Amazon Alexa Gets New Adaptive Volume Feature To Respond Louder When It’s Noisy

Have you ever got in a situation where your one of the most trustful smart home gadget Amazon Alexa failed to understand your commands or respond loudly, due to a noisy environment? Yes, we all have been through that because most of us place Alexa in our kitchen or living room where most of the loud things like dishwashing, people talking, music playing on another device happen.

Earlier, when we were in a noisy environment, we used to shout loud or repeat the commands to Alexa, but soon this frustration will vanish as Amazon is working on a feature called Adaptive Volume, which will detect if you’re in a noisy environment and help Alexa to respond louder. The adaptive volume feature will volume up according to surrounding noise and help you hear more clearly.

The feature is currently available for United States customers, and they can turn it on by saying, Alexa, turn on the adaptive volume. The feature will be soon roll out to the rest of the countries. It’s not the first time a smart home gadget is responding based on the environment. Google’s smart speaker, Nest Audio already has a feature called Ambient IQ that allows it to react and respond according to surrounding volume.

However, Alexa already has an opposite direction feature to the adaptive volume called whisper mode, where Alexa whispers its response if users talk to it quietly. Alexa users can adjust the volume depending on what time it is? by adding a set volume response to a custom cycle or making it part of a bedtime routine. 

Amazon recently announced the availability of India’s first celebrity voice feature on Alexa, where users can choose the voice of Amitabh Bachchan for a response instead of Alexa. Sadly, the celebrity voice feature is not available for free; users will have to pay Rs 149 for one year to listen to responses in the voice of Amitabh Bachchan.

Alexa Gets A New Name Along With A Masculine Voice Option

Amazon Alexa, or simply Alexa, is a device that has been a part of our smart life since its invention in 2013. It helps us through virtual assistance, whether waking up in the morning or reminding us to pay pending bills. Alexa allows users to activate the device using a wake-word, Alexa or Amazon or Echo, but now the device finally gets a new name, Ziggy.

The backstory behind the name might be that Amazon wants to keep the name related to its design element, which indicates the message that Amazon sells everything from A to Z. Alexa and most of the other companies’ virtual assistance devices started out their journey with a feminine voice because female voices sound more pleasant and amusing to listeners of any gender.

However, there are many people out in the world who’ll prefer a masculine voice over a feminine voice, and that’s where the change arose, and companies started offering male voice assistance. Among prominent companies, Amazon is the last to provide virtual assistance devices in a masculine voice. The newly added masculine voice is available for users to either use with the Ziggy or Alexa.

The Ziggy wake word joins the existing Alexa, Computer, Echo, and Amazon wake words, but Ziggy will be the first name to appear as an option besides Alexa. Also, users can mix and remix the feminine and masculine options however they want since they are not linked to each other, and different setting options are available for voice.

The feminine and masculine voice may matter for users, but it doesn’t matter to Alexa at all, as the device answers, I’m not a woman or a man; I’m an AI when asked about its gender. The new masculine-sounding Alexa voice feature is only available in the United States for now, but soon it will make its way to the rest of the world.

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