How to use language voices for text-to-speech on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, iOS, and in the Speak News app

— by Imaja - Greg Jalbert, www.imaja.com

Learn how to access voices for text-to-speech in different languages on iPhone and iPad and in the Speak News app in this article.

Sometimes, one needs to use different languages in text-to-speech on the iPhone or iPad. The iOS system comes with numerous built-in voices that can be enabled for text-to-speech. Higher quality, enhanced voices can be downloaded in the iPhone or iPad Settings app.

iOS 11 on iPhone and iPad comes with about 90 voices for about 25 languages from various regions. See Voices available for text-to-speech on iOS 11

Here is a step-by-step walkthrough on enabling voices for other text-to-speech languages.

Open the Settings app on the device (iPhone or iPad).

Tap General in the Settings view.

Tap Accessibility in the General view.

Tap Speech in the Accessibility view.

Tap Voices in the Speech view.

For this example, tap Chinese in the Voices view.

Tap a voice to see the details.

If an enhanced voice needs to be downloaded, tap the download button with the cloud icon to start downloading the enhanced voice.

Enabling language voices in the Speak News app

Speak News is an RSS news feed reader with text-to-speech for iPhone and iPad. (More information about Speak News).

To enable text-to-speech voices for other languages in the Speak News app, tap the Settings button with the gear icon.

The Speak News Settings view appears.

Scroll down and tap to open Voice Library Configuration in the Speech Behavior section.

In the Voice Library Configuration view, enable the voices you wish to use in the Speak News app.

The set of selected voices that are in the appropriate language will be used for stories of a given language. Each story will be read in the next appropriate language from the voice library. If a story contains multiple languages, the dominant language is used to select an appropriate voice.

Tap Edit in the Voice Library view to change the order of voices in the library. Drag items using the drag control on the right side of each item in the table.

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Voices available for text-to-speech on iOS 11

These are the voices available on iOS 11, including the language and region of the voice.

Maged, Arabic (Saudi Arabia), ar-SA
Zuzana, Czech (Czechia), cs-CZ
Sara, Danish (Denmark), da-DK
Anna, German (Germany), de-DE
Helena, German (Germany), de-DE
Markus, German (Germany), de-DE
Markus (Enhanced), German (Germany), de-DE
Martin, German (Germany), de-DE
Melina, Greek (Greece), el-GR
Catherine, English (Australia), en-AU
Gordon, English (Australia), en-AU
Karen, English (Australia), en-AU
Karen (Enhanced), English (Australia), en-AU
Lee, English (Australia), en-AU
Lee (Enhanced), English (Australia), en-AU
Arthur, English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Daniel, English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Daniel (Enhanced), English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Kate, English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Kate (Enhanced), English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Martha, English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Oliver, English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Oliver (Enhanced), English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Serena, English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Serena (Enhanced), English (United Kingdom), en-GB
Moira, English (Ireland), en-IE
Moira (Enhanced), English (Ireland), en-IE
Aaron, English (United States), en-US
Alex, English (United States), en-US
Allison, English (United States), en-US
Allison (Enhanced), English (United States), en-US
Ava, English (United States), en-US
Ava (Enhanced), English (United States), en-US
Fred, English (United States), en-US
Nicky, English (United States), en-US
Samantha, English (United States), en-US
Samantha (Enhanced), English (United States), en-US
Susan, English (United States), en-US
Susan (Enhanced), English (United States), en-US
Tom, English (United States), en-US
Tom (Enhanced), English (United States), en-US
Victoria, English (United States), en-US
Tessa, English (South Africa), en-ZA
Tessa (Enhanced), English (South Africa), en-ZA
Monica, Spanish (Spain), es-ES
Paulina, Spanish (Mexico), es-MX
Satu, Finnish (Finland), fi-FI
Amelie, French (Canada), fr-CA
Chantal, French (Canada), fr-CA
Chantal (Enhanced), French (Canada), fr-CA
Nicolas, French (Canada), fr-CA
Nicolas (Enhanced), French (Canada), fr-CA
Aurelie, French (France), fr-FR
Aurelie (Enhanced), French (France), fr-FR
Daniel, French (France), fr-FR
Marie, French (France), fr-FR
Thomas, French (France), fr-FR
Carmit, Hebrew (Israel), he-IL
Lekha, Hindi (India), hi-IN
Mariska, Hungarian (Hungary), hu-HU
Damayanti, Indonesian (Indonesia), id-ID
Alice, Italian (Italy), it-IT
Hattori, Japanese (Japan), ja-JP
Kyoko, Japanese (Japan), ja-JP
O-ren, Japanese (Japan), ja-JP
Yuna, Korean (South Korea), ko-KR
Ellen, Dutch (Belgium), nl-BE
Xander, Dutch (Netherlands), nl-NL
Nora, Norwegian (Norway), no-NO
Zosia, Polish (Poland), pl-PL
Felipe, Portuguese (Brazil), pt-BR
Felipe (Enhanced), Portuguese (Brazil), pt-BR
Luciana, Portuguese (Brazil), pt-BR
Luciana (Enhanced), Portuguese (Brazil), pt-BR
Catarina, Portuguese (Portugal), pt-PT
Catarina (Enhanced), Portuguese (Portugal), pt-PT
Joana, Portuguese (Portugal), pt-PT
Joaquim, Portuguese (Portugal), pt-PT
Joaquim (Enhanced), Portuguese (Portugal), pt-PT
Ioana, Romanian (Romania), ro-RO
Milena, Russian (Russia), ru-RU
Laura, Slovak (Slovakia), sk-SK
Alva, Swedish (Sweden), sv-SE
Kanya, Thai (Thailand), th-TH
Yelda, Turkish (Turkey), tr-TR
Li-mu, Chinese (China), zh-CN
Ting-Ting, Chinese (China), zh-CN
Yu-shu, Chinese (China), zh-CN
Sin-Ji, Chinese (Hong Kong [China]), zh-HK
Mei-Jia, Chinese (Taiwan), zh-TW

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— Greg Jalbert is an app developer for Mac, iPhone, iPad, an artist, composer, musician, and graphic and web designer, the founder of Imaja, www.imaja.com, publisher of apps Speak News, Perspectiva, CalReader, TelepaText, TaskInsight, and more...

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