1y ago

Does anyone use a non-default voice for the Google Assistant? (Same for Siri, Alexa etc.)

Granted I'm not someone who uses AI assistants a lot, but I've never seen anyone use any other voices than the default one (Red). There are 10 voices for Google Assistant, apparently. Do you or someone you know use them?

35 comments

I switched my Android assistant to a man's voice. A woman serving as my digital assistant has always felt mildly sexist to me.
- That's fair, I guess. In popular media, and also IRL, assistants are almost always women. There's some sort of ingrained sexism in it.
  
  "There are an overwhelming number of studies that suggest humans prefer the sound of a female voice, and some even theorize our preference for female voices begins when we are fetuses, as these sounds would soothe and calm us in the womb."

Female Aussie voice for me
- Yes! For some reason, she's way less annoying than the Brit or American options.

Not sure about Google Assistant, as I don't use it, but for driving navigation I love the British female voice. She sounds ditzy when saying "turn left", and like some kind of SM mistress when she says "turn right". I love it. Despite this, I would swap her for a thick Scottish male accent in a heartbeat.
- I swoon when Natalie tells me there's an average speed zone ahead

I use the male UK voice. I love the accent.
- female UK for me iirc

Does the silent voice count? ;-)
(I don't ever use these pieces of...)

Definitely, I hate the default voice. I've always wanted an old fashioned style live-in butler like they had in the olden days for fancy people named William Bates or something, so I picked the male voice that made me think of that most
- That’s what I did with Siri too. At the time (years ago) the voice synthesizer sounded less clunky than the main voice too.
  Left google home to default though.

I changed my Alexa to British simply because we enjoy the accent.
- My Siri is Australian, same reason

I was going to say, yes. But then I went and looked and it's set to red. I know I changed it a couple years ago, it.miat have reset.

Even though I’m American, I hate the default Siri voice. I have it set to South African Voice 2, which sounds much nicer IMO.

I wish there was a Jesse Ventura voice, I would use that. Would probably ramble on about the Navy SEALS while trying to listen to music though.
- Or a Henry Rollins voice heh
  https://thehardtimes.net/culture/henry-rollins-driving-app-tells-you-how-hard-it-would-have-been-to-get-there-in-the-80s/

I switched my Alexa to Australian female voice as I found it less annoying than the default UK female one.

I use the newer “American Voice 2” for Siri. I don’t use Siri for a ton of things, but I do hear it a lot in the car when navigating with maps or doing other things with CarPlay.

Apparently 12 voices for Google last time I counted. I'll sometimes roll a d12 (either grab a physical one or just ask the assistant to do it) and change it if I'm feeling bored
- What utopia is this that you get a choice of 12?!! I just checked and I get two options - red or orange.
  
  Might be a US thing? Coincidentally, rolled after leaving the first comment and got a 4, which happens to be orange
  
  My Pixel 7 has 12 voices, maybe it's a Pixel / Google device feature?
  I've never noticed how many voices the 3rd party devices have (Samsung, etc.).

I'm American, but switched it to the male UK voice. Far less irritating and a lot less "by the way..." crap.

I use a brother on my nest in the kitchen, whom I have a serious, long-term relationship with. I hardly use my assistant on my phone though.

Way back around 2010 or so, when Siri was still new, it was really bad and I found myself regularly cussing her out. I thought that might be bad to always associate these things with a woman, so I switched it to a male voice, intending to toggle back and forth every so often. I’ve yet to switch back.

I use the non standard "silent" voice.

I switched my Android assistant to a man's voice; a woman's voice serving as my digital assistant has always felt mildly sexist to me.
- Is Android assistant different to Google assistant? As I want a virtual assistant on my device, but don't use Google fro anything.
  
  It’s the same thing; I was just being sloppy with terminology.

35 comments