Does Android have a text to speech app?
Text to speech (TTS) apps allow digital text to be read aloud by a computerized voice. These apps take words on a screen and convert them into audible speech using synthesized voices. TTS apps are a form of assistive technology that can help people with reading difficulties, visual impairments, or other needs to access written information. With text to speech capabilities built into devices, web pages, e-books, and apps, digital text can be read aloud at the touch of a button. TTS apps open up a range of possibilities for listening to content instead of reading it.
Text to Speech on Android
Android does have built-in text-to-speech capability through the Google Text-to-Speech engine. This allows Android devices to read aloud text from apps, websites, e-books, documents, and more. The Google Text-to-Speech engine produces natural sounding speech and supports multiple languages. It comes pre-installed on most Android devices from the factory.
Some key features of the Google Text-to-Speech engine on Android include:
- Natural sounding voices
- Support for over 100 languages and accents
- Adjustable speech rate and pitch
- High quality audio output
- Seamless integration with Android apps
So in summary, the Google Text-to-Speech engine provides Android devices with robust text to speech capabilities out of the box. This allows for accessibility features as well as convenience factors like listening to web pages or e-books read aloud.
Google Text-to-Speech
Google Text-to-Speech is the main text to speech engine included on Android devices. It can convert text into high-quality synthesized speech in over 100 voices across 30 languages. Some key features of Google Text-to-Speech include:
- Natural-sounding voices – Google uses advanced deep learning models to produce human-like voices.
- Customizable speech rate and pitch – You can adjust the speed and tone to your preference.
- Offline support – Voices can be downloaded for use without an internet connection.
- Multiple languages – In addition to English, Google Text-to-Speech supports languages like Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and more.
- Accessibility features – Options like “Select to Speak” make Android devices usable for those with visual impairments.
Google Text-to-Speech settings can be adjusted in Android’s Accessibility settings. Users can select their preferred voice and language, as well as customize the speech rate and pitch. There are high-quality voices available like “en-US-Wavenet-D” that use Google’s most advanced deep learning models. The voice samples are generated using WaveNet, giving them more expressiveness and natural cadence.
Overall, Google Text-to-Speech allows Android users to convert text from apps, websites, and even the camera into natural sounding speech. It helps improve accessibility and productivity on Android devices.
Using Text to Speech on Android
Android devices come with built-in text-to-speech capabilities powered by Google Text-to-Speech. To enable text-to-speech on your Android device:
1. Open your device’s Settings app.
2. Select Accessibility and then Text-to-speech output.
3. Choose your preferred text-to-speech engine, language, speech rate, and pitch (Google Support).
4. Toggle on “Text-to-speech output” to enable it.
You can also use Select to Speak to read text aloud on your Android device. To enable this:
1. Open your device’s Settings app.
2. Tap Accessibility > Select to Speak.
3. Toggle on the “Select to Speak” switch (Lifewire).
Now you can highlight text in apps to have it read aloud. There are options to adjust speech rate and pitch in Settings.
Third Party Text to Speech Apps
In addition to Google’s own text-to-speech engine, there are several third party Android apps that offer text-to-speech capabilities with additional features. Some popular options include:
Voice Aloud Reader – This app allows you to import documents, web articles, and ebooks to read aloud. It includes natural sounding voices, customizable playback speed, and the ability to highlight text as it’s read. Voice Aloud Reader also lets you create audio files from text that can be shared or saved for offline use.
NaturalReader – NaturalReader converts text into spoken audio using advanced text-to-speech technology. It features natural sounding voices in many languages, the option to slow down or speed up playback, and tools to improve reading comprehension like highlighting words as they are read. You can import documents, webpages, and ebooks into the app.
Compared to Google’s basic text-to-speech engine, these third party apps provide more natural sounding voices and additional features like variable playback speed, text highlighting, and the ability to save generated audio files. However, Google’s text-to-speech may be simpler for basic use cases.
