Google Assistant Adds New Voice Options
Google Assistant has added two new voice options. The additional styles continue Google’s color-based naming system, and are called Indigo and Lime, bringing the U.S. English voice options to a full dozen.
Google Assistant Sounds
The new voices are in the carousel on the side of the app with their counterparts in the Assistant voice and speech output settings, as seen above. Users also have a new option for switching among the choices by asking the voice assistant to “change your voice.” The masculine-sounding Lime and its feminine counterpart Indigo are the first new voices for Google Assistant in a few years, though it’s hard to say if they are particularly better in quality than the previously released choices.
“In addition to the 29 languages available for your Assistant, you can also choose from a wide range of speaking styles. Today, we added two new styles to our collection of U.S. English voices, designed to bring more diversity to your current options,” Google Assistant associate product marketing manager Ayo Awobajo explained in a blog post. “We’ve also made it easier to find them — just say, ‘Hey Google, change your voice.'”
The new voices don’t mimic anyone in particular, a far cry from the trend of celebrity voices that now seems to have ended. Google Assistant removed the voices of Issa Rae and John Legend as options but has centered the development of custom voices as an enterprise feature for Google Cloud. Alexa formally began sunsetting its celebrity voices last month. Samuel L. Jackson, the first famous Alexa voice, as well as Shaquille O’Neal and Melissa McCarthy are no longer around to purchase. The same goes for Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan in India. South Korean celebrities Kang So-ra, Kim So-Hyun, and Kim Ye-Won are apparently still around for Samsung Bixby users in that country, however.
You can hear Lime and Indigo, respectively, below.
Lime:
Indigo:
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