Brand Voice Examples: What Makes a Voice Recognizable

You can often tell who is writing before you see the name. A single sentence from Innocent Drinks does not sound like Apple. A push notification from Duolingo does not sound like Stripe. That recognition happens because each brand has a consistent voice: a personality expressed through language that stays stable even as topics, formats, and audiences change.

Voice is the consistent personality expressed through writing. It is the combination of vocabulary, sentence structure, perspective, and emotional posture that makes communication identifiable over time. Unlike tone, which shifts depending on the situation, voice remains recognisable across contexts. It is what allows audiences to feel like they are hearing from the same brand whether they are reading a product page, a help article, or an error message.

This article looks at real brand voice examples: what makes each one distinctive, how they handle the difference between voice and tone, and how you can use those examples as a starting point for defining your own.

What is voice in writing

Voice refers to the consistent personality expressed through writing. It is the combination of vocabulary, sentence structure, perspective, and emotional posture that makes writing identifiable. Over time, these patterns create familiarity, allowing readers to recognise the writer or brand even when the subject matter changes.

A writer's voice answers questions such as:

• Does this sound formal or conversational overall?
• Does it feel confident, playful, analytical, or restrained?
• Does it prioritise explanation, persuasion, or storytelling?
• Does it speak as an authority, a peer, or a guide?

Voice remains stable across contexts. A brand may adopt a reassuring tone during an outage and an enthusiastic tone during a launch, but its underlying voice stays recognisable in both situations. This consistency allows audiences to interpret different messages as part of the same identity rather than separate communications.

Brand voice, specifically, represents the personality a company chooses to communicate consistently. It functions as a public persona that helps audiences connect emotionally and recognise the brand across platforms. A consistent voice supports trust, loyalty, and differentiation in competitive markets.

Voice vs. tone

Voice and tone often get confused because both shape how writing feels. The difference lies in stability.

Voice is the long-term identity. Tone is the situational attitude.

For example, a brand with a friendly, conversational voice may use an encouraging tone in onboarding, an urgent tone during promotions, an empathetic tone in support, and a confident tone in product launches. The friendly, conversational voice remains constant even as emotional delivery changes. The underlying language patterns, perspective, and relationship with the audience stay recognisable even when the mood shifts.

Understanding this distinction is critical when analysing brand voice examples because what appears to be tonal variation often reflects a stable voice expressed differently.

Why voice matters for brands

A strong brand voice provides continuity across touchpoints. Customers rarely interact with a brand through a single message. Instead, they encounter emails, product pages, social media posts, help documentation, and advertising. Voice ensures those interactions feel cohesive.

Recognition

Consistent language makes content identifiable without logos. Repetition of familiar phrasing helps audiences instinctively associate messages with the brand. Mailchimp's warm, slightly playful encouragement is recognisable in a single line of onboarding copy, before any visual branding appears.

Trust

Predictable communication reduces uncertainty. When messaging feels consistent, audiences are more likely to believe the brand's claims and guidance. Stripe's documentation is widely cited by developers as unusually trustworthy, in part because its precise, economical language signals that the brand values accuracy over marketing language.

Positioning

Voice signals whether a brand is premium, accessible, disruptive, or educational before customers evaluate products. Apple's minimalist, benefit-focused language positions it as both accessible and premium without relying on technical complexity. The voice does that positioning work before a single product feature is mentioned.

Emotional connection

Personality influences how customers interpret value. Nike's motivational voice does not describe products. It frames effort, identity, and progress in ways that make readers feel seen. That emotional resonance creates loyalty that extends well beyond any individual product or campaign.

Brands that invest in voice treat communication as an experience rather than a channel. Voice becomes a strategic asset rather than a stylistic preference.

Elements that make a voice recognisable

Distinct voice emerges from patterns rather than isolated lines. Audiences recognise voice through repeated choices in language, structure, and perspective rather than memorable one-liners. Several elements consistently shape voice.

Vocabulary range

Simple language suggests accessibility. Specialised language suggests expertise. The balance between the two helps signal the intended audience. Innocent Drinks uses deliberately simple, conversational vocabulary (even on nutritional labels), signalling that the brand sees itself as approachable and human rather than expert or clinical. IBM, by contrast, uses precise technical language consistently, which signals authority and expertise to its professional audience.

