While Apple and Google's AI voice assistants Siri
and Google Assistant have male and female voices, Amazon's Alexa voice
assistant has a feminine voice for years. However, according to reports, the
company has begun to roll out a new masculine voice for its AI-based assistant.
Alexa, Amazon's voice-activated assistant, now has a male voice for the first
time since its inception in 2014 which is named as Ziggy. In
addition, a new wake word has been added to provide users more alternatives for
invoking the assistant.
Alexa’s New Male Voice
When it revealed the new celebrity voices of Shaq
and Melissa McCarthy a few days ago, the company also added the new male voice
option. Users, on the other hand, were unaware of it until The
Ambient discovered it. Shaquille O'Neal, Samuel L. Jackson, and Melissa
McCarthy are among the few famous voices used. However, each of these voices
costs $5. These voices can be configured to respond to certain words and
questions, such as jokes, alarms, and weather forecasts.
New Wake Word: “Ziggy”
The new word "Ziggy" joins a group of
previous wake words including "Computer," "Echo,"
"Amazon," and, of course, "Alexa." It's worth noting,
though, that Ziggy isn't primarily associated with male voices. Instead, users
can assign any voice gender and any of the above wake words to the assistant.
Amazon refers to the female and male voice options
as "Original" and "New," respectively. Simply say
"Change your voice" to the voice assistant. Users
will listen to the new voice if it is successful, and if it fails, Alexa will
say "sorry."
The device will change its voice to Ziggy after
listening to the commands. Users can also change the speaker's voice by going
to the Alexa app's Settings menu. Users must ask Alexa to introduce them to the
celebrity name in order to use a celebrity voice. It
will change to the celebrity's voice, and the cost of the voice will be charged
to your Amazon account. If users utilize the Alexa wake word, the usual Alexa
voice will still be available.
Now, let's talk about the new male voice and the new
wake word. According to sources, they are currently exclusively available in
the United States. In the following days, Amazon plans to expand the new voice
options to other regions.
