Lifting up Real Voices on Google Assistant

Google is committed to building products for everyone, with everyone—believing all audiences deserve to see their authentic selves reflected in its products and services. 

The 'Real Voices' initiative features short 30-second clips telling authentic stories from the perspectives of select community members about their experience of culture and identity, served to users through Google Assistant-enabled devices in response to relevant queries (e.g. “Hey Google, Tell me a human story”).

As part of its goal to create the most inclusive digital assistant, featuring communities it may have previously ignored or misrepresented, we worked alongside Google to produce a series of voice-forward collections for Asian Pacific American Heritage, Hispanic Heritage, and Pride months. 

To create authentic content sourced from a wide variety of perspectives and amplify stories around the intersectionality of personal identity in the United States, our efforts centered around sourcing, qualifying, and facilitating interviews with equally diverse cohorts comprised of individuals representing several demographics. 

To ensure age diversity, we made sure to recruit interviewees from several different generations—including Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. Similarly, we were prudent to include individuals from different US geographical backgrounds—like the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West. 

For Asian Pacific American and Hispanic Heritage cohorts, we put emphasis on finding interviewees representative of various ethnic backgrounds—including Southeast Asian, East Asian, Desi, Caribbean, Central American, and South American. 

For our Pride cohort, we focused on finding individuals representing a wide range of sexual orientations and gender identities. Our final list of interviewees included members identifying as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans Non-Binary, Trans Men and Women, Queer, and Non-Binary. 

The 'Real Voices' initiative recorded interviews with over 60 diverse individuals from the Asian Pacific American, Hispanic American, and LGBTQIA communities featured on every Google Assistant-enabled device across the US—ultimately expanding the cultural lexicon of what it means to be American.