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How to change Alexa’s voice (and language)

Jemicah Colleen
Erika Rawes
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Amazon Alexa is supported by a wide range of products, including a huge roster of Echo devices with built-in support – such as the Echo Show 8 and Echo Dot. Hundreds of other smart home products like smart thermostats and security cameras work with the voice assistant, and Alexa has quickly become one of the best voice assistants on the market.

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Difficulty

Moderate

Duration

20 minutes

What You Need

Along with support for today's most popular gadgets, Amazon Alexa is highly customizable. Not only can you dish out commands and have Alexa dim your lights, stream your music, or give you the daily weather forecast, but Alexa can be modified to sound entirely different or speak in another language. This makes it easy to find a voice that's easy for you to understand or fits your personal preferences.

Need to change Amazon Alexa's voice? Here's what you need to know.

How to change Alexa’s accent or language

Step 1: Open the Alexa app.

Step 2: Select the Devices tile at the bottom of the screen.

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Step 3: Pick the device you want to modify.

Step 4: Select Device Settings, then choose the Alexa's Voice option.

Step 5: From here, you'll be able to pick a new Alexa voice. Note that not all voices are fully supported by all devices or regions. You'll typically get a short list of languages with full support, followed by a long list of languages with partial support.

Step 6: Confirm your changes.

A confirmation of a voice profile being created.
Amazon

How to change Alexa’s voice with an Echo device

In addition to language and dialect switch-ups, Alexa users can now choose between female- and male-speaking voices. The new masculine assistant was introduced in mid-2021, along with a new wake word — Ziggy. While you can change between female and male assistants using the Alexa app by selecting an Echo device and tapping Device Settings > Alexa’s Voice and selecting either Original (female) or New (male), you can also change these preferences by speaking to your Echo speaker or display.

Step 1: Change your voice

Get within earshot of the Echo speaker or display you want to change the spoken voice of and say, “Alexa, change your voice.” For homes running more than one Echo device on the same network, Alexa will ask you to specify which Echo.

Step 2: Confirm your changes

Once you’ve clarified the Echo device, Alexa will respond (from the indicated device) in her/his new voice. If the device was originally set to the default female voice, it will now be male, and vice versa.

How to enable Alexa Skills for celebrity voices

Developers are free to create their own Alexa Skills for Amazon devices, giving you access to new features. One of the coolest ways to use Alexa Skills is to activate skills that change the voice assistant's dialect. For example, you could previously turn Alexa into Gordon Ramsey or Samuel L. Jackson — though these skills have since been deactivated.

However, you can still get Alexa to sound like Pikachu or replicate animal voices. Here's how it works.

Step 1: Open the Alexa app.

Step 2: Select the More option at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3: Select Skills and Games.

Step 4: In the top search bar, search for "Pikachu" or "Animal Voices".

Step 5: Open the top result, then click the Launch button.

Step 6: Keep in mind that this won't exactly replace your Alexa voice with animal or Pikachu sounds, but instead works as a sort of soundboard. Still, it's a cool feature — though not quite as compelling as the old Alexa voices of the past.

It’s handy to understand how to make changes to the tone and language even though Alexa’s abilities extend much further than her voice range. You can have some fun by using celebrity voices or enabling a new dialect so Alexa can understand your voice. Either way, there’s an easy way to achieve your voice-control goals through the app or via a conversation with your go-to voice assistant.

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