Google appears to have begun rolling out a new voice for Google Gemini.

Google Gemini was initially launched with only one voice that reads out answers to questions. However, during the Google I/O event, it was announced that Google plans to introduce several more natural voice options that customers can choose from.

9to5Google reports that when you launch the Google Gemini today, an entirely new female voice appears; listening to the two voice options, the new voice sounds much more natural compared to the current voice, which is somewhat robotic.

However, the new voice only appears on Android phones, with no options for the iOS and web client versions. Also note that there is currently no way to restore the audio in the settings.

This move could help Google Gemini to compete with GPT-4o, which recently unveiled a new voice for their AI. It is therefore not surprising that Google is rushing to offer its own new voice. Apple is also trying to bring Siri more natural voice in iOS 18.

The new Gemini voice is still in the testing phase, and it is not known exactly when it will be available or how many options there will be. However, given that Google Assistant offers 12 different voice options, it is likely to be about that many.

One of the reasons Google is holding off on releasing new voices may be to avoid being mistaken for other celebrity voices. Recently OpenAI got into legal trouble because one of its voice options sounded like Scarlett Johansson. This is especially prudent because of growing concerns among actors about the ease with which their voices can be cloned.

Google Gemini may not be as powerful as its AI contemporaries, and its mobile apps leave much to be desired, but it is clear that Google is working to improve AI and what it can do.

For a comparison of Google's AI, see our review of Google vs ChatGPT. There are also 7 great prompts to try with Google Gemini.