Enter your search term

Search by title or post keyword

How To Install, Customize, & Change Waze Voices [Step-By-Step]

Learn the basics of Waze voices, including what options are available, as well as how to install, customize, and change yours.

Key Takeaways

  • Waze offers over 100 voice options, including celebrity and fictional character voices, for a personalized navigation experience.
  • You can record and use your voice for navigation prompts in Waze.
  • Access a wide range of community-created voices through the public repository, enhancing your driving experience.
  • All Waze voice packs are free and can be shared with others, though not all include street names in directions.

What Are Waze Voices?

Waze voices are audio prompts that guide you through your navigation in different languages, accents, and styles in the Waze app.

Thanks to the custom Waze voice packs functionality, you can customize them by language, voice talent, theme, and more.

There are three different types of voices that Waze users can choose from:

  • Pre-Recorded Voices: Offers a variety of male and female voices in different accents, including unique characters, for basic direction guidance.
  • Text-to-Speech Voices: Transforms text into spoken audio, especially effective for pronouncing street names, including foreign or difficult ones.
  • Custom Voices on Waze: Allows users to record and share personalized voice packs, popular among celebrities for creating unique navigational voices.

In fact, in the eternal Waze vs. Google Maps debate, many people cite the voice feature as the thing that puts Waze over the top.

And so if the default voice of American English speakers no longer cuts it, you can have Terry Crews or Star Wars C-3PO barking turn-by-turn instructions at you.

And if custom voice packs aren’t cutting it out, you can even record your voice!

How Many Options Are There for Waze Voices?

Waze offers over 100 voice options, including occasional special celebrity voices tied to their projects, accessible from the “My Waze” screen.

As Waze updates its available voices, they’ll populate the list of voices you can choose from to help with your navigation. They call these “Voice packs”.

The celebrity voices often appear for a limited time, so if you’ve chosen Stephen Colbert as the one you want telling you where you’re headed, there may come a time when he stops talking to you, and you have to choose someone else.

Waze Celebrity Voices

The list changes from time to time, but celebrity voices past and present include:

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Boy George
  • Christina Aguilera (in English or Spanish)
  • Ed Helms
  • Elvis Presley
  • Jay Leno
  • Kevin Conroy
  • Kevin Hart
  • Liam Neeson
  • Morgan Freeman
  • Mr T
  • Neil Patrick Harris
  • Rob Gronkowski
  • Roberts Lejasmeijers (a Latvian DJ who offers directions in his native language)
  • Shaquille O’Neal
  • Stephen Colbert
  • T-Pain
  • Terry Crews

Waze Voices Personalities

Perhaps you have a favorite fictional character, athlete, or television presenter. In that case, you have a few of those to choose from in the Waze app, too. Past and present choices include:

  • A cat
  • A dog
  • C-3PO
  • Colonel Sanders
  • Cookie Monster
  • DJ Khaled
  • James May
  • Jeremy Clarkson
  • Halos Master Chief (in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French)
  • Richard Hammond
  • Tony Fernandes of AirAsia
  • Vlade Divac

Maximizing Curated Playlists

You can also listen to specially curated playlists that match the voice and theme you selected, such as songs and podcasts from celebrities or fictional characters, but you’ll need Deezer to do that.

For instance, if you pick Batman or The Riddler’s voice, you’ll end up listening to songs like “I’m Batman,” “Hero,” and “Riddle Me This.”

Spotify and Apple Music let you choose any playlist you want, though, and they integrate with Waze.

How to Change Voice Directions in Waze

Here’s how you can choose from a wide range of well-known celebrities, quirky personalities, and even loveable pets! The instructions are the same for both iOS and Android devices.

  1. First, open the Waze app on your phone and make sure you’re logged in.
  2. Next, select My Waze in the bottom left corner of your screen.
  3. Tap on the gear icon for iOS users or the three horizontal lines followed by Settings for Android users. Both are located in the top left corner.
  4. Select Voice & sound.
  5. Next, tap Waze Voice and choose from the list of available voices.
  6. When you’ve picked a voice, your final selection will have a blue checkmark next to it indicating that this is what will be used to help guide you on your journey.
  7. Finally, tap on the X in the top right-hand corner to return to the map.

Brett’s Take: Thoughts From an Expert

I sometimes have issued while trying to install Waze voices on my iPhone. Once installed, the custom voice defaults back to the original default pack.

I’m not sure what causes this issue, as it doesn’t happen that often. But when it does, it’s frustrating.

I have found a workaround to this issue is changing the default voice in the custom pack and then restarting the app. It typically works for me and solves the issue.

Also, if you run into discrepancies in the audio quality of custom voices, try sourcing the packs from GitHub. The packs on there are usually pretty good quality.

How to Change Voice Prompts to Prerecorded Voices

To access the default voices that come with Waze, do the following:

Step 1: Access Your “Wazer” Menu

You can do this by clicking the menu icon on the top left while viewing the map.

a screenshot in the first step of how to change waze voices

Step 2: Tap “Settings”

The Settings menu will give you access to everything you need.

Step 3: Tap “Voice and Sound” Settings

You’ll find a few interesting settings in the voice and sound configuration. You can restrict app sounds to alerts only, as well as reduce guidance volume and change your voice-typing input language.

However, your focus should be on the “Waze voice” option under “Voice directions.”

Step 4: Tap “Waze Voice”

Tapping “Waze voice” will let you access the different voice options preloaded with the app. You can also tap “Add a voice” to record your own.

The voice options cover different languages and accents, such as English, Spanish, French, and German.

