Languages & voices
You choose from nine language options for your assistant: eight languages, with English in a British and an American variant. This article covers the available languages and voices, how ChatGPT voices relate to accent, what does and doesn't get translated, and how to tune speech speed and pronunciation.
Assistant language vs dashboard language
There are two language settings that are independent of each other:
- Dashboard language. You choose it with the button that shows your name, at the bottom of the sidebar, or under My account → Profile. It only applies to you and has no effect whatsoever on what your assistants say. Prompt templates you insert are in the language of the assistant. Separate from this, Language for customers and notifications under Settings → Business sets the language of notifications and public pages, and is the suggested language for a new assistant. Only an admin can change it.
- Assistant language. Set per assistant on the Voice & greeting tab under Language. It determines which language the assistant starts in and which voices you can choose.
So you can happily run the dashboard in English while managing a Dutch-speaking assistant, or the other way round.
Supported assistant languages
| Code | Language |
|---|---|
| nl-NL | Dutch |
| en-GB | English (UK) |
| en-US | English (US) |
| de-DE | German |
| fr-FR | French |
| es-ES | Spanish |
| it-IT | Italian |
| pl-PL | Polish |
| pt-PT | Portuguese |
If you pick a language, the assistant starts in it. For a UK business with almost exclusively English-speaking callers, en-GB is the best choice: the conversation then starts in the right language straight away.
ChatGPT voices and accent
There is no separate multilingual mode. Every ChatGPT voice can speak the supported languages; what you pick is mainly the accent (British, American, Irish, Dutch, and so on). Under Voice on the Voice & greeting tab you choose that voice. You always choose from ChatGPT voices.
If the caller uses another language, the assistant follows the Language switching setting on the Voice & greeting tab:
- Ask before switching. When the caller clearly uses another language, it asks once whether they want to continue in that language, and switches only after the caller agrees. This is the default.
- Switch straight away. When the caller clearly uses another language, it changes to that language for the rest of the conversation.
- Stay in the assistant's language. The assistant does not switch, even when the caller uses another language.
A single word, a name or a short quote does not count as another language. The same setting applies to SMS, WhatsApp and webchat.
The greeting stays in one language. The greeting is fixed text and is not translated (see below). Keep it short, or make it bilingual: "Good afternoon, welcome to De Vries Plumbing. Goedemiddag."
The greeting is fixed text
The greeting on the Voice & greeting tab is spoken exactly as you type it. It is never translated. A name in brackets, such as [Business name] or [Customer name], follows your details by itself: insert it with the buttons below the field, and How it sounds shows the line as a caller hears it. [Customer name] and data looked up before the conversation (put those in double curly braces) are only filled in when the value is known; otherwise that part is left empty. So don't place them in the middle of a sentence that would read oddly without them. Everything after the greeting is generated by the AI model in the language of the conversation.
System lines
Besides the greeting, the assistant uses a few fixed system lines:
- the announcement just before a transfer, unless you filled in your own Hand-off sentence under Transfer calls on the Tasks tab;
- the invitation to leave a message (voicemail);
- the message that the service is unavailable, if ChatGPT cannot be reached;
- the recording notice after the greeting, when Record calls and Announce that the call is recorded are on, on the Conversation rules tab.
These lines follow the assistant's language: Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. en-GB and en-US use the same English lines; the difference between the two is in the voices you can choose.
While the assistant looks something up, it can say in a few words that it is checking. It gives the result as soon as it is back. If the caller stays quiet, it asks after a few seconds whether that was clear or whether it can help with anything else. See Technical settings. When the caller says goodbye, the assistant says one short goodbye and the call ends.
Voices
Which voices you see depends on the assistant's language. The names appear like this in the list in every dashboard language:
| Language | Voices |
|---|---|
| Dutch | Spruce (Dutch), Cove (Dutch), Juniper (Dutch) |
| English (UK) | Vesper (recommended), Willow (Irish), Stone (Irish) |
| English (US) | Gleam (Accent-neutral), Meridian (Accent-neutral), Delta (Southern US), Cinder (Southern US) |
| German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish | Gleam (Accent-neutral), Meridian (Accent-neutral), Beacon (Filipino) |
| Portuguese | Bossa (Brazilian Portuguese), Tempo (Brazilian Portuguese) |
While Spruce, Cove and Juniper are not yet available, you see Vesper (British accent), Gleam (American accent) and Meridian (American accent) for Dutch. The assistant still speaks Dutch.
Under Voice on the Voice & greeting tab you pick a voice; the play button speaks a short sample in the assistant's language, without you having to choose that voice. Your choice saves automatically and takes effect on the next conversation. If you change language and your voice is not in the list for the new language, it becomes Vesper when that is in the list, and otherwise the first voice. Then hear the result with the Try it out button at the top of the assistant: choose Call, then Start call. This uses your microphone and the saved voice. No real phone number is dialled.
Speaking style
On the Voice & greeting tab, Speaking style sets how the assistant sounds on the phone. Pick one option per row: Tone (Warm, Calm, Friendly, Professional), Sound (Soft, Clear, Full), Pitch (Lower, Moderate, Higher), Intonation (Natural, Even, Expressive), Speed (Slower, Normal, Quicker) and Conversation (Default). A new assistant starts on Warm, Soft, Moderate, Natural, Normal and Default. An existing assistant keeps its choices and gets Soft and Natural for Sound and Intonation. Under each row you see the text the assistant gets, in the language set under Language. Click the pencil on a row to write your own text for that part. It starts with an example in the assistant's language that you can change. An empty text leaves that part out. SMS, WhatsApp and webchat use the same style, unless you turn on Separate style for chats on the Instructions tab. Listen to the result in Try it out.
Pronunciation of names and trade terms
Brand names, street names and trade jargon aren't always pronounced correctly. On the Voice & greeting tab, under Pronunciation, add up to 100 words with Add a term. Under Word, write the spelling and press play. Play uses a separate speech voice, not your assistant's voice, and says the word in a short sentence so you can check the sound. If it sounds wrong, turn on Custom pronunciation, write how to say it and play again. The play button moves next to that field, and Hear spelling plays the spelling again. On a call, the assistant uses the voice set under Voice. A caller who says the pronunciation means the word. When the word comes up, including in an answer from the collection, the assistant says the pronunciation. The assistant's replies in the conversation view and notes keep the spelling. Meaning is optional and tells the assistant what the word is; it does not read that text aloud unless someone asks.
For longer notes, such as how to read a postcode, write your own text under Conversation in Speaking style: the voice on the phone gets that text itself. Keep the example and add your note to it. If your assistant still has old text, you also see the Pronunciation (old note) field. That text keeps applying in Easy mode; put new words under Pronunciation.
- Spell tricky words phonetically under Custom pronunciation: Vaillant, pronounced VAL-yont.
- Explain abbreviations under Meaning: for the word TRV, write "thermostatic radiator valve".
- Say under Conversation how numbers should be read: "Read postcodes character by character, in two groups".
- Add your own company name to the list if its pronunciation differs from how it's written.
Test every change with Try it out, then ring the number yourself to hear the result. In Try it out you can interrupt the assistant by talking while it speaks, just as on the phone: it stops by itself, sometimes after a few more words, and your words show at once. It talks through a brief sound. If pronunciation remains a problem, see Troubleshooting: assistant behaviour.