Google Assistant gets a male voice option

You can now make your Google Assistant a dude. Google just added an ambiguously named "Voice II" option under the Assistant Voice settings menu in the Google Assistant preferences (first spotted by Android Police). Selecting it gives you a huskier AI assistant across all your devices; be it the iOS app, a Pixel phone, or the Google Home speaker.

Here, have a listen to Voice I and Voice II side-by-side:

Often you'll hear people use the pronouns "her" or "she" to refer to their digital assistants even though the formless slab of consumer electronics they’re referencing is so obviously genderless. Not surprising really, when Apple's Siri defaults to a voice labeled "female," Microsoft's Cortana default voice was recorded by Jen Taylor, and Amazon's assistant is named Alexa. Now your Google Assistant can be a “he” or “him” as well.