Customizing Text to Speech
Android allows users to customize the text to speech engine in several ways to optimize the experience for their needs. The main customizations that can be made are adjusting the speech speed, pitch, and selecting different voices.
The speech speed and pitch can be changed in the Text-to-speech output settings. Here users can drag the sliders to increase or decrease the values to find the optimal speed and pitch for understanding the audio playback 1. Faster speech speeds allow consuming more information rapidly, while slower speeds can aid comprehension. Adjusting pitch higher can help make robotic voices sound more natural, while lowering pitch can improve clarity.
Google Text-to-speech provides a variety of male and female voice options in different languages. Users can browse these voice options in the Text-to-speech output settings and select new voices to try out. Voices can be chosen based on language, gender, and quality preference 2. Finding a natural sounding voice with good pronunciation can greatly improve the experience.
Third party text to speech apps like NaturalReader provide even more voice customization options including celebrity voices. These apps give users more control in fine tuning the ideal voice output.
Overall, being able to customize speech speed, pitch, and voice selection allows users to tailor Android’s text to speech to best suit their needs and preferences.
Accessibility Uses
Text to speech is incredibly useful for assisting visually impaired users and people with reading disabilities. The built-in Android text to speech engines allow the device to read on-screen text aloud. This helps blind and low vision users access content on their device without needing to install separate screen reading software.
Android also includes numerous other accessibility features to aid disabled users, such as screen magnification, display color correction, and audible key press feedback. Users can customize text to speech settings like language, pitch, and speaking rate to best suit their needs. There are even specialty apps like Select to Speak that read aloud specifically selected text. Overall, Android’s robust accessibility tools, especially text to speech, empower users with disabilities to get the most out of their devices.
Additional Features
Android’s native text-to-speech engine includes some handy additional features beyond just reading text aloud. For example, you can have it read notifications aloud so you can listen to them rather than having to look at your phone’s screen (source: https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6006983?hl=en). This can be useful while driving or when your hands are full.
Another useful feature is the ability to have web pages read aloud in a more natural way. Rather than just reading the raw HTML, Google Text-to-Speech can parse the content and read it in a smoother way (source: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/android-talks-back-4-voice-apps-for-text-to-speech/). This makes it possible to listen to articles or other web content without having to only hear a robotic, stilted reading.
Some Android text-to-speech engines like Voice Aloud Reader also offer the ability to read EPUB ebooks aloud (source: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/android-talks-back-4-voice-apps-for-text-to-speech/). This provides another hands-free way to enjoy books on your device.
Overall, Android’s text-to-speech capabilities go beyond just reading text aloud, with handy features for listening to notifications, web content, and ebooks.
Limitations
Android’s built-in text-to-speech engine does have some limitations users should be aware of. According to the Google Cloud Text-to-Speech documentation, there is a limit of 5,000 characters per speech synthesis request. If a text input exceeds this limit, it will fail to convert to speech. There are also reports that in practice, the system struggles with inputs over 4,000 characters.
Another common complaint is around unnatural pronunciations, especially for names or uncommon words. The quality and naturalness can vary significantly by language as well. Additionally, Android’s text-to-speech requires an internet connection to function, so it won’t work offline.
While native support has improved, some users still prefer third-party text-to-speech engines that may offer higher quality voices, better pronunciation, and expanded language support. However, these external options come with their own limitations, like purchase costs, data privacy concerns, and app stability issues.
Conclusion
Android does have robust built-in text to speech capabilities thanks to Google Text-to-Speech. The Google Text-to-Speech engine allows any text on an Android device to be read aloud in a variety of natural sounding voices. This is useful for accessibility, allowing vision impaired users to have content read to them. It also enables hands-free use for tasks like listening to emails while driving.
In addition to the built-in Google Text-to-Speech engine, there are many high quality third party text to speech apps available on the Google Play Store. These apps allow for advanced customization and additional voices. Overall, the text to speech functionality on Android is very versatile and can enhance productivity and accessibility for many users.
