Here is how you can change the voice of Google Assistant & more!

I am not certain about you, but to me, Google’s Voice Assistant is one of the most used features of my phone. You see, I have all my lights connected to it, and getting off from bed (or even opening an app) to turn them off seems like a chore. But this is not all that I use Google Assistant for. Making calls, reading the news, setting reminders for work and timers to cook the perfect pasta, Google Assistant is slowly turning into the closest thing I’ve ever had to a soulmate.

And just like you do not want your soulmate to pronounce your foreign name incorrectly, it can be quite a turnoff when Google Assistant does the same! I mean, how dare this robot after all of those years of machine learning still not be able to pronounce my (exotic) four-lettered name?! So let’s fix that.

How to change the voice of your Google Assistant

First, we need to change the voice of our Google Assistant. The feminine, robotic voice is iconic for sure, but there is so much variety out there! There are voices with different accents and one can even make your Google Assistant sound – almost – like Jarvis Johnson! With some quick fiddling around I could discover 10 different voices that will adequately cover most tastes, even celebrity voices can be used.

The short way to change the voice of Google Assistant is to ask it:

1. Bring up your Google Assistant “Hey Google!“
2. Say “Change your voice.“
3. The Assistant will then prompt a button “Manage Voice Settings“.
4. Tapping this button will take you to the “Assistant voice and speech output.”
5. Then you can scroll between the available voice presets.
6. To select a voice, simply stop scrolling over the one you want.

If you want to access this menu manually:

1. Open your Google App.
2. Tap on your profile icon on the top right.
3. Navigate through Settings > Google Assistant.
4. Scroll down to the section “All settings“.
5. Tap on “Assistant voice & sounds”.

Here I need to make a short disclaimer that these voices are not available in all languages and regions. Initially, I could only choose between two voices, Red and Orange, (the basic feminine and masculine sounding ones). Some other regions/languages only had access to Red. 

What unlocked the full variety of voices was to switch the language to English (United States).

1. Open your Google App.
2. Tap on your profile icon on the top right.
3. Navigate through Settings > Google Assistant > Languages.

How to make Google pronounce your name right

Now that your Google Assistant sounds like the ideal digital soulmate, it is time to teach it how to pronounce your name correctly. To make this change, we will need to use a function called “Nickname”.

The quickest way to make that happen is to ask Google Assistant to take you to the appropriate menu.

1. Bring up your Google Assistant “Hey Google!“
2. Say “Change my nickname“.
3. Now you can try speaking your desired nickname.
4. If you are not satisfied with the results, tap on the prompted button “Go to Name Settings“.
5. Tap on the option “Spell it out” and try different letter combinations until you get your name right. 

For my Greek name “Ζώης” the English translation may be Zois, but Google butchers the pronunciation. After playing around a bit with the letters, I could get Google to properly pronounce it by typing “Zoeis”. It may take some creativity and time but in the end, you can get an almost lifelike experience. 

If you are in the mood for a bit of fun you can make Google call you anything you want, including informal nouns that describe someone’s father. Now, Freudian slips aside, if you need inspiration we have an entire article dedicated to the silliest sounds you can make with Google Translate that will work just fine.

Do you use Google Assistant daily? Of all the presets that I’ve tried, my favorite one was Pink! Which one do you like the most? Tell me in the comments!