Google is updating its Speech service to improve its clarity and make text-to-speech voices sound more natural.
According to The Verge, the update which will automatically activate is available for anyone already using the search engine speech services on Android apps.
The update is rolling out over the next few weeks to all 64-bit Android devices via the Google Play Store
The speech update will also affect the 421 voices in 67 languages within the system which are getting a new voice model and synthesizer.
The current default voice in “English-US” is changing to one built using “fresher speaker data,” which, alongside other updates, results in a recognizable improvement from the previous default voice.
The update announcement says that folks already using text-to-speech tech don’t need to do anything to receive the new voices, as “everything will happen behind the scenes” with the updates being downloaded automatically.
Its listing on the Google Play Store states that the service is already used by a variety of native applications such as Google Maps, Google Translate, and the Android Recorder app.
So, one of the new feature done by the update is that if you use an Android device, you probably already use the Speech Services by Google speech engine, even if you don’t know it.