If you’d much prefer Google Assistant to speak back to you in an accent that feels more like your own, then you better be English or Australian, because that’s the two it has recently picked up. Google has revealed that Assistant will now be able to speak in an English (British) and Australian accent. It can do this on a wide range of devices such as Android smartphones and smart speakers.
However, the options are limited to English speakers in the United States for now. They can choose between an English or Australian-accented voice for their Google Assistant across different devices.
This feature doesn’t change much else. So everything else such as setting a timer or checking the weather remains the same. The only change will be that the Assistant will reply in a different accent.
Google mentions that these accent voices are built using its DeepMind speech synthesis model called WaveNet. The model relies on deep neural networks to make raw audio waveforms which results in more realistic sounding voices for its smart assistant.
To check out these new accents on Assistant, English speaking users in the U.S. can head over to the Settings app on their phone and select the Sydney Harbour Blue or British Racing Green from the Assistant voice menu for the Australian and English accents, respectively.
Filed in . Read more about Google Assistant. Source: blog.google