Sentence rhythm

Short declarative sentences create confidence and momentum. Longer sentences create reflection or explanation. Nike's communication is built almost entirely on short, punchy statements: "Just Do It." "Run further than yesterday." That rhythm is as recognisable as the language itself. A longer, more explanatory rhythm appears in brands like HubSpot, where the voice assumes a teaching role and takes time to guide readers through reasoning.

Perspective

Second-person language feels collaborative and direct. Third-person language feels institutional. Mailchimp uses second person throughout, reinforcing a close relationship with the reader. Enterprise software brands often shift to third person when writing about outcomes, which creates a more authoritative but distanced feel. The choice of perspective shapes how readers understand their relationship with the brand. It also influences how much authority the voice claims — whether the brand is speaking to you, speaking about you, or speaking alongside you.

Humour and metaphor

These devices quickly signal personality and are among the fastest ways to establish voice. Old Spice uses absurdist comparisons and exaggerated confidence as its primary voice signal. You know within one sentence that it is Old Spice. The frequency and style of humour use often become signature elements. Innocent Drinks uses gentle, whimsical humour consistently, even in functional contexts like packaging and ingredient lists. Brands that avoid humour entirely, like most financial services brands, signal seriousness and precision through its absence.

Emotional posture

The underlying stance toward subject and audience (supportive, aspirational, analytical, or confident) influences interpretation before readers evaluate content itself. Patagonia's emotional posture is deeply values-driven and earnest. Its writing reflects genuine conviction about environmental responsibility, and that posture is recognisable regardless of whether the piece is about a product, a campaign, or a political issue. By contrast, Apple's emotional posture is quietly confident. It rarely shows enthusiasm or urgency, which reinforces a sense of premium restraint. These stances signal how the brand relates to its audience and what it considers important.

How brands develop voice

Brands rarely discover their voice accidentally. Instead, they develop it through deliberate decisions about how they want to sound, what relationship they want with their audience, and how communication should reflect their values.

Creating voice typically involves defining several dimensions.

Formal vs. conversational

This dimension determines how closely writing mirrors natural speech. The Economist sits firmly at the formal end: measured sentences, no contractions, careful precision. Innocent Drinks sits at the conversational extreme: contractions, direct address, casual grammar used intentionally. Neither is wrong. Both choices reflect deliberate positioning that their respective audiences expect and respond to.

Serious vs. playful

IBM's voice is serious, signalling credibility and technical focus. Old Spice's voice is deliberately playful and absurdist, prioritising entertainment and memorability. Most brands sit somewhere between these extremes, but the balance is a defining choice. Many brands blend these depending on context while maintaining a recognisable personality.

Direct vs. descriptive

Apple's communication is highly direct: short statements, clear benefits, no unnecessary elaboration. Patagonia's communication is more descriptive and narrative, using environmental context, storytelling, and reflective language to engage readers who care about the values behind the product. The direct approach respects readers' time. The descriptive approach builds emotional depth.

Educational vs. persuasive

HubSpot positions itself as an educational voice, prioritising explanation, frameworks, and step-by-step guidance. Nike's voice is persuasive, emphasising outcomes, identity, and decision momentum rather than instruction. Most brand voices combine both, shifting emphasis across the customer journey.

As these dimensions become clearer, organisations translate them into practical guidance. Voice guidelines often include vocabulary preferences, sentence structure examples, and side-by-side rewrites showing how the same message should sound in brand voice compared with generic alternatives.

How voice supports brand storytelling

Voice allows brands to tell consistent stories over time. Instead of repeating messaging, they reinforce identity. Customers begin to associate language patterns with values, which strengthens recognition and loyalty.

Coca-Cola is one of the clearest examples of this. Over more than 130 years, its campaigns have changed dramatically in format, era, and cultural context. "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" in 1971 and "Taste the Feeling" in 2016 are completely different creative executions. The "Share a Coke" campaign personalised bottles with individual names. Holiday campaigns have featured Santa Claus, polar bears, and glowing trucks. Each looks different from the last.

But the underlying voice has remained consistent throughout: warm, optimistic, inclusive, and focused on shared human moments. Whether the creative platform is nostalgia, personal connection, or togetherness, the language always reflects the same emotional posture. That consistency is what makes each new campaign feel like part of the same story rather than a fresh start. Audiences carry their emotional familiarity with the brand into each new execution, which is why even new campaigns feel instantly recognisable.

