One of the fun surprises at the Google I/O developer conference earlier this week was the unveiling of six new voices for Google Assistant. This brings the total number of voices available for the Assistant up from two to eight (four male and four female), but unlike many of the new products shown off at Google I/O, the voices are already live.
Here’s what you need to do if you want to try out the new WaveNet-powered voices. There are two different methods depending on which device you’re using, so we’ll walk you through both of them just in case.
We’ll start with mobile devices, either Android or iOS. On an Android device, all you have to do to get to Google Assistant is hold down the home button. On iOS, you’ll have to navigate to the actual app, which you can download free from the App Store. Once you’ve opened Google Assistant, tap on the blue box icon in the top right corner. Next, tap the three dots that appear in the same corner, tap Settings > Preferences > Assistant Voice. You’ll see all eight voices you can choose from on the next page, and you can demo all of them as well.
If you’re more concerned with changing the voice of your Google Home than your mobile device, you can also change the voice via the Google Home app. Just open the app on your phone, tap the hamburger menu in the top left corner, then hit More settings. From there, you can follow the same steps we described above.
Unfortunately, the John Legend voice won’t be available until later this year. Oh well, we’ll have to make due.
