Alexa will soon no longer have celebrity voices available for purchase, such as actress Melissa McCarthy, actor Samuel L. Jackson or basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, as Amazon announced Wednesday:
Melissa McCarthy’s Alexa voice is no longer available for purchase. Customers who previously purchased the experience may continue to use the skill until Sept 30, 2023, by saying ‘Hey Melissa'.
Until Tuesday, these options were available for an additional $4.99. The feature will continue to be available until Sept. 30 but will be removed after that date. The decision was taken by the company, though no explanation was provided:
After three years, we’re winding down celebrity voices. Customers will be able to continue using these voices for a limited time, and can contact our customer service team for a refund.
These voices were compatible with most smart speakers, except for the first-generation Echo and Echo Dot. They were also not available for Fire TVs and tablets.
The function was similar to early versions of GPS. If the user wanted to use a voice other than Alexa's, he had options such as Melissa McCarthy, Samuel L. Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal. To activate it, users only had to say "Hey Melissa," "Hey Samuel" or "Hey Shaquille," and the celebrity's voice would respond to them. Three years later, the feature will disappear and leave people who use Amazon's smart speakers without the possibility of interacting with their favorite famous voices.
