Imagine connecting your cell phone to the car, sitting behind the wheel, turning on the ignition, and when you start Waze on your Android Auto, it’s your voice saying “Everything is ready, let’s go“. Sounds fun, right? Well, it’s much easier to do than it seems: we explain how to customize the voice of one of the best GPS navigators.
Google Maps is probably the most used GPS navigator on Android Auto, it is not for nothing that it is present by default on every smartphone that connects to the car, but Waze is not far behind in terms of functionality . It even surpasses its cousin on many points, such as customization: you can change vehicle icon, slightly modify the navigation interface and even personalize our “wazer”. Plus, the app goes much further.
Create your own voice to guide you in Waze
Voice recording process in Waze
The fact that the application allows you to change the default instructions and add a custom voice is not new, although it is not something very well known either. And less on what This custom voice also works on Android Auto: If you change the assistant’s commands on your own recordings, these will be the ones that sound to show you the direction. Waze opens up a wide range of possibilities.
To express the indication as it should be heard, to liven up the journey or, why not, to play a joke on someone else: creating a voice for step-by-step guidance in Waze leaves the door open to a extreme customization. It’s not that their default Spanish voices are too good, I wish they had the option to listen to the Google Assistant as it appears in Maps.
Let’s go with the process. You have installed your Waze on your mobile with your own browser account and you use your phone to connect it to the car’s Android Auto. From here, let’s see how to create your own voice guidance in Waze from scratch.
- Open the Waze app on your Android.
- Click on the first three lines of the menu and choose “Settings”.
- Select “Voice and Sound.”
- Enter “Waze Voice” and click “Add Voice”. This is the menu where you can customize the guidance instructions.
- Accept the safety alert and you will see the full list of commands that Waze uses during driving directions.
- Click each control, then click the microphone icon and record each audio, adapting the original English text.
- Waze does not require you to customize all controls, although in our experience, Voice may not work if you leave commands unrecorded.
- Scroll down and choose Spanish in the “Default Voice” field. Waze will therefore choose an instruction in this language if it cannot load yours (or if it does not exist)
- When you have finished saving all the audios, you need to give a name to the new co-pilot voice. Then select it from the list: it’s the one that appears at the top.
Waze can be stubborn when it comes to loading your voice to play it: you may have to select it several times until it is activated
Our advice is to make sure to record the instructions in a quiet place, bring the mobile microphone closer to your mouth so that it can be heard clearly (without exaggerating as the recording could be distorted), maintain consistent intonation in all cuts and adapts teaching well to the time available. Waze may stop completing a command even if you saved it within the time limit, so you may need to repeat it.
Cover image | DALL-E 3 in ChatGPT edited
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