Take a listen to the new Gemini-powered Google Assistant voices

Google’s been busy weaving Gemini into more and more products, and the one of the latest to get a bit of help from Gemini is Google Assistant on smart speakers. Earlier this month, the company started testing Gemini in Google Assistant on the Nest Mini and Nest Audio, bringing with it a nice new selection of far more conversational, lifelike voices. Now, thanks to 9to5 Google, we have a sample of each for you to hear.

Google has created far more natural, human-like speech with these new voices, much like what we’ve already seen with Gemini Live’s 10 voice options. Each of the seven new voices is named after a plant, each with its own distinct character that all sound far more human than what the Assistant was capable of before:

• Aloe: Calm, mid-range voice
• Oxalis: Bright, mid-range voice
• Fern: Bright, higher voice
• Verbena: Calm, deeper voice
• Ivy: British accent, mid-range voice
• Jade: Engaging, mid-range voice
• Eucalyptus: Australian accent, higher voice

For now, getting access to these new voices requires a bit of luck and patience. You’ll need to enroll in the Google Home Public Preview program, but even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll have the necessary “Experimental AI features” toggle. For what it’s worth, I’ve still yet to see it. Assuming you’re one of the lucky few, you’ll find the new voices by navigating to the Google Home Settings > Google Assistant > Assistant voice & sounds.

Once you have the new Gemini-powered Google Assistant, you’ll hear a chime that will play before Assistant responds with an AI-powered answer. This means you’re getting the full Gemini large language model experience, capable of answering a wider array of questions with more in-depth, AI-powered responses. Plus, you can ask follow-up questions and even interrupt Assistant’s response whenever you like.

So, while access to this new Gemini-powered model might be a bit limited for now, it’s exciting to see it starting to trickle out in the real world. With more natural-sounding voices and enhanced capabilities for conversation and language understanding, the future of Google Assistant is looking better than ever. Still, I think there’s an outside chance it all gets replaced with “Hey, Gemini” down the road instead.