Amazon updated Alexa with a new male voice, but it is not the only novelty that comes to the Amazon assistant and its smart speakers. From now on you can also summon it using another trigger word. Just in case you are one of those people who have suffered the problem that both the assistant and your daughter or you call each other the same.
Alexa now responds to another name and sounds different too
A controversy recently arose related to the use of Alexa that if you do not suffer from it may seem somewhat insignificant, but if it is not like that and if you have had to deal with comments where you are asked for things as if you were Amazon's voice assistant You will think the opposite.
That controversy was none other than parents complaining about the name used to refer to and activate the voice assistant. Yes, because Alexa is also a common name and with the popularity of Amazon's solution, there are those who have started to play too many jokes, until it became unbearable.
Well, maybe none of this really has to do with it, but Amazon has decided to offer both a new wake word and a new voice that is now male and thanks to the latter it equals what both Siri and Google Assistant offer.
La new wake word is ziggy and joins those that were available until now from Alexa, Echo and Amazon. Regarding the male voice, it is described as new and the until then current voice will be marked as original so that each one can decide the one they think is most appropriate. Although it is true that, unless you have suffered from the previous problem, changing the command that activates the assistant and its voice is strange if you have been using it for a long time.
Anyway, it's good that finally, almost eight years after its introduction, Alexa has a male voice and more options when it comes to being activated via voice command.
How to change the voice and name of your Amazon Echo or compatible device
As a reminder, in case you still did not know how to do it, we are going to show you the steps you have to follow if you want to use another activation word for your smart speaker with Alexa and even another of the available voices. Although all this will depend on the country you are in, because at the moment it is very likely that the latest ones are not yet available and you will have to wait a little longer.
Both processes could be done by asking Alexa to change the voice or wake word. But if you want to do it manually and not via voice commands, this is what you have to do:
- Open the Alexa app on your mobile device
- Go to the devices tab
- Select All devices and then the one you want to change the wake word for
- Inside General, go to Wake Word
- Once there, select the one you want to use and then press OK
- Done, now to use the assistant that will be the word to use and not Alexa
This, as you can see, is for changing the word that is used to "wake up" the speaker or compatible device to use the Amazon voice assistant, but if what you want is to change its voice, do this:
- Open the Alexa app
- Go to Devices and select the Amazon Echo you want to change the voice of
- Now tap on the Language option and select from those available according to your country
Again, remember that neither the new Ziggy wake word nor the male voice may be active in your country and language at this time, but you know how to do it by the time they are.