Alexa Can Now Express Excitement and Disappointment

Amazon is adding more liveliness to Alexa’s voice. Starting earlier this week, the tech giant announced that developers can enable a feature that makes Alexa sound in a “happy/excited” or “disappointed/empathetic” tone in the US.

The company recommends using this new happy/excited tone in a scenario where the user correctly answers a trivia question or wins a game. On the other hand, disappointed/empathetic tone is suggested for letting users know sad or disheartening news.

In addition, Alexa can now respond in a speaking style specific to the content. Notably, Amazon added an Australian news accent specific to users in Australia. “Speaking styles are curated text-to-speech voices designed to create a more delightful customer experience for specific content. For example, the news speaking style makes Alexa’s voice sound similar to what you hear from TV news anchors and radio hosts.”, states Amazon’s blog post.

The company mentions that its news style was perceived to be 31% more natural than Alexa’s standard voice. For the music style, people found Alexa’s new voice to be 84% more natural than the standard voice.

If you’re interested to get an idea regarding what changes these voices bring in and how they actually sound, listen to the videos below. Also, check out our coverage of cool Alexa commands to get the best out of Amazon’s voice assistant.

Alexa Emotions: Excited – Low Intensity

Alexa Emotions: Excited – Medium Intensity

Alexa Emotions: Excited – High Intensity

Alexa Emotions: Disappointed – Low Intensity

Alexa Emotions: Disappointed – Medium Intensity

Alexa Emotions: Disappointed – High Intensity

Coming to the speaking styles, listen to the standard voice and speaking style voice for news and music below.

News (US) Standard Voice

News (US) Speaking Style

News (AU) Standard Voice

News (AU) Speaking Style

Music (US) Standard Voice

Music (US) Speaking Style

So, which new speaking style do you prefer? Tell us in the comments.

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