice control

FB21768262 Numbers always shown even though overlay a set to none

FB20794207 Voice Control widget removes Voice Control menu bar control

FB22223001 Cursor vanishes when using voice control in Safari

FB21682806 Voice control notification bubble displays white text on white background

Thank you for directing these where they need to go to be addressed.

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Answer 6

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

6d

@gavers you did a fantastic job, thanks for this, yes that list is more manageable. I'm happy to go over each one and see they are reproducible have a focused simple project for the team to review and check their status. Because we do not share status over the forums as it a public forum. I think will be better to do it via email.

That means asking you another favor ;-0

I'd like you to submit a code-level support request so we can discuss this further privately. When you create the request, indicate that you were referred by me and make sure to include a link to this thread.

I'm good paying attention to those and I'll grab it quickly, otherwise someone will route your email to me for sure.

Then let me organize those and look for the status and I can give you an update (if possible) or at least tell you if they need something else.

Just want to make sure those are taken care of. Thanks.

Albert Pascual   Worldwide Developer Relations.

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Answer 7

gavers OP

9h

Albert Pascual --

I am unable to send a code-level support request because I no longer have a paid developer account. Without going into grim detail, since I could no longer type very well after the accident, I had to leave my career as a developer. It sucked. I had been doing backend development back when there was a Mac OS X Server and an ADC membership was $500 a year. But being disabled as I am gave me a lot more appreciation for accessibility in macOS. Having these things working is important to my quality of life.

Last night I installed 26.4 RC and there are multiple new issues. At this point I'm going to have to reset to 26.0 because too much of what I rely on either doesn't work or has become too irritating. A few examples: the orange dot in the upper right corner somehow became more distracting as it is now an orange square with a black border. Still just as useless but now extra annoying. Now when I say "Hey Siri <insert shortcut name here>" and my computer is locked, Siri responds with "You will need to unlock you device first" before running the shortcut (no unlock needed). Speaking of Siri and shortcuts, a whole bunch of them no longer work on both my iPhone and Mac. If I create them on the Mac, they work on the Mac. If I create them on iPhone, they work on iPhone. Previously they all worked on both. And I can no longer select text on a paused video in Safari.

It's death by a thousand cuts with macOS 26. Each new build introduces more issues. The best build was 26.0 GM. Anyway, my contact info is my username (at) mac(.)com. Please reach out to me and I'll be more than happy to offer any assistance I can in resolving the mounting issues. Sorry if this came off whiny or emotional, but these things are important to me and they should be important to Apple.

Thank you.

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