Storytelling without a consistent voice feels fragmented. Voice provides the continuity that allows narratives to evolve without losing identity.

Common mistakes when developing voice

Several issues appear frequently when organisations attempt to define or scale voice. Here are the most common, each with an example of how they show up in practice.

Confusing tone guidelines with voice guidelines

Teams sometimes document situational tone without defining the underlying personality. This creates inconsistency because writers know how messages should feel in specific moments but lack guidance on how the brand should sound overall.

Example: A team documents that support messages should feel empathetic and product announcements should feel excited, but there is no guidance on vocabulary, sentence rhythm, or audience relationship. The result is that two different writers produce messages that feel like different brands, even though both followed the tone guidance correctly.

Copying competitor voice

Borrowing stylistic elements from successful brands can seem efficient, but imitation often leads to messaging that feels misaligned with actual values or audience expectations.

Example: A serious B2B software brand attempts to replicate Mailchimp's casual, slightly playful tone because Mailchimp is widely admired. The result feels jarring. The warmth and humour that work for Mailchimp feel incongruent with a brand that sells enterprise compliance software. Voice borrowed from another brand rarely fits because it was built around different values and a different audience relationship.

Over-defining voice without examples

Describing voice using adjectives alone rarely produces consistent results. Without concrete rewrites, vocabulary guidance, and real content samples, teams interpret definitions differently.

Example: A brand voice document says the voice is "bold, human, and clear." Three writers interpret this differently: one writes short, punchy sentences; another uses conversational language and humour; a third focuses on plain language and structured explanation. All three believe they followed the brief. None of the outputs sound like the same brand.

Allowing departments to write differently

Voice often remains strongest in marketing while product, support, and documentation adopt more generic language.

Example: A brand's marketing page reads: "We help teams move faster without losing what matters." The error message on the same platform reads: "Error 403: Access denied." The support response reads: "Your ticket has been received and will be processed in order of receipt." The customer has just encountered three different brands in the same session.

Treating voice as marketing only

Limiting voice to campaigns overlooks how frequently customers encounter brands in functional communication. Help articles, onboarding flows, notifications, and transactional emails shape brand perception as much as advertising.

Example: A brand invests heavily in defining voice for its campaign content but leaves product copy, error messages, and email confirmations to individual developers and support agents. Customers experience the brand's personality in advertising and then lose it entirely the moment they log in.

Voice and AI writing

AI can replicate surface-level style patterns, but maintaining consistent brand voice across AI-generated content requires deliberate input and ongoing review.

The challenge is not just getting the tone of a single piece right. It is ensuring that all content (blog posts, product copy, support responses, social posts) feels like it comes from the same brand. That is a harder problem than it might seem because AI output can shift subtly in formality, relationship distance, or vocabulary between pieces, even when the same prompt is used. The result can be content that reads well individually but feels fragmented as a body of work.

Getting closer to a genuine brand voice with AI requires defining voice dimensions clearly before generation, not just after. Prompts that specify audience relationship, vocabulary preferences, sentence rhythm, and emotional posture produce more consistent results than general style instructions. Providing example sentences from existing brand content, or describing what the brand deliberately avoids, helps the model work within narrower boundaries.

Human review remains the most reliable quality check, particularly for vocabulary drift and relationship consistency. These are two aspects of voice that are easy to miss at the sentence level but obvious when a piece of content is compared against others.

For brands that want a more structured starting point, tools like Machined offer built-in voice profiles that define personality and relationship distance from the outset, reducing the gap between raw AI output and on-brand communication. For a deeper guide to defining and documenting brand voice so that process becomes easier across any tool, see our guide to building your brand voice.

Real-world examples of brand voice

The clearest way to understand voice is to analyse brands with distinctive identities. Real-world examples reveal how consistent language patterns, emotional posture, and audience relationships combine to create recognisable communication over time. Rather than focusing on isolated slogans or campaigns, examining brand voice in context shows how everyday messaging reinforces personality across channels.

Below are detailed brand voice examples showing what makes each recognisable.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp demonstrates one of the most studied approachable SaaS voices. Its communication avoids technical jargon and instead uses conversational language that positions the brand as a helpful partner rather than a tool. This approach builds trust and reduces anxiety around complex marketing concepts.

