Anthropic's Claude AI Set to Launch Voice Mode, Challenging Competitors in AI Assistant Space

Anthropic is reportedly launching a voice AI you can speak to

Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Anthropic is getting ready to introduce a new "voice mode" feature that could rival OpenAI's similar option within ChatGPT, according to Bloomberg. The AI voice assistant will reportedly live within its Claude AI chatbot and could start rolling out "as soon as this month." According to Bloomberg, Anthropic plans to roll out three English-language voices called Airy, Mellow, and Buttery. This isn't the first time we've heard about a potential voice mode. Anthropic's chief product officer, Mike Kreiger, spoke about it in an interview with the Financial Times last month. "We will do voice internally, too; it is a useful modality to have. We have prototypes," Kreiger said at the time. The app researcher M1Astra initially uncovered references to voice mode in Anthropic's iOS app, which Bloomberg says it later confirmed. The Verge reached out to Anthropic with a request for comment but didn't immediately hear back. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees, has become a major competitor for the maker of ChatGPT. The company recently launched a $200 / month tier for "power" users and also announced a new research-focused AI tool on Tuesday.

Claude tipped to get its answer to ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode soon - is adding an AI voice to a chatbot yet another tick box exercise?

Anthropic's Claude AI chatbot is set to be upgraded with a new voice mode, as the company with minority Amazon ownership looks to catch up with the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Claude's new feature called "voice mode" could launch as soon as this month. The info comes from "a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss private matters," who says the AI voice assistant will have three voices at launch. The voices titled Airy, Mellow, and Buttery will give Claude users the chance to pick from three diverse accents, although nothing is confirmed as of yet, and Anthropic could opt for more or fewer voices at launch. Claude's closest competitors, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, both have their own respective AI voice modes. ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode and Gemini Live allow users to chat with AI, making the experience more conversational and natural. With Claude potentially throwing its name into the mix, consumers will have another AI voice assistant to choose from. But it begs the question: Does the population even care? AI chatbots seem to follow in each other's footsteps. Whether that's the introduction of a reasoning model, a research model, an image generation model, or, in this case, a voice mode. Whether you're using ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, or even Claude, the user experience with each chatbot is getting so similar that regardless of which one you use you'll end up with a similar result. Obviously, in a rapidly moving industry like AI, it's a race to release your product faster than your competitors, but as a consumer, we end up with. constant new releases of the same kind of feature, repackaged and marketed by competing tech companies. Claude's voice mode, when it arrives, will be yet another tick-box exercise for an AI company looking to have its product on a level playing field with its competition. As a consumer, I want these AI companies to throw out the playbook and try new things. AI voice modes are great, and they make chatbots even easier to use. When it comes to new AI software launches, however, I've started to wonder: Does the company even care? Or is this just a tick-box exercise? Hopefully, Claude's voice mode innovates the world of AI voice assistants, but until I see its potential, I fully expect yet another AI release that's exactly the same as the 10 other options out there.

After ChatGPT and Gemini, Anthropic's Claude Might Get a Voice Mode

The feature is said to first roll out to a limited set of users Claude's voice mode will reportedly feature three voices These are said to be called Airy, Mellow, and Buttery Anthropic is reportedly working on a voice chat feature for its in-house artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Claude. According to the report, the AI firm is planning to launch the feature, dubbed 'voice mode', as soon as this month. While rivals such as OpenAI and Google have already added a dedicated voice mode in their chatbots, ChatGPT and Gemini, Anthropic has so far only focused on the text interface. The report comes just weeks after the AI firm released a new education plan, similar to OpenAI's Edu subscription. According to a Bloomberg report, the San Francisco-based AI firm is gearing up for the launch of the new voice mode feature. Citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, the publication claimed that the rollout of the feature could begin in April itself. The feature will be first available to a small subset of users. These plans could change, however. Anthropic is reportedly planning to add three different voices to the feature that would be named Airy, Mellow, and Buttery. The latter is said to carry a British accent. Notably, the publication claimed that an app researcher who goes by the name "M1Astra" spotted the evidence of this in Claude's iOS app's code and shared it with the publication. No other details are known at this time. While the report mentions the voice mode, it is unclear whether it will be a basic text-to-speech feature or if the AI voice will be human-like, similar to ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode. It is also not known whether the feature will be available to all users or if it will be reserved for the paid subscribers. The three voices likely differ in pitch, timbre, and intonation. Anthropic is late to the voice chatbot party. In the last year, major AI-focused companies such as OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and even Apple have announced or released voice-based conversation features. Meta is also reportedly working on introducing a two-way voice chat mode in Meta AI. However, Anthropic has not been idly waiting. The company has released several new features in 2025. Last month, the company's researchers published a paper making breakthroughs in the thinking process of AI models. The AI firm also added the web search feature in Claude, and released the Claude 3.7 Sonnet AI model with reasoning capabilities.

Report: Anthropic Set to Add Voice Capabilities to AI Assistant Claude | PYMNTS.com

The new "voice mode" could be released this month and will first be available on a limited basis, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (April 15), citing an unnamed source. It will include three voices, the report said, citing the source and Bloomberg's own review of the app's publicly available iOS code. The report added that these plans could change. Anthropic did not immediately reply to PYMNTS' request for comment. This report came on the same day that Anthropic introduced in a press release two new capabilities for Claude: Research, which enables the AI assistant to search across the user's internal work context as well as the web, and a Google Workspace integration that connects it with the user's email, calendar and documents. "This is just the beginning of updates to make Claude an even better collaborator," the release said. "In the coming weeks, we'll expand the range of content sources available and the ability for Claude to do research in more depth." OpenAI and Meta introduced AI voice features in 2024, with Meta's upgrade including celebrity voices and OpenAI adding voice capabilities for its ChatGPT users. These innovations promise more natural and personalized interactions, PYMNTS reported in September. "This isn't just about convenience -- it's about creating a real, human connection between brands and customers," Valentin Radu, founder of Omniconvert, told PYMNTS at the time. Generative AI could revive voice assistant technology, which has been in decline, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report, "GenAI and Voice Assistants: Adoption and Trust Across Generations." The report found that while voice assistants now face skepticism and declining usage across age groups, generative AI is on the rise. "While voice assistant adoption stagnates, GenAI is experiencing rapid growth across generations," the report said. "Consider 82% of Gen Z and 78% of zillennials are familiar with GenAI, with familiarity among boomers and seniors increasing from 23% to 41% over the past year."