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Waze now lets you record your own turn-by-turn audio

Waze now lets you record your own turn-by-turn audio

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The ultimate personalization — even if everyone hates their own voice

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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Waze has experimented with plenty of celebrity voices for its hugely popular navigation app, but now it’s taking the ultimate personalization step. What if the voice you heard while driving around was your own? Well, that sounds absolutely dreadfull. Everyone hates their own voice. But what if it was the voice of your spouse, or your kid? With the app’s new update on Android, it can be.

The latest version of Waze introduces what the company calls “the Waze voice recorder.” You open the app’s settings, tap “Sound & voice,” and you’ll find the new option to record a custom voice. You’ll have to run through the gamut of Waze’s frequent commands. But once that’s done, you’ll have a Waze experience that’s wholly your own. As LifeHacker points out, this could be useful in regions where the app’s own voice commands aren’t localized.

But just imagine the other possibilities. There’s ample opportunity for pranks, naturally; what’s to stop someone from saying “turn left” when they’re supposed to be recording “turn right”? And you could use this new tool to create any celebrity voice you want if you’re willing to spend the time (and find the right audio snippets). Waze only asks users to be extra clear when speaking. Any of the app’s instructions that you don’t record will default to the regular Waze voice. For now, recordings are “available to you only” and can’t be shared.