What makes the voice recognisable

• Conversational phrasing
• Gentle humour in microcopy
• Encouraging language that validates users
• Clear explanations without oversimplifying

Voice rewrite example

Generic: "Optimise your campaign deliverability settings."

Mailchimp voice: "Let's help more emails reach the right people."

The difference reflects voice not tone because the underlying personality remains supportive and collaborative regardless of context.

Voice vs. tone in practice

Mailchimp voice: Friendly, supportive, conversational, slightly playful. This personality stays consistent whether the brand explains features, delivers onboarding guidance, or handles errors.

Tone examples within Mailchimp's voice:

• Encouraging tone: "You're off to a great start!"
• Reassuring tone: "We'll walk you through this step by step."
• Informational tone: "Here's how to set up your first campaign."

Mailchimp's voice remains the same even as the emotional delivery changes.

Apple

Apple's voice reflects its design philosophy. Communication emphasises clarity, simplicity, and confidence, often using short declarative statements that highlight benefits rather than specifications. This approach positions the brand as both accessible and premium without relying on technical complexity.

What makes the voice recognisable

• Minimal wording
• Benefit-focused messaging
• Confident statements without exaggeration
• Accessible explanation of complex technology

Voice rewrite example

Generic: "This device features advanced processing capabilities."

Apple voice: "Power that moves as fast as you do."

The voice communicates aspiration and clarity simultaneously.

Voice vs. tone in practice

Apple voice: Minimalist, confident, design-focused, benefit-driven. The voice emphasises clarity and aspiration rather than technical detail.

Tone examples within Apple's voice:

• Excited tone: "Meet the newest way to create."
• Reassuring tone: "Built to last."
• Authoritative tone: "Performance you can rely on."

Apple's voice stays restrained and confident regardless of the situation.

Innocent Drinks

Innocent Drinks built a distinctive voice through playful, conversational language that appears across packaging, social media, and advertising. Their messaging often includes humour, puns, and casual phrasing that makes the brand feel human and approachable.

What makes the voice recognisable

• Whimsical word choices
• Informal grammar used intentionally
• Direct conversation with customers
• Lighthearted humour even in functional copy

Voice rewrite example

Generic: "This smoothie contains fruits and vitamins."

Innocent voice: "Fruit doing its best to make your day better."

The voice creates emotional warmth rather than just giving information.

Voice vs. tone in practice

Innocent Drinks voice: Playful, conversational, human, whimsical. The brand communicates as if speaking directly to customers.

Tone examples within Innocent Drinks' voice:

• Celebratory tone: "We made something tasty."
• Apologetic tone: "Sorry if we ran out. That happens when people like things."
• Informational tone: "Just fruit. Nothing strange."

Innocent Drinks' humour remains even when the tone shifts.

Nike

Nike's voice centres on motivation and action. Messaging emphasises achievement, possibility, and movement, often using concise language and strong verbs. Inspirational positioning defines the voice more than product features.

What makes the voice recognisable

• Action-oriented verbs
• Universal messaging that feels personal
• Focus on identity rather than product
• Confidence without technical detail

Voice rewrite example

Generic: "These shoes provide comfort and stability."

Nike voice: "Run further than yesterday."

Nike's voice inspires action by framing effort, progress, and identity as achievable for anyone willing to move forward.

Voice vs. tone in practice

Nike's voice: Motivational, empowering, action-oriented. The voice focuses on identity and progress rather than products.

Tone examples within Nike's voice:

• Urgent tone: "Start today."
• Encouraging tone: "Keep going."
• Reflective tone: "Every step counts."

Nike's voice consistently frames effort as possibility.

Old Spice

Old Spice demonstrates how voice can reinvent a brand. By shifting from traditional product-focused messaging to exaggerated humour and character-driven storytelling, the brand repositioned itself for a younger audience while maintaining broad recognition. Its communication uses exaggerated confidence, absurd humour, and bold statements that prioritise memorability over explanation.

What makes the voice recognisable

• Surreal comparisons
• Over-the-top confidence
• Entertainment-first messaging
• Self-aware humour

Voice rewrite example

Generic: "This body wash provides long-lasting freshness."

Old Spice voice: "Smell like the hero of a story that definitely includes slow motion."

