Amazon brings Ziggy male voice assistant to Echo speakers

Since the advent of digital assistants in the 2010s, all including Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant on smart devices have been female voice. This enraged gender-neutral activists and they raised concerns with technology companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon included. They accused them of stereotyping digital assistants with female voices.

To make amends, Apple recently released iOS 14.5, and with it, the original female Siri voice was no longer the default on iPhones. It now offers a more diverse range of voices and accents in select global regions. The user has to select the voice of the assistant when setting up the new iPhone or after a factory reset.

Now, Amazon has announced the launch of Ziggy, the male voice of digital assistant on Echo smart speakers and allied devices. It is being introduced through a software updates. It will take some time to reach all global regions.

Here's how to change Echo speakers' Alexa voice to Ziggy:

First, you have to change the female voice to male
Step 1: Open Alexa mobile app (with the latest update version).
Step 2: Go to Devices.
Step 3: Select All Devices and then select the device you want.
Step 4: Select Settings, and under General, scroll down, you will find the new option -" Alexa's Voice' and select the voice you want from the list.
--Original is the feminine-sounding, classic voice (Alexa).
--New is the masculine-sounding voice

To change wake word Alexa to Ziggy
Step 1: Open Alexa mobile app (with the latest update version).
Step 2: Go to Devices.
Step 3: Select All Devices and then select the device you want.
Step 4: Select Settings, and under General >> select Wake Word.
Step 5: Select the 'Ziggy' from the list, and then select OK

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