How to convert text to speech on Android

Why there are two ways to do this

Android already has a text-to-speech engine, chosen in the phone’s settings. That engine can speak inside an app right away. A second option is a voice pack stored in the app, which is useful when you want a specific natural voice or you need speech that still works with no connection.

Text to Speech, the Android app from PubNexus, exposes both. You do not create an account. The home screen is an editor: type, paste, speak, and optionally save.

Convert text in the app

1. Install Text to Speech on a phone running Android 8.0 or later.
2. Open the app and type, or tap Paste to bring in text you copied elsewhere.
3. Stay under 5,000 characters. The editor stops there and shows the count.
4. Leave the System voice selected to hear the phone’s own engine, or open Voices and download Natural Voices.
5. Set speed anywhere from 0.5× to 2×. For the clearest sound, turn Best quality on so speed and pitch stay at 1.0×.
6. Tap Speak. Tap Stop if you want to end playback.
7. Tap Save if you want a WAV and an MP3 kept in History.

The app splits long text into sentence-sized pieces and does not cut in the middle of a word. A period, question mark, or paragraph break is a natural place for a pause.

Use the voice already on the phone

A System voice in the app is the engine selected in Android. The menu names differ by phone, but the usual path is Settings, then Accessibility, then Text-to-speech output. There you pick the engine, the language, the rate, and the pitch.

If a language sounds missing, install voice data for that language from the same screen. The app cannot invent a system language your phone does not have. Once the language is installed, come back and tap Speak again.

Some system engines download speech or use an online voice. If you need the result to work with no network, use offline text to speech and a Natural Voices pack instead.

Tips that make the speech easier to follow

• Write in sentences. A wall of text with no punctuation gives the voice fewer places to breathe.
• Match the voice to the language. An English natural voice will not read Hindi properly, and a Hindi voice is the wrong tool for an English paragraph.
• Preview a natural voice in the Voices tab before you generate a long clip.
• If you only need to hear something once, skip the download and use the System voice.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for a download when a System voice would already speak. The first playback does not require Natural Voices.
• Pasting a whole document. Anything past 5,000 characters is not kept. Split it and save more than one clip.
• Expecting the app to open a PDF, a photo, or a web page. You copy the text in, then the app speaks that text.
• Changing pitch on a natural voice. Pitch moves only for System voices. Natural Voices stay at a natural pitch.

How Text to Speech fits this job

The app is a focused converter: text in, speech out, with an optional file at the end. It is a good fit when the words are already copied and you want them spoken on the phone, saved as audio, or replayed from History. It is a poor fit when you need a document reader that imports PDF or EPUB files.

Related guides

• Use text to speech offline
• Save the result as an MP3
• Change the speaking speed

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