San Francisco: US-based tech giant Google has announced that it will discontinue John Legend voice for Assistant voice March 23.
“#HeyGoogle, serenade me one more time.” Enjoy @JohnLegend’s cameo Google Assistant voice before it comes to an end March 23,” the company tweeted Friday.
"#HeyGoogle, serenade me one more time.” Enjoy @JohnLegend’s cameo Google Assistant voice before it comes to an end on March 23. https://t.co/C4vAzyl3x7
— Google (@Google) March 5, 2020
The company unveiled celebrity voices for Assistant at I/O 2018 with musician John Legend.
According to the Verge, Google never intended to keep the voice cameo forever. It previously noted that the feature would run for limited time, but the company never specified how long it would last.
As per report, for now, those who really want a celebrity voice as your Google Assistant over the standard selections, Google will continue to offer comedian Issa Rae as an option.
Additionally, Google has started rolling out its article-reading feature ‘Read Out Loud’, which works with 42 languages, to all the Android smartphone users across the globe.
To use the feature, one can simply say: “Hey Google, read it” or “Hey Google, read this page” for the Assistant to read the text on the screen.
The screen will also highlight the text that Assistant is currently reading so users can follow along on the page as it is being read out loud.
One can also alter the reading speed and choose from multiple voices.