You do not like the voice that your mobile has when reading the texts of the applications? Well, we will tell you how to make the voice of Google assistant read them instead of the phone’s TTS engine: thanks to Google Cloud you can access the vocal interpretation of the attendees.
Applications such as eBooks introduce text-to-speech functions, a way to listen to the text read on the phone. The problem is that the so-called TTS (Text to Speech) is usually robotic, something that is quite annoying. But there is a TTS system that stands out for its quality and that, on the contrary, is not very accessible: Google Assistant voice. The good news is that it can be used in any app using Google Cloud.
Make Google Assistant read any text using TTS
The text-to-speech or TTS system is built into all Android devices so that applications can read the instructions generated in the code aloud. Map apps can anticipate the next highway exit in audio, for example; or electronic book applications allow the user to listen to the texts so that they do not have to look at the book. The possibilities are vast.
Despite the fact that TTS services make written words much more accessible, they have a drawback: the system that articulates the robotic voices is usually such that thus, robotic. And, given that Google’s voices are among the most advanced and natural, having the option of making use of Assistant’s TTS means a huge leap in voice quality, understanding and naturalness. The improvement is noticeable.
Although it is possible to apply the TTS of Google Assistant to applications such as Moon Reader + (the app that we have used as a test), the way to achieve it is not easy since you have to use a Google Cloud API. This has the following drawbacks:
- Google Cloud is a paid service with a free usage amount. To use the TTS of Assistant you have to get a Cloud Text-to-speech API, as if we were to create an application. The service offers 1 million characters dictated per month (in its ‘Wavenet’ version, the highest quality). Be very careful not to overuse it.
- It is essential to have an Internet connection while using the TTS. Google offers access to the Assistant TTS for live consultations, it is not possible to download the engine to the phone.
Using the Google Assistant voices is a huge leap in the experience listening to a book, the instructions of a route or any other text that the phone has to read, but It is not something easy to achieve or 100% recommended. Since the number of queries is limited you have to keep abreast of what is being consumed. Furthermore, the use of Google Cloud is somewhat cumbersome as it is intended to give access to developers, not end users.
How to change phone voices to Google Assistant
Once the main drawbacks have been seen, let’s see how the desired Google TTS can be achieved. The company offers two types through Cloud: the standard or typical Android robotic voice (with 4 million free characters read per month) and the own Assistant or Wavenet voice, the highest quality (1 million free characters read per month). The app that gives access to the voices is aiTTS.
The aiTTS application that we recommend is developed by Milmike and can be downloaded from his blog. It is 100% safe (we have verified it with Virus Total) and enables access to the Cloud Text-to-speech API so that it can be selected from the Android settings. Let’s see the process.
- The first thing is to download the APK of aiTTS. Down it from the Milmike page and install it on your Android.
- Play the hardest part: get the Cloud Text-to-speech API key. You need your Google account to have a valid payment method other than PayPal.
- Go to this page and enable Google Cloud for your Google account. Accept the conditions.
- Once you have Google Cloud active in your account, it is time to access the API. Go to this link.
- Click on ‘Enable’. Google Cloud will activate the API for your account.
- Once the API is active, go to the ‘Credentials’ section.
- You will see that in ‘API keys‘the one you just created appears. Click on the copy icon and send the copied to the phone (by WhatsApp, Telegram …).
- Open the aiTTS application on your Android and paste the API key that you copied from Google Cloud.
- If the password is correct you will be able to select the voice of Google. Find your preferred language and choose the Wavenet option from the dropdown. For example, in Spanish from Spain, only the male voice of Google Assistant is available.
- Now you just have to select aiTTS as the default voice engine on your Android mobile. Go to the phone settings.
- Go to the options’Language and text input‘. The specific option varies depending on the brand of the device.
- Find the menu for ‘Speech Synthesis’, ‘Text to Speak’ or ‘TTS’.
- Go to ‘Preferred Engine’ and select aiTTS. Ready.
It is not a very simple process and involves the risk of using a payment service such as Google Cloud, you must take it into account before starting it. You also have to watch that the use of characters do not exceed the free range that Google offers with the Cloud API: access this page to check the statistics. The first million words per month is free, then it costs about 13 euros per million. And if you want to cancel the service you must close the billing from here.
Via | Reddit
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The news
How to use Google Assistant voice in other apps that use text-to-speech services (TTS)
was originally published in
Xataka Android
by
Ivan Linares
.