But you’ll also find celebrity and fictional character voices, such as Andy Field from FNAF or a noir detective.

Some of these voices contain street names in the turn-by-turn directions, and others don’t.

We recommend sticking to a voice that includes them if you’re not too familiar with your area so that you don’t get distracted by your phone while driving.

It suffices to check the box next to the voice you want and save your settings.

How to Change Voice Prompts to Your Own

You can record your voice to serve as your assistant.

Step 1: Click “Add a Voice” in Voice Directions

This will let you access the different prompts Waze uses to guide you, so you can record your lines for each.

Step 2: Record Your Voice

Tap a phrase to start recording; you’re only limited by the time limit mentioned underneath each.

Remember that your recordings are used to guide you on the road, so make sure that each one is clear and accurate.

Once you’re done, save it. A new entry will appear below “Voice recorder” in the previous menu.

If you skip recording a phrase, Waze will use the default voice, so you can select which phrases you’d like to edit.

How to Use Custom Voice Prompts

Waze is community-driven, and the bulk of the voices available are made by other users. David Pipes created a large public repository to consolidate all shareable links in one location.

Access the repository from your mobile device and click the link next to the voice of your choice.

Once downloaded, it’ll automatically show up in the list of voices on the “Waze voice” Settings page.

This repository contains former and current contracted celebrities and voice actors, so you can try the Sea Beast from Maisie and Blue, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator courtesy of Waze’s efforts, or an angry Batman, thanks to the community’s creativity.

Tips for an Enjoyable Navigation with Waze

Learning how to use Waze and take advantage of all it has to offer can be exciting. Below are a couple of tips that can help make your Waze experience more enjoyable.

Waze Themes

To make your commutes even more jovial, the production team at Waze decided to build customized scripts for specific characters and include key phrases that they’re likely to say.

For example, with Cookie Monster, there’s an additional “Seat belt on? Check. Cookie eaten? Om nom nom om nom. Check Off we Go!”

For DC fans, there’s a Batman vs. The Riddler theme, where you can choose either Batman or The Riddler to be your guide during your trip.

With these themes and more, you can also pick a custom car icon and Mood to match your character.

Also, ever since Waze partnered up with Spotify in 2017, you can also play a custom playlist tailored to your chosen theme, making the whole experience more enjoyable!

Change Voices Mid-Drive

If you no longer want to use the voice you originally selected at the start of your drive, you can change it mid-drive.

Tap the speaker icon located next to the estimated time of arrival. Then, choose Voice directions and choose who your new guide will be for the rest of your journey.

Customizable Icons

One of the perks of using Waze is the exclusive use of icons. From customizable Mood icons to quirky traffic report symbols, these icons are changeable and they help make the journey less stressful.

Because these icons can be seen by fellow Waze motorists, they add an interactive element to the app.

Drains Your Battery

Despite its numerous benefits and high points, we have to mention that Waze is infamous for draining your smartphone battery.

It also uses up much of your data cell service in a short amount of time.

So, once you’ve reached your destination, turn off Waze to ensure you’re not draining the battery or mobile data, and that you don’t continue to receive notifications.

Keeping Up with New Voices and Updates

Google and Waze have set up a global forum and a Help Community page where users can get information on the latest updates and learn about the release of new voices and seasonal themes.

It’s also where they can learn about possible hitches in the app and how to fix them.

After all, it’s the social aspect of crowdsourcing information on the go that makes Waze stand out from other navigation apps.

Another way to keep up with the latest Waze updates is to store a list of your friends on the app. This way, you can easily spot a friend nearby, message them, or send them a quick ‘beep beep’ as a way of making your commute more interactive and much less lonely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Voice Packs Cost Anything?

No. Waze is free and community-driven, so you don’t have to pay anything to spice up your driving experience.

How Can I Share My Voice With Others?

Once you record a voice, you’ll find it under “Voice recorder” in Voice directions. Click the share icon to the right to share it with a friend. Anyone who downloads it can use it to navigate.

Why Can’t I Find X Voice On Waze?

Waze offers some voices for a limited time for promotional purposes. If you can’t find a voice you used before, chances are Waze removed it from its database. Luckily, many such voices are backed up in Pipes’ repository!

Do All Waze Voices Include Street Names?

No, not all Waze voices include street names; users need to select voices labeled “Including street names” in the app for this feature.

What Was the Original Waze Voice?

The original voice on Waze was ‘Jane.’ This was the default voice for the majority of the app’s navigation instructions spoken in US English. It was also the only text-to-speech voice that was supported by the USWaze community.

What Does Boy George Say on Waze?

If having the voice of Boy George be your GPS isn’t enough of a treat, you also get to enjoy a friendly chat and laugh with the singer/songwriter. He also says things like, “Life is about learning to be yourself,” and other inspiring words of wisdom.

Wrapping Up

The next time you hit the road anywhere in the world, make sure you put those Waze voices to good use.

All you have to do is open the app, enter your destination, and choose the voice that will accompany you on your ride.

Not only will they help get you where you need to go, but they’ll help you make the trip fun and engaging.

Leave a Comment

  • Technology

How to Choose the Right Uber Eats Bag for Food Delivery

March 25, 2024
3 min read
FRH Article Default
  • Technology

How DoorDash Storefront Works [& Is It Worth It To Try?]

March 14, 2024
6 min read
vector graphic showing a car in a rocket carwash location
  • Technology

How Rocket Carwash Works [& Video Walkthrough]

March 14, 2024
5 min read