Text to speech (TTS) solutions have become an indispensable piece of assistive technology, helping countless PC users interact with the written word, be it for pleasure, school, or work.
As you can imagine, the TTS market is somewhat saturated, with dozens of apps and browser extensions to choose from. Most of them are quite helpful, and they will do wonders for your productivity and give you a more user-friendly experience. Today, we’ll focus on Microsoft’s TTS solution — Azure.
What is Microsoft text to speech?
What is Azure, then? To answer that question, we can pose another: Do you want the power to create content with natural-sounding voiceovers or listen to your favorite pages narrated to you, with a bunch of customizable parameters that will let you adjust speech rate, tones, pronunciation, and everything else? Microsoft Azure lets you do all that — and more.
Azure is a cloud platform brimming with potential. In addition to Azure cognitive services that provide fantastic text to speech and speech-to-text solutions, you can make use of Azure cloud storage and analytics to take your productivity even further without the need to master any complicated machine learning.
Being compatible with various open-source solutions, Azure is also rather flexible. Incorporating voiceovers into custom-built apps and allowing your target audience to reap the benefits of deep machine learning has never been easier, especially with over one hundred languages and language variants Azure will put at your disposal.
How to use Microsoft’s text to speech app on your iPhone or computer
Setting Microsoft Azure up on your device is pretty straightforward, and all it takes is a few clicks to sign up at the official Azure website. However, if your computer usage does not extend beyond the likes of Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Docs, and OneNote, you won’t have to download anything because those programs come with a built-in speech synthesis solution called Speak.
While it might not be a high-quality speech service, Speak comes in handy when you’re in a pinch, and it’s super easy to configure:
- Click on the Customize Toolbar option, click
- Select the More Commands options
- Click on All Commands
- Find Speak, click on it, and then click Add
Alternatives to Microsoft’s text to speech application
As we’ve mentioned in the intro, text readers are a-plenty, ranging from professional apps that will blow your mind just with their pricing to barely finished speech recognition SDKs on GitHub. If Microsoft’s text to speech voice assistant does not sound like your cup of tea, or if you’re looking for some variety, we’ve got a few alternatives that will surely tickle your fancy.
Speechify
Coming in at #1 is Speechify, the top-rated TTS tool that will turn virtually anything into an audio file, including web pages, Google Docs, research articles, and even written notes or photos through its OCR feature. Its offers mobile apps for iOS and Android, a Web app, a Mac app, a Chrome Extension and a text to speech API.
Additionally, Speechify gives users a choice of over 1,000 lifelike and emotional AI voices across 60+ languages, including celebrity voices. Couple that with great text to speech API capabilities, and you’ve got a versatile solution that will accommodate all your needs and use cases.
Amazon Polly
At #2, we’ve got Amazon Polly, a fantastic solution famous for its natural-sounding voices and plenty of speaking styles. It supports multiple languages, and its neural text to speech tech will give you plenty of customizable settings to play with whenever you want to add spice to your already authentic-sounding playbacks.
Google Cloud Text to Speech
At #3, there’s Google’s Cloud Text to Speech. Naturally, wherever there’s tech progress to be made, Google will be there, and the TTS realm is no exception. Google’s solution is all about speech synthesis markup language (SSML), and it works on a pay-per-character basis, so it’s both a useful and affordable choice if you’re working on a one-time project.
IBM Watson Text to Speech
IBM Watson takes the #4 spot. What sets Watson apart from the competition is its versatility in corporate environments. Namely, you can use it as a virtual assistant or a customer support tool and a text to speech solution. What’s more, it’s super affordable, so you won’t get a better deal elsewhere if you’re looking for something flexible.
Readspeaker
At #5, we’ve got one of the veterans — Readspeaker. With about a quarter of a century worth of experience, Readpseaker has got TTS down to fine art. It supports over one hundred languages, and it’s fantastic for speech studios and e-learning as it can work both online and offline.
NaturalReader
#6 is NaturalReader. This app does a great job with real-time synthesized speech, and it works with pretty much all apps you’re gonna be using on your PC. But, what earned NaturalReader a place on our list is its so-called reader mode that will purge your text of all unnecessary fluff, for example, advertisements.
VoiceDream Reader
At #7, we’ve got VoiceDream Reader, our last Microsoft Azure text to speech alternative for today. Unfortunately, while VoiceDream Reader is good for some simpler tasks, lots of users complain about a lack of accessibility and poor syncing options. But, if you need a quick solution and don’t care about the most advanced neural TTS and end-to-end tech, VoiceDream will do a decent enough job.
FAQ
Is Windows 10 TTS free?
There are plenty of TTS solutions for Windows 10. Some of them are free, while others are not. The built-in Speak option that comes with Windows 10 and works in programs such as Outlook and Word is free, but more sophisticated solutions with custom neural voice options and other features, such as Microsoft Azure, require a subscription.
What is the most realistic TTS voice?
The most realistic TTS AI voices are typical of more advanced TTS tools such as Amazon Polly, Google Text to Speech API and Speechify. The levels of realism will depend on the language, the speech model, and the parameters of your choice.
What is the difference between Text to Speech and Voice Recognition?
While a lot of TTS programs offer both text to speech and voice recognition options, it is important not to confuse the two. Text to speech options will turn textual input into audio format, helping you engage with the text while you complete other tasks. Voice recognition, on the other, refers to an analysis of the human voice, either for the purposes of interpreting or identifying them.
