Google Assistant will soon stop serenading you in John Legend's voice

Update, March 6, 2020 (3:05AM ET): After a cameo that lasted for almost a year, Google is pulling the voice of John Legend from the Google Assistant. The company made the announcement through its Twitter handle, saying that the singer’s Assistant voice will not be available after March 23.

You still have a couple of weeks before this happens, so make the most of Legend’s serenading voice, that is, if you’re a fan. If you want a celebrity Assistant voice after Legend’s is gone, you can also try comedian Issa Rae’s Assistant voice, although it’s unclear if this will be pulled at some point too.

Original article, April 3, 2019 (10:36 AM ET): Chatting with Google Assistant is going to be smoother than usual if you live in the U.S. Starting today, you can give the Google Assistant the voice of John Legend.

Google first announced that Legend would appear as a voice for Google Assistant users nearly a year ago at Google I/O 2018. The company used a new AI technology called WaveNet to create a virtual version of Legend’s voice pattern, based on taking recorded samples of his real voice.

How to hear John Legend in Google Assistant

If you live in the U.S. and want to hear John Legend respond to some of your requests, just ask your Google Assistant-powered device — whether that be a Google Home or your Android phone — and say “Hey Google, talk like a Legend.” You can also go into the Assistant’s settings menu, select “Assistant voice,” then select John Legend’s voice.

You should now start to hear Legend’s voice — or rather a great simulation of it — respond to simple questions or commands like “What’s the temperature outside?” or “Tell me a joke.” Most responses to questions will still come from a normal Google Assistant voice. However, Google promises that there are a few Easter eggs when it comes to Legend’s voice responses. They suggest saying “Hey Google, serenade me” or “Hey Google, are we just ordinary people?” to elicit some custom answers or commands from Legend. You can also ask Google Assistant things like “Are you John Legend?”, “What’s your favorite type of music?”, or “Who is Chrissy Teigen?”

Google says this Assistant cameo for Legend’s voice will be available for a “limited time” but did not specify when his voice support will end.

This is not the first time Legend has teamed up with Google for a unique promotion of its products. In April 2018, he filmed a music video for his song “A Good Night” entirely on a Google Pixel 2.