Tired of your Google Assistant’s robotic droning? Don’t like the other option? Well good news then: this year Google rolled out six new voices to choose from. For all you maths fans, that brings the grand total up to eight.
Google deployed the update just hours after announcing the new voices back at I/O 2018, where it also revealed that John Legend will be lending his pipes to Assistant. Sadly, you won’t be able to get John’s dulcet tones on your Google Home until later in the year, at which point we assume he’ll be living in every household.
The new voices are also a proof of concept for WaveNet, an AI voice tool built by Google subsidiary DeepMind to easily take human voices and synthesise them into your Assistant.
If you want to change the Assistant voice, it’s relatively easy to do so, but the process is a little different depending on whether you want to do so on a Google Home device or an Android phone. Below, we walk you through both.
How to change Assistant's voice on Home
1. Open up the Google Home app on your smartphone (either Android or iOS) and then tap the menu icon on the left-hand side
2. Go to More settings > Preferences > Assistant Voice
3. You should now see a row of eight voices to choose from. Each voice is tied to a colour, and you can swipe through them and choose whichever works is best for you.
The order of the voices is randomised for each user, so don't worry about Google subtly pushing its preference on you. Just make your choice and live your best life.
However, this is an updated way of selecting your Google Assistant voice and it's still rolling out across the US. If it hasn't yet rolled out to you – or if you're not in the US – you'll instead get a list of voices that's much less visually appealing.
Google Assistant now makes it easier to change voices, with a new app interface pic.twitter.com/Xa5jxrkPr9
— The Ambient (@theambient) July 11, 2018
How to change Assistant's voice on Android
1. Open the Assistant, either with a "Hey Google" or a long hold of the home button
2. Tap on the blue icon at the top right of the box
3. When the Explore page opens, hit the 'More options' icon at the top right, then tap Settings
4. From there it's the same route: Preferences > Assistant voice > Make your selection
More Google how-to guides
- How to control Sonos with Google Assistant
- How to make voice calls on Google Home smart speakers
- How to add and control lights and devices with Google Assistant
- How to voice control Chromecast with Google Assistant
- How to set up multi-room audio with Google Assistant & Chromecast speakers
- How to set up guest mode for Google Home smart speakers
- How to pair your Google Home with better sounding Bluetooth speakers
- How to use Alexa as your default assistant on Android
What do you think?