greattraders

• Garmin Voices

Note: if you're just interested in the results without details, check the faq:

Elsewhere in the Factory's fourms, jfossy posted that there's a new Garmin nuvi 'Jill,' version 3.20, which offers 'Improved road name pronunciations.' In searching, I think that Karen, Samantha and probably Jack were also updated at about the same time with the same improvement.

Product Description. Or download custom voices and vehicles for free from the Garmin.

I can never keep my voice versions straight so I now have a Post-It note with my English-language TTS findings. Here's what I found. Since Jack is the name used for both the high and low quality voice files, I have both listed--they are NOT interchangeable--WebUpdater or Garmin Express will offer you the one you can use. If you find updates or corrections to my list, please advise.

Please note that the nuvi model you have will dictate the TTS voices you can use--if your nuvi uses the low-quality voice engine, you need the small files and if your nuvi uses the high-quality voice engine, it uses the large files and the newest nuvis now use the TTS3 files.

Name, Current_version, Garmin's_webpage_date(m/d/y)

Large filesize, higher-quality
Jill, 3.40, 6/21/13
Jack, 2.20, 12/13/13
Karen, 2.20, 6/13/13
Lee, 1.90, 8/11/09
Emily, 2.50, 6/18/13
Daniel, 2.20, 6/18/13
Sangeeta, 1.00, 3/18/00

Note: the devices that use the above large filesize TTS voices also have the following non-TTS voices:

American Michelle, 2.00, 1/24/14
Australian Matilda, 1.00, possibly 12/7/11
British James, 2.10, possibly 11/29/11
British Kate, 2.10, possibly 11/30/11)

Small filesize, lower-quality
Samantha, 2.00, 6/12/13 (See my post of 6/1/14)
Jack, 2.00, 6/12/13 (See my post of 6/1/14)
Karen, 1.20, 6/18/13
Lee, 1.20, 6/18/13
Daniel, 1.30, 6/18/13
Serena, 1.30, 6/18/13
Sangeeta, 1.10, 7/20/11

Large file size, higher-quality TTS3
Serena, 2.20, 5/10/18 (also offers Real Voice)
Samantha, 2.70, 10/2/18 (also offers Real Voice)
Daniel, 2.20, 5/10/18
Jack, 2.70, 10/2/18
Lee, 2.30, 5/10/18
Karen,2.20, 5/10/18
Sangeeta, 2.20, 5/10/18

I also was pleasantly surprised to see that my nuvi 2460 shows the voice version being used in the Tools/Settings/System/About page. I think that most older nuvis (e.g., my 750 and 855) require delving into hidden developer screens to find voice versions. But my yellow Post-It is really all I need now if I keep it updated.

These voice change logs can be hard to find. I find the best way is to do an internet search for (minus the quotes) 'garmin voice version karen' and substituting the name desired in place of Karen when doing the search--or for the newest nuvis, search for (minus the quotes) 'garmin voice version serena tts3' for current updates with similar substitutions of your desired name in place of Serena. In general for now, look for internet search hits that are something like:

Urdu grammar book. (for the hi-quality voices)
Voice, Australian English-Karen (TTS) software version

(for the low-quality voices--note the (v) after the (TTS))
Voice, Australian English-Karen (TTS)(v) software version

Garmin Voices

(for the TTS3 voices)
Voice, British-English, Serena (TTS3) software version

[Update 6/24/13] Thanks to MikeG1 and joegambino for quickly finding newer voice updates. Also noted is that there are now appearing some Garmin voices that are TTS3 which may for the new nuvi xxx7 series (or maybe just the nuvi 3597) devices that use new Real Voice files. I also have seen some Garmin TTS2 files but haven't found which devices use(d) them.

[Update 6/26/13] Thanks to charlesd45 for confirming that another of the xxx7 series beyond the 3597 uses Real Voice files and for further confusing me with the new nuvi 2597 model and probably many other of the new 2013 nuvi xxx7 models: I'm not quite sure where to place this so I'll offer it here for now. The new nuvi 2597, in addition to using the new large Real Voice files like TTS3 Samantha, also offers smaller voice files and yet another name: American English Michelle 2.00. And thanks for pointing out the GMapTool site.

[Update 4/18/14]
Thanks to dferron for leading me to find the new non-TTS voices for the GPS models that use the large filesize voice engine as well as the TTS Sangeeta voice.

[Update 6/1/14]
Thanks to raycock for leading me to several new updates.

[Update 6/4/14]
A link to the faq was added

[Update 6/11/14]
Thanks to raycock for posting a new Samantha v2.00 that actually works.

[Update 10/2/14]
Thanks to alandb for posting the news of seven new English language TTS3 voices

[Update 1/7/16]
Two new TTS3 updates offering 'Pronunciation improvements for major brands'

[Update 5/12/18]
Revised TTS3 voices Live messenger 8 patch.

[Update 10/5/18]
Revised TTS3 voices