The voice remains consistent across ads, packaging, and social media, creating strong recognition.

Voice vs. tone in practice

Old Spice's voice: Bold, absurd, hyper-confident, comedic. This personality prioritises entertainment and memorability.

Tone examples within Old Spice's voice:

• Playful tone: "You smell legendary."
• Confident tone: "Obviously the best choice."
• Apologetic (yet comedic) tone: "Sorry other deodorants exist."

Even serious moments maintain exaggeration and humour.

When brands change voice

Brand voice is designed for consistency, but it is not static. As companies grow, shift audiences, or reposition themselves, voice sometimes needs to evolve.

Old Spice illustrates what dramatic voice change looks like when executed deliberately. The brand replaced traditional product-focused messaging with exaggerated humour and character-driven storytelling, transforming how audiences perceived an ordinary personal care product.

Former Old Spice voice: Traditional, product-focused, masculine authority, functional benefits.

"Provides long-lasting freshness for all-day confidence."

New Old Spice voice: Exaggerated confidence, absurd humour, entertainment-first.

"Smell like you just conquered something impressive, even if it was just your morning."

The product promise is identical in both versions. What changes is the relationship with the audience. The former voice positioned the brand as a reliable product. The new voice positioned it as a character. Old Spice succeeded because the shift aligned with a clear repositioning strategy and was executed consistently across every touchpoint, allowing audiences to recalibrate their expectations quickly.

For a detailed look at how to manage voice evolution and when gradual change versus reinvention makes sense, see our guide to building your brand voice.

What these brand voice examples reveal

Across industries, strong voices share common characteristics that extend beyond stylistic preference.

They reflect brand values. Voice translates abstract positioning into everyday language, allowing values such as innovation, accessibility, or performance to appear consistently across content.

They align with audience expectations. Effective voices consider how audiences prefer to receive information, adjusting complexity, humour, and perspective to support understanding and connection.

They remain consistent across channels. Whether appearing in advertising, product interfaces, or support communication, recognisable language patterns reinforce identity and reduce fragmentation.

They prioritise relationship over information. Strong voices focus not only on what is communicated but on how the brand relates to its audience, shaping trust and familiarity over time.

They guide tone rather than replace it. Voice provides the boundaries within which tone shifts occur, ensuring that emotional variation does not disrupt recognition.

Ready-to-use brand voice briefs

The examples above show what distinctive brand voices look like in practice. The briefs below go one step further: they show how to define a voice in a format that can be handed directly to a writer or used as an AI prompt.

Each brief covers the core elements that make voice practical: personality traits, audience relationship, vocabulary guidance, and a before-and-after rewrite. They are based on three very different brands so you can see how the brief format works across different industries, tones, and positioning strategies.

Writing voice examples: voice vs. tone in practice

The clearest way to distinguish voice from tone is to see them in action on the same message. The examples below show what happens when voice changes versus when only tone changes.

A helpful rule: if the rewrite changes who seems to be speaking, it is voice. If the rewrite changes how the speaker feels in the moment, it is tone.

Example 1

Core message: New software update available.

Voice variations:

• Corporate voice: "A software update has been released."
• Friendly voice: "We made some improvements you'll notice right away."
• Confident voice: "Everything just got faster."
• Playful voice: "We fixed things you didn't know were broken."
• Educational voice: "This update improves performance and stability."

These are voices, not tones, because each version suggests a different relationship with the reader, vocabulary pattern, and communication philosophy.

• Corporate voice: institutional, formal, process-oriented
• Friendly voice: collaborative, approachable, conversational
• Confident voice: benefit-driven, outcome-focused, assertive
• Playful voice: humorous, lighthearted, personality-driven
• Educational voice: instructive, explanatory, guidance-focused

If only tone were involved, the same message from a friendly SaaS brand would look like this instead:

• Excited tone: "We just rolled out improvements."
• Reassuring tone: "The update runs in the background."
• Informational tone: "The update improves performance."
• Apologetic tone: "We fixed issues from the last release."

Example 2

Core message: Try the service.

Voice variations:

• Luxury voice: "Designed for those who expect more."
• Startup voice: "Built to move fast with you."
• Community voice: "Join people building something meaningful."
• Expert voice: "Engineered for reliability at scale."
• Minimalist voice: "Simple tools. Better work."

Each voice demonstrates identity rather than momentary attitude.

