Amitabh Bachchan's baritone has been the voice of many ads, social campaigns and voice overs for decades now, and it is likely that this voice will soon help you navigate to your preferred destination. According to a recent report, tech giant Google has approached the iconic Indian actor to lend his voice for Google Maps in India. The report further states that the two are currently in talks for the same and the actor is yet to sign on the dotted line.
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Google Maps is one of the most popular and preferred navigation applications used on smartphones and has been a boon making travel easy and safe. Mr. Bachchan's voice then will be used for announcing instructions during turn-by-turn navigation. Given his proficiency, it is likely that the actor will record the navigation instructions in multiple languages for the app, should the deal go through.
Google Maps is now an integral part of in-car navigation
The report further states that if the actor were to accept the offer, he will record the navigation instructions from the safety of his home due to the Coronavirus pandemic and send it to Google. It's not clear as to when will the tech giant roll out the new voice for Google Maps.
It also needs to be seen if Google Maps will offer the option to switch between the current voice and that of Mr. Bachchan's in the future. Currently, India listens to the voice of Australia born, New York-based entertainer Karen Jacobsen when using the navigation app by Google. As touchscreen infotainment systems and smartphones become more and more popular, the use of in-car navigation has increased by ten-folds. The use of Mr. Bachchan's voice will also help Google reach out to new users that will prefer a familiar voice guiding them.
Amitabh Bachchan is yet to sign the deal with google
If the deal does go through, it will be for the first time that a celebrity voice will feature on Google Maps. The Alphabet Inc. company does offer celebrity voices for Google Assistant but does not offer any such alternative for maps, barring the different dialect-based change. Interestingly, the Google-owned Waze navigation app does offer several celebrity voices right from Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson to even characters like the Lightning McQueen and the cookie monster.
Source: Mid-Day
