SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 11 ― Yesterday, Google officially announced that actress Issa Rae's voice is now available for the Google Assistant.
In May of 2018, Google promised that the Google Assistant's voice will soon be available in the singer-songwriter John Legend's silky voice. Nearly a year after that announcement, Google finally delivered, albeit the option only being available for a limited time. Now, the company has announced a second celebrity voice option for Assistant users: Issa Rae.
Like with John Legend, this is a temporary cameo that is available to US users whose voice assistants are set to English. To activate Issa's voice, users can either go into the Assistant Setting and select Issa Rae or simply say, “Hey Google, talk like Issa.” The company listed a few phrases to try out to receive unique responses including, “Hey Google, do you love Daniel or Lawrence?” and “Hey Google, tell me something awkward.”
Meet the new voice of your Google Assistant: @IssaRae! 🤩 Just say “Hey Google, #TalkLikeIssa” to try it out → https://t.co/8hkwg1E6Ku pic.twitter.com/pZjYeFHKwp
— Google (@Google) October 10, 2019
In September, Amazon, too, launched a celebrity voice for its Alexa voice assistant; while Google users can enjoy the sing-songy tones of Rae and Legend, Echo users can opt to use Samuel L. Jackson's voice in either an explicit or clean option. This voice, however, will cost users a few dollars while celebrity voices for the Google Assistant are free.
Issa Rae's voice can be used on any device with Google Assistant integration including smart displays, home speakers and smartphones. ― AFP-Relaxnews