• Luxury voice: premium, restrained, experience-focused
• Startup voice: fast, collaborative, progress-oriented
• Community voice: inclusive, shared, relationship-driven
• Expert voice: authoritative, precise, credibility-focused
• Minimalist voice: concise, clear, design-aligned

If only tone were involved, the same message from an efficient, action-oriented startup brand would look like this instead:

• Encouraging tone: "Give it a try and see how quickly things click."
• Confident tone: "Start today and feel the difference immediately."
• Reassuring tone: "You can explore the service without disrupting your workflow."
• Urgent tone: "Get started now while momentum is on your side."

Example 3

Core message: Schedule a demo.

Voice variations:

• Visionary voice: "See what your next workflow could look like."
• Supportive voice: "We'll walk you through it."
• Practical voice: "Schedule a demo and evaluate the process."
• Bold voice: "Watch what happens when systems finally work."
• Human-centred voice: "Talk with someone who understands the problem."

These variations signal who is speaking, not simply how the message feels.

• Visionary voice: future-focused, possibility-driven, aspirational
• Supportive voice: empathetic, guiding, reassurance-focused
• Practical voice: efficiency-focused, structured, outcome-oriented
• Bold voice: confident, declarative, attention-grabbing
• Human-centred voice: relational, conversational, experience-focused

If only tone were involved, the same message from a supportive, guiding SaaS brand would look like this instead:

• Curious tone: "Want to see how this works in practice?"
• Reassuring tone: "We'll tailor the demo to your needs."
• Enthusiastic tone: "We're excited to show you around."
• Calm tone: "Schedule a demo whenever it makes sense for you."

Example 4

Core message: Download the report.

Voice variations:

• Analytical voice: "Access the data behind the findings."

• Narrative voice: "The story starts here."

• Performance voice: "Get insights designed for action."

• Accessible voice: "Everything explained clearly in one place."

• Strategic voice: "Get information that supports better decisions."

• Analytical voice: evidence-driven, precise, structured

• Narrative voice: story-oriented, descriptive, contextual

• Performance voice: results-focused, efficient, action-driven

• Accessible voice: clear, inclusive, explanation-focused

• Strategic voice: high-level, planning-oriented, outcome-aware

If only tone were involved, the same message from an analytical research brand would look like this instead:

• Objective tone: "Download the full report."
• Encouraging tone: "Explore the findings in detail."
• Confident tone: "The data speaks for itself."
• Urgent tone: "Download the report before the next update."

Example 5

Core message: Join the platform.

Voice variations:

• Creator voice: "Build something people notice."

• Professional voice: "Join a platform designed for serious work."

• Experimental voice: "Try ideas without limits."

• Trust-focused voice: "A place where reliability matters."

• Momentum voice: "Start moving forward today."

• Creator voice: expressive, possibility-driven, imaginative

• Professional voice: structured, credibility-focused, measured

• Experimental voice: curious, flexible, iteration-friendly

• Trust-focused voice: dependable, stability-oriented, reassuring

• Momentum voice: forward-moving, energetic, progress-focused

If only tone were involved, the same message from a creator-focused brand would look like this instead:

• Inviting tone: "Come see what others are building."
• Encouraging tone: "Your next project could start here."
• Reflective tone: "Join when you're ready to explore."
• Excited tone: "We can't wait to see what you make."

Building your own brand voice

Defining your brand voice follows a clear process: identify personality traits, clarify your audience relationship, translate both into writing patterns, document them with examples, and audit regularly to prevent drift.

For a full step-by-step guide (including templates, exercises, and a complete style guide framework), see our practical guide to building your brand voice.

What strong brand voice actually does

Voice represents the message behind the message, shaping how audiences interpret meaning across repeated interactions rather than isolated moments. While tone adjusts emotional delivery based on context, voice provides the stable identity that allows those shifts to feel intentional rather than inconsistent.

Brands that distinguish themselves through communication do so by maintaining this continuity, ensuring that language reflects values, audience relationships, and positioning in every channel. This consistency explains why some companies feel instantly recognisable while others sound interchangeable, even when delivering similar information.

Voice turns writing into presence. It creates familiarity, supports trust, and gives tone a framework within which to change without disrupting recognition. When audiences can sense who is speaking before analysing what is being said, voice is doing its work.