Your Garmin or TomTom satnav will keep you on your way with an efficient and professional tone in the language of your choice. However, there is no need to settle for the ordinary. Why not have a little fun and enhance your sat nav with a more interesting voice? Maybe instead of the very appropriate voices that come standard with your device, you prefer a goofy squirrel, or maybe you prefer Han Solo or Darth Vader guiding you.
It’s easy to download a new personality for your Garmin or TomTom from their respective websites. Imagine a Yeti giving directions, or maybe the creepy Dr. Nightmare gathering his magic book to find the best route! Garmin offers several free voices like these. For a nominal fee, you can also download Spongebob or Dora the Explorer. (Quite a surprise for the kids!)
Before you begin, you can download the Garmin Communicator plug-in. This is a free program that allows your computer to communicate with your Garmin GPS. If you don’t want to use this program, you can download the voice to your computer, then open and extract it. Find the voice on your Garmin unit. Either way, your Garmin GPS device must be connected to your computer via a USB port.
Once the download is complete and you have disconnected your GPS Satellite Navigator from your computer, you can change the voice on your unit. Just go to tools, then voice settings. With the list of voices on the Garmin screen, scroll down to find the one you’d like, then click OK. It is easy!
If you want to put a bit of your own personality into it, you can also download Garmin Voice Studio. This is a free program that guides you through recording your own voice for truly customizable satnav directions. You might even have a friend or loved one recording for you!
If you have a TomTom GPS, you will need to visit the official TomTom site and install the TomTom Home software on your computer. With your TomTom device connected via USB, you can start downloading directly to your GPS device.
On this site, TomTom had quite a few voices to choose from, including many celebrity voices. (However, there is a small charge for those selected.) Your journey of him will never be dull with Billy Connolly, John Cleese or Snoop Dogg directing you!
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