Amazon recently announced that by the end of the year you’ll be able to change Alexa’s voice to that of Samuel L. Jackson, but another more recent announcement has been a highly anticipated feature, and now it’s finally here. Spanish speakers can now talk to Alexa in their native language, or two languages at once through multilingual mode, on supported Alexa devices like the Echo. This is big news since Spanish is the second-most spoken language in the United States, which is currently home to an estimated 41 million Spanish speakers.
It won’t be just the normal Alexa voice speaking Spanish, either. The assistant will be getting a new voice specifically for the language. Amazon has also beefed up Alexa’s knowledge base to include “local knowledge” and hundreds of new skills aimed specifically toward the Spanish-speaking community.
“Customers in the U.S. will be able to switch to “Español (Estados Unidos)” via the Alexa app, then ask in Spanish to play their favorite music, get the news and weather, control their smart home, set reminders, or enjoy skills from brands including Univision, Telemundo, and more,” Amazon announced on its blog.
The change has touched several different aspects of Alexa. Developers can also now create skills and Alexa devices for the Spanish-speaking community, making the market more inclusive. The change will also affect Amazon Music listeners. Users can now ask for Latin music playlists. The playlists are accessed through certain commands. To listen to urban artists, ask, “Alexa, pon la playlist Sin Filtro.” For dance playlists that include salsa, bachata and cumbia, ask, “Alexa, pon la playlist Tierra Tropical.” And for artists like Ozuna, Nicky Jam and Sech, ask, “Alexa, pon la playlist Puro Reggaeton.“
Speak more than one language? In Alexa’s multilingual mode, users can talk in two different languages, and Alexa will listen and respond in both. For example, if you said something to Alexa in Spanish, she would respond in Spanish, but if you said something in English, she would respond to you in English.
To switch Alexa to Spanish or multilingual mode, go to the Alexa app, select your device, and make the change in the Language settings. You can learn more about changing Alexa languages, voices, and accents here.
