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How to Change Alexa's Voice on Amazon Echo, Finally [Updated]

So Long, Alexa—if you prefer your smart assistant to sound more masculine, say hello to Ziggy.
How to Change Alexa's Voice on Amazon Echo, Finally [Updated]
Credit: Panthere Noire - Shutterstock

Since its inception, Amazon Echo has featured a titular, feminine voice that became the identity that we all associate with the voice assistant. After all these years, Amazon is finally letting users switch to a new, masculine voice—and even refer to it by a new name by changing the wake word to a new option, Ziggy. And if you really want more personality out of your smart speaker, you can even try out celebrity voices like Samuel L. Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Melissa McCarthy (but that comes with a $5 fee).

You can change the voice using the Echo device itself, or using the companion Alexa app for iPhone and Android (it’s more reliable to do this using the app).

How to change Alexa’s voice on Echo devices

You can change Alexa’s voice directly from an Amazon Echo or Echo Show device. Just say, “Alexa change your voice.” If you have more than one device, Alexa will ask you to specify a device.

Alexa will then respond with the new voice (there’s only one new voice, so there’s no selection menu). If you want to switch to it permanently, just confirm with your voice.

If your Amazon Echo doesn’t support this feature, Alexa will say something like “Sorry, your device doesn’t support that.” If you have multiple devices, repeat this process to change the voice on all your devices.

How to change Alexa’s voice using iPhone or Android app

You can also change the voice using the Alexa app for iOS and Android.

  1. Open the Alexa app and go to the “Devices” tab.

  2. Select the “Echo & Alexa” button in the top-left corner.

  3. Select the device where you want to change the voice.

  4. Tap the Settings (gear icon) in the top-right corner.

  5. Choose the “Alexa’s Voice” option, and switch to the “New” option to enable the new masculine voice.

How to change Alexa’s wake word to “Ziggy”

Along with the voice change, you can choose to change your device’s wake word—the word you say to grab its attention; usually that’s “Alexa,” though previously you could also choose to use “Computer,” “Amazon,” or “Echo.” Alongside the introduction of the new masculine voice, Amazon has introduced a new, vaguely masculine wake word, “Ziggy.” (Debate is ongoing over whether this is a reference to Quantum Leap or not.) You can change the wake word to Ziggy and keep the regular Alexa voice or vice versa.

To change your wake word using your voice, tell your device to change the wake word. You’ll then be asked to choose one of the four options mentioned above. Note that the change will affect only the device you are talking to, so if you want to change the wake word on all of your Echo speakers, you’ll have to go through the process for each of them.

You can also adjust your wake word in the Alexa app:

1. Open the Alexa app and navigate to the “Devices” tab.

2. Tap “Echo & Alexa” and then select the name of the device for which you want to change the wake word.

3. Tap the gear icon to enter “Settings” and tap “Wake Word.” Choose the one you want from the list.

4. When the pop-up appears telling you the change will take affect in several minutes, hit OK. Note that you’ll have to repeat these steps for each of your different devices.

How to switch to a celebrity voice

You can also try out a celebrity voice on Amazon Echo. These voices won’t answer all your queries, but they are designed to answer select questions like alarms, timers, jokes, and weather reports. Each celebrity voice costs $5, and at the time of writing, you can choose between Samuel L. Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Melissa McCarthy.

  1. Get started by saying something like “Alexa introduce me to [celebrity name].”

  2. Alexa will switch over to the celebrity’s voice, and it will guide you through all the things it can do. It will also ask you if you want to purchase the voice.

  3. Once you confirm, you’ll have to process the payment using your Amazon account.

  4. Now that the celebrity voice is enabled, you can wake Alexa up by saying “Hey [celebrity name]” (like “Hey, Melissa”). Using the “Hey Alexa” phrase will give you the regular voice.

This article was originally published on July 24 and updated on July 26 to add the section “How to change Alexa’s wake word to ‘Ziggy.’”