Virtual assistants have traditionally been given feminine personalities, for reasons that pertain to the way we perceive voices. We’re more likely to trust and accept directions from a woman, according to studies , and a feminine voice is more likely to be perceived as helpful, while masculine voices tend to sound more authoritative. But not everyone wants their assistant to be a “girl,” so companies have been slowly adding male voice options to their repertoire. Google is catching up with this trend today. Google Assistant users can now opt to hear a male voice whenever they interact with the app. The new feature seems to be rolling out widely, though from our experience, it’s a bit flaky for now. We were able to activate the new male voice on several devices, but when we tried to use it, we still heard the female voice in many cases. This is probably a temporary problem, as the feature propagates through Google’s vast infrastructure. How to change ...