Build Talking Apps for Alexa

Changing Alexa’s Voice

Variety is a hallmark of human speech. It’s what keeps us from sounding robotic and canned. When asking a question, we might apply a different inflection than when making a statement. When we’re excited or disappointed about something, we’ll speak with a great deal of emotion, perhaps in a different rate or tone, as compared to our default speech patterns.

Likewise, if Alexa is to be accepted as anything more than a machine, it’s important that her responses exhibit some of the same variety as in human speech, exhibiting variations in tone, rate, volume, excitement, and disappointment. With SSML we can adjust all of these things and even change Alexa’s voice to a completely different voice.

Let’s have a look at how to ...