Can you customize GPS voice?

GPS navigation systems have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Whether driving to a new destination or walking around an unfamiliar city, most of us rely on the familiar voice of GPS to guide us along the way. But while the default voices get the job done, they can also start to grate on your nerves during long trips. Wouldn’t it be nice to change the voice to something more pleasant or even humorous? The good news is that customizing your GPS voice is relatively easy to do these days.

This article will explore the options available for customizing your GPS voice. We’ll cover everything from celebrity voice packs to creating your own personalized voice recordings. With some simple steps, you can make your GPS navigation experience much more enjoyable and personalized. Who knows, you may even look forward to getting back in the car and hearing that familiar new voice say “Make a U-turn in 500 feet.”

Default GPS Voices

Most GPS navigation systems come with a set of default voice options to choose from. These prerecorded voices provide turn-by-turn directions and other navigation prompts. According to Lifewire, Google Maps for Android and iOS offers a choice between a male or female voice.

The default female voice is provided by a voice actress named Holly, while the male voice is provided by actor Antonia D’Amore. These default voices sound natural and clear, though also robotic and impersonal. On Android devices, Google Maps also includes the option to download additional voices like Australian-English and British-English.

Other GPS apps and built-in car navigation systems also include a similar small selection of male and female voices. For example, according to WikiHow, Apple Maps for iOS offers an American male Siri voice and an Australian female voice.

Why Customize the Voice?

There are a few key reasons why someone may want to customize the default voice on their GPS:

Personality – The default voices can sound robotic and lack personality. Customizing it with your own voice or a celebrity voice adds character and uniqueness.

Clarity – Some people find certain voices easier to understand than others, especially if English is not their first language. A custom voice may provide more clarity.

Language Support – The default GPS voices only support certain languages. Creating a custom voice allows you to have directions in your native language if it’s not available by default.

Fun – Some people just think it’s more fun and entertaining to hear directions from a silly voice or celebrity impression rather than the boring default.

Accessibility – Those with vision impairments that rely on voice directions may prefer a customized voice tailored to their needs.

Customization – Being able to tweak the GPS voice to your preferences for speed, pronunciation, etc. allows for a more personalized experience.

How to Change the Voice

Most major GPS brands allow you to customize the voice that provides audible directions and information. Here are step-by-step instructions for some top brands:

For Garmin automotive GPS devices:

1. Touch the Settings icon
2. Select Language
3. Touch Voice Language
4. Choose the desired voice language
5. Touch OK to confirm

Source: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=ZlohaVYWvK0RqDAdyggnJ8

On TomTom GPS navigators:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap Voices
3. Select the voice you want
4. Tap Preview to listen to a sample
5. Confirm by tapping Save

For Google Maps voice navigation:

1. Open the Google Maps app
2. Tap on your profile picture
3. Go to Settings > Navigation settings
4. Select the voice under Voice preview
5. Tap Back to save your selection

Using Celebrity Voices

Some GPS companies offer celebrity voice packs that you can purchase to customize the navigation voice. Brands like Garmin, TomTom, and CoPilot have offered celebrity voice options like Snoop Dogg, Kim Kardashian, John Cleese, Elvis Presley, Mr. T, and Morgan Freeman (1). These are professionally recorded voice packs and not synthesized voices. For example, TomTom partnered with VoiceSkins to offer licensed voices from celebrities for their navigation devices (2). Garmin also offers celebrity voices like Owen Wilson and James Earl Jones as downloadable voice packs for their GPS units. While celebrity voices can make navigation directions more entertaining, they are usually an added cost to basic GPS units.

Custom Voice Recordings

Many popular navigation apps like Waze and Google Maps allow users to record their own custom voice to use for directions. This is a fun way to personalize the experience and hear directions in a familiar voice.

