“Customers have had a lot of fun with the Samuel L. So, you’ve been alarmed.”īesides the trio of celeb voices that can become how your Alexa speaks, users can load “skills” (basically, apps for Alexa devices) that feature famous voices ranging from Baby Groot to Gordon Ramsay. But you can call me Melissa.” In another clip, she says: “Hey, remember when you said to set that alarm for you? Um - this is the alarm going off. McCarthy says in her Alexa intro, “I wish I had an exotic name like Svetlana or Giselle. Here’s a joke from O’Neal: “How did the center find out he was getting benched? He got tipped off!” In an intro clip, Shaq explains what he can do in a rap (“Ask me for the weather, got the forecast on lock / And if you need a timer, I set the shot clock”). And it added a new wake word, “Ziggy,” available with either voice option, alongside existing wake words including “Alexa,” “computer,” “Echo” and “Amazon.”Īmazon released a few sound clips of the new celebs’ vocals. I hope you all enjoy all my dad jokes! Fun fact - if you hear a slide whistle, it’s my personal one that I brought with me to the recording studio!”Īlso Thursday, Amazon added a new male-sounding voice option (listen at this link) that you can use instead of Alexa’s original female voice. It’s been such a fun experience working on this project. McCarthy, in a statement provided by Amazon, commented: “That’s right folks, get ready for the vocal stylings of this nasal Midwestern gal! I am so excited to join the Alexa family. “Some of the things they sent me were too corporate - it wasn’t the way I talk.” “I had to Shaq-en up the phrases,” he said. Shaq said he added his own flavor to the recordings, occasionally ad-libbing. “It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.” Some days, the ex-NBA star spent up to eight hours recording words, phrases and sentences. (Amazon built a recording studio in Shaq’s house for the project.) “It was like reading out of the dictionary,” said O’Neal. Training Alexa to speak in O’Neal’s voice took about 60 hours total over three months, according to Amazon.

Jackson’s voice on Alexa, said, “I don’t have an explicit version, but it’s pretty close.” Shaq, reflecting on the popularity of Samuel L.

Amazon subsequently quintupled the amount of explicit phrases for Jackson’s Alexa voice option, based on customer demand, and later raised the price to $4.99. Jackson, whose trademark four-letter patter made him the top-selling digital purchase on the day it launched in the fall of 2019 for an introductory price of 99 cents. O’Neal and McCarthy join Alexa’s original celeb voice option: Samuel L.

Melissa mccarthy voice change