Siri on iPhones running iOS 17.4 can read messages in additional languages

Apple's first iOS 17.4 beta is now available for download by developers as they put it though its paces before it becomes available to everyone. That'll likely happen within the next few weeks and this first beta has already given us a glimpse at what new features we can look forward to.

One of those new features will be handy for people who ar multilingual and use Siri to read their messages. As seen in the iOS 17.4 beta 1 release, a new option will allow people to add a new language for when Siri reads messages. This change does not affect the main Siri language and is only applied to reading messages that have been received.

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Apple's description of the feature says that Siri will also read messages using languages in the list, with multiple languages able to be added at once. Apple also notes that the languages selected here will not change the primary language that Siri listens to and responds in, ensuring that usual Siri usage will remain untouched by this setting.

This change is expected to be handy for people who speak one language but also receives messages with someone in another language. For those people, this setting allows Siri to be configured so that it will detect those languages and then read the messages back correctly.

Apple is expected to release multiple new betas of iOS 17.4 over the next few weeks before launching it before March 6, the date when new EU Digital Markets Act rules come into force, The iOS 17.4 update includes multiple changes designed to ensure Apple complies with those rules which means it has to be in the wild before that date.