Amazon’s been knocking it out of the park with Amazon Polly and speech synthesis features, but what about text to speech on Fire Tablets?

Does Kindle Fire HD 10 have text to speech?

Kindle’s been around for more than a decade, and there are plenty of models to choose from, depending on your budget and needs. Of course, since each new iteration of the most famous e-reader comes with new features, it’s understandable that you’re wondering what each of them brings to the table. 

Today, we’re taking a look at the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 10 and its text to speech (TTS) features. To put your worries to rest from the get-go, we’ll say that Amazon’s Fire HD 10 does have TTS features, just like other Kindle devices like the Amazon Fire HD 8 or the Kindle Paperwhite. In fact, the Fire HD 10 has both a built-in TTS functionality as well as third-party support.

Before we dig deeper into TTS and all its benefits, let’s take a stroll down Kindle lane and see what other models have similar accessibility features.

What Kindle devices have text to speech?

As we’ve said, Amazon Kindle devices have been around for more than a decade. More precisely, the first Kindle device saw the light of day back in 2007. Yep, it’s been that long. 

It will come as no surprise, then, when we say that most Kindle readers don’t have the kind of TTS support that you’re probably thinking about (i.e., first-party TTS). However, most does not mean none at all, and if you have any of the more sophisticated Kindle devices, you might be in luck.

Kindle devices with text to speech features include:

• Kindle HD/HDx
• Kindle Fire HD/HDx
• Kindle 2
• Kindle Fire 2
• Kindle DX
• Kindle Touch
• Kindle Keyboard
• Kindle Phone

When it comes to other (older) Kindle devices, we’re sad to say that they don’t come with built-in TTS functionalities you can turn on and off at your leisure. However, there’s always VoiceView, Amazon’s solution for those who don’t have Fire models.

Essentially, VoiceView is a TTS option you can turn on in the settings menu and use to connect your Kindle to another device via Bluetooth or WiFi and have external speakers do the job.

It bears mentioning that VoiceView is first and foremost a solution for those with reading difficulties. It will read the text, turn the pages, and do everything to make your reading experience as smooth as possible. It’s customizable to a degree, letting you change speech rates.

How to enable text to speech on Kindle

Okay, so you’re lucky enough and have one (or some) of the devices we’ve listed above. But how do you turn TTS on?

It’s simple! Simply follow the steps below:

• Open the book you wanna read.
• Tap on the screen and then on the menu button in the upper-right corner.
• Tap on the more button.
• Tap on the text-to-speech option to switch it on.

Once you’re back in the book, tap on the screen again to make the progress bar pop up. Then, just press the new play button and enjoy the show!

Benefits of text to speech

Nw you’ve got TTS enabled on your Kindle Fire tablet, and it’s all working fine.

So, what is the point? What’s the deal with text to speech, and what good does it do? 

Text to speech actually has plenty of benefits and lots of uses, and not just among avid readers. TTS can be a great e-learning tool, for example, and it’s become one of the most popular methods of introducing students of foreign languages to additional audio input. 

But let’s focus on e-book readers. 

First, with playback options through TTS, you’ll be able to read anywhere. Can’t you already do that with an Amazon Fire tablet, you ask? Well, yes, but you can’t multitask, and you can’t keep your eyes on the book when you’re driving or going grocery shopping. That would be impractical and illegal. Therefore, a separate TTS app can help you listen to text hands-free.

Also, if you have poor eyesight or suffer from some kind of reading difficulty like dyslexia, you can just turn on the TTS options and enjoy your favorite book without straining your eyes too much. While Audible does exist as an audiobook service, it doesn’t have audiobook versions of all books out there.

Love text to speech? Use it for other documents with Speechify

Are you sold on text to speech yet? The good news is that you don’t have to stop at your Amazon Kindle Fire because TTS is usable with virtually all desktop and mobile devices with Speechify.

PC, Mac, iPad, Android, iOS, Samsung, iPhone, it doesn’t matte —Speechify works seamlessly on all platforms. It will read all your personal documents, your e-mails, favorite web pages, custom text files, and even your book scans.

The coolest part? Speechify offers lots of customizable options, so you can choose male and female voices, pick various accents, choose from over a dozen different languages, and play around with a bunch of additional settings that will help you feel like you’re listening to a professionally made audiobook with natural-sounding voices.

Head over to Google Play Store or the Apple Store and download Speechify today. If you’re a desktop user, there are even web browser extension versions that work without additional downloads and any extra hassle.

Conclusion

The takeaway? In short, while Kindle book readers might offer some decent TTS functionality, it’s much more advisable to go for a third-party solution that will let you enjoy all the benefits of the Kindle app and more.

For this, we recommend Speechify. In addition to being a more versatile screen reader available on way more devices, it’s also more pleasurable to listen to and offers way more adjustable customization options for narration. Simply put, Speechify has more voice options, they all sound natural, and you can fine-tune everything to make the audiobook or podcast of your dreams in a few simple clicks.