Alexa Users Can Now Tell Shaq What To Do With New Voice Option

Amazon has added two new celebrity voice options to its Alexa assistant: Shaq and Melissa McCarthy. With these new options, Alexa users will get responses from the personal assistant in the voice of either celebrity, the latest additions in its line of novelty voice options. Amazon previously added Samuel L. Jackson's voice, which remains available.

The Samuel L. Jackson voice option arrived in late 2019, but it wasn't until last year that users could summon the actor using his own wake word phrase: "Hey Samuel." That eliminated the cumbersome step of asking Alexa to ask Samuel a question every time the user wanted to hear a response in the celebrity's voice.

Amazon had also added thousands of new phrases to its Jackson voice options, as well as more foul language for users who get a kick out of it. At the time, it was revealed that a few new celebrity voices would also arrive on the Alexa platform in early 2021 — and now two of those options have been revealed as Shaq and Melissa McCarthy.

The third celebrity voice promised last year is Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan. The new Shaquille O'Neal and Melissa McCarthy voices cost $4.99/each, the same price as the Jackson voice. Users who purchase the new voice options can enable them by telling Alexa, "Enable, "Hey [Voice]." You'll need an Echo smart device to use the celebrity voice options.

Amazon notes that its Shaq and McCarthy voice options won't work with the first-generation Echo and Echo Dot devices, as well as wearables that have Alexa voice support. The same is true for Fire TV devices and Fire tablets, neither of which support celebrity voice options.