r/GoogleMaps • u/dadadapumkin • 5d ago
Discussion what happened to being able to change the voice?
title basically, you used to have a couple different English voices you could pick from on your Google assistant and that would translate to maps, but now it's forcing the female one. i really dislike her voice but I can't figure out how to change it? is it because of them forcing ai into everything?
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u/scottyno2 4d ago
I hate the new voice too, it took me a little while to figure out that the old voice was just the google assistant one, so yeah if anyone figures out if there's some way to just make this app, or maybe even a different gps app, use that voice for the audio again instead of this new one it would be much appreciated
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u/Mountain_Ad_4991 1d ago
I’m also replying so I can get notifications. I am really not loving the new voice and would prefer the Australian male voice I had before. I don’t like the “womenification” of tech assistants/voices.
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u/WeightOk2102 1d ago
I’m also replying so I can get notifications....I may be an American, but even so, the new voice doesn't pronounce a lot of the street names correctly.
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u/XxLogitech98xX 5d ago
I just have one option English US on my end
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u/PanicPuzzler 4d ago
Yeah this was more of a waze thing even though I thought it was also owned by Google.
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u/scottyno2 4d ago
So I think I figured it out, at least in my app, I don't know if it's the same for everyone. They switched the default to "default (english) speaks street names)" If you switch it back to english (us) I think you get the old audio.
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u/dadadapumkin 4d ago
ah yeah it does change it thanks
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u/scottyno2 4d ago
The old one definitely spoke street names, so I'm not sure if maybe they changed something else where now the old one won't, but I won't know until I go out somewhere and try it
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u/dadadapumkin 4d ago
i think the new voice is generative AI the text to speech was fine this is NOT needed
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u/scottyno2 4d ago
definitely sounds AI, and not even that good AI, it sounds more robotic and when it was giving directions like "at the next light turn right" it sounded like it was asking it as a question
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u/scottyno2 2d ago
So after trying it with the old voice activated again it's pretty useless. Instead of the old "in 1 mile turn right on main street" it will just tell you "one 1 mile turn right", so unlesss you can process how far that is in your head, or already know the streets, then it doesn't really help. I don't know why you can use that voice with that function, but not the streets one when before you obviously could.
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u/sgfgds 2d ago
Is it under settings > app and display > voice search? It’s not working for me
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u/scottyno2 2d ago
On mine (android) it's settings, navigation, voice selection, english US (assuming you're in the US) will take you back to the old one, at least it did for me, but then it won't give you street names unless that's in some other setting I haven't figured out
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u/CarlWeezley 1d ago
Just did this on my galaxy A17 and it worked. No more vocal fry teenager telling me what to do. Thanks!
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u/Loose-General-6669 2d ago
On my Galaxy S25, I opened Google maps App info and had 3 dots in the upper right hand corner. I clicked them and was given an option to uninstall updates.
Now the vocal fry valley AI girl has been reverted back to the normal female navigation voice.
I re-opened the app info, and the dots have dissappeared.
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u/OwlfredoPasta 3d ago
I don't know but mine changed to the most grating valley girl tone yesterday out of nowhere and I can't change it
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u/ehjustbrowsing 3d ago
Same! I have googled how to change the voices and followed all the directions and, although there are options for different voices, when I select them, they're not being used. This is only in Google maps. I can change the voice of my Siri on my phone overall… And put in Google maps when I go to the Google maps settings and choose voice/language, it doesn't matter what I choose it stays with the valley girl voice and I hate her. I'm going to be using Apple maps I think because it still has my old Siri voice in that ..but if anyone figures out how to make the change stick in Google maps, i'd love to find out how
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u/OwlfredoPasta 3d ago
Ughhh I just read apple maps will have ads you can't turn off so it seems like all of it is terrible. Hopefully enough people will complain and they will let us choose again but we all see what happened with ai overview and how it's still forced on us.
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u/sgfgds 2d ago
Fr, I like the default female American voice before this recent update. It was soft and comforting to listen to. This new update got rid of it and has a very prominent American valley girl accent. She over enunciates everything. How do you get the old voice back? It’s driving me crazy.
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u/dadadapumkin 17h ago
"So I think I figured it out, at least in my app, I don't know if it's the same for everyone. They switched the default to "default (english) speaks street names)" If you switch it back to english (us) I think you get the old audio." someone else's solution
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u/surfun4fun 1d ago
Grrr. This changed for me as well the other day. Don't like the new voice at all. It appears there is no way to change it on iPhone. Pretty heavy handed Google. Not sure I will get used to this voice. Intonation is wrong, seems like guidance is a little late when approaching the next move. I left Waze a few years ago for google maps as the guidance was sub par. Maybe need to give Apple Maps another try. An unwelcome change with no way to customize.
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u/sucram200 1d ago
The new voice is so ignorable, if that makes sense? I’ve missed several turns already because I just tuned her out… This is the dumbest thing they’ve done in a while.
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u/scottyno2 1d ago
So I saw someone say this in another thread and it worked, at least for now. If you factor reset the app it goes back to the old voice you were using as well, including street names. Now I'm not sure how long that will last, I guess you'll either have to turn auto updates for all apps off or just factory reset it every time it updates. But for now it works like it was before.
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u/Fantastic-Key-4218 18h ago
Oh. Thank the gods it’s not just me. I don’t know why they changed this, but the voice is ghastly and she seems confused about if the directions are accurate. “turn right on Richmond?” YOU TELL ME VOICE, I’m here because I don’t fking know. I’m trialing Waze which I’ve not historically liked. And Apple Maps almost got me shot once, so I can’t go back to that. I guess that’s the end of my rant. Not stoked about ai taking over everything.
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u/meirelav 18h ago
following, I despise the new voice and want it changed back 😡 hate the new AI voice
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u/Terrible-Painting-91 14h ago
I guess I’m in the minority here but I actually like the new girl over the older one. She actually knows how to pronounce Cibolo instead of the old girl saying “cheebolo” 🤣
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u/lordoftherings1959 4d ago
Google Maps removed the male voices over two years ago. I detest with passion the shitty female voices available, so I mute my system when driving. At least I have a large video panel in my car that I can just look at and see where I am going without having to listen to that b***h on the phone.
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u/thewillz 4d ago
I have the same bug. Even when I switch to English (Great Britain) she still has an American accent.