To record a custom voice in Waze, open the app and tap the menu icon, then go to Settings > Voice & Sound > Waze Voice > Add Voice. You will be presented with common driving phrases that you can tap to record yourself speaking. Waze gives you the option to re-record clips until you are satisfied.

For Google Maps, open the app and go to Settings > Navigation > Voice selection. Tap “Record your own voice” and you can proceed through various phrases to record your own voice.

iOS users can take advantage of Siri’s voice by going to Settings > Maps > Navigation Voice and selecting Siri as the voice option. This uses Apple’s built-in text-to-speech with Siri’s voice.

After recording a custom voice, it will be available to select as one of the options for navigation voice within the app settings. Users can switch between the custom voice and default options at any time.

Text-to-Speech Voices

Many GPS systems utilize text-to-speech technology to generate spoken directions and convert text to voice output. One company, ReadSpeaker, produces high-quality text-to-speech voices specifically for GPS and navigation applications across a variety of languages. Their natural sounding voices are designed to provide clear verbal instructions that are easy to understand while driving.

Text-to-speech allows GPS companies the flexibility to generate custom voices without having to rely on pre-recorded voice talent. The main advantage is the ability to customize the voice to fit a brand or even allow users to select their preferred voice style. Since the voices are computer-generated from text, companies can continually update and improve the pronunciation of street names and locations without having to re-record directions.

While early text-to-speech voices sounded robotic and unnatural, the technology has improved considerably in recent years. Many of the latest systems produce voices that sound quite human-like and natural. As text-to-speech quality continues to advance, we may see more GPS systems adopt custom generated voices rather than pre-recorded talent in the future.

Funny & Unique Voices

Many people enjoy customizing their GPS to have a funny or unique voice provide driving directions. Some examples include using celebrity impressions, accents, or intentionally robotic voices for comedic effect.

On platforms like YouTube, people have shared videos using GPS voices impersonating celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Morgan Freeman, and Snoop Dogg. These impressions liven up the monotony of turn-by-turn directions.

Reddit users on threads like r/EuroTruck2 have discussed using voices with accents like Russian, French, and Irish. Others make their GPS voice intentionally robotic or monotone as a joke.

Services like Celeb Voice Sygic allow you to choose funny celebrity voices to guide your drive. The options are endless when customizing your GPS voice for humor and uniqueness!

Accessibility Considerations

Customizing the voice on GPS devices can greatly aid accessibility for visually impaired users. According to Google, detailed voice guidance helps everyone navigate with ease, but it is especially useful for those with vision impairments. Using a familiar voice or custom voice recordings can help visually impaired users feel more comfortable relying on the GPS directions.

The Voice Access app for Android also shows how voice control can help users with disabilities, allowing them to open apps, edit text, and navigate their device hands-free using spoken commands (Google Accessibility). When applied to GPS navigation, accessible voice customization gives users independence and confidence to travel to new places.

As voice technology continues advancing, it will open up further possibilities for accessible GPS navigation. But for now, the option to customize voices is an important feature that allows GPS to better serve users with diverse needs.

The Future of GPS Voices

GPS voices have come a long way since the robotic-sounding default options, but there is still room for innovation and improvement going forward. According to Master of Code, the global voice assistant market could be worth $30 billion by 2024. As voice interfaces become increasingly common, companies will continue developing more natural, human-like GPS voices.

We may see GPS systems utilize voices generated by advanced AI to sound more conversational and responsive. Brands might partner with celebrities to license custom voices, similar to how Waze has offered directions from celebrities like Kevin Hart. There is also potential for allowing personalized voice recordings, so you can hear directions in the voice of a loved one. Accessibility will remain important, with options for different languages, accents, ages, genders, and speech styles.

Overall, as the underlying voice recognition technology improves, future GPS voices should sound less robotic and more fluidly human. The customization options will likely continue expanding as well, bringing more personality and uniqueness to directions. GPS voices have progressed substantially already, but the future offers opportunities to make them even more natural, expressive, and tailored to individual preferences.