ResponsiveVoice Text To Speech API

Include the JS file in your page

<script src="https://code.responsivevoaice.org/responsivevoice.js?key=YOUR_UNIQUE_KEY"></script>

speak(string text, [string voice], [object parameters])

Starts speaking the text in a given voice.
Parameters
text: String
The text to be spoken.
voice: String
Defaults to “UK English Female”. Choose from the available ResponsiveVoices.
parameters: Object
Used to add optional pitch (range 0 to 2), rate (range 0 to 1.5), volume (range 0 to 1) and callbacks.
Pitch, rate and volume may not affect audio on some browser combinations, older versions of Chrome on Windows for example.

responsiveVoice.speak("hello world");

responsiveVoice.speak("hello world", "UK English Male");

responsiveVoice.speak("hello world", "UK English Male", {pitch: 2});

responsiveVoice.speak("hello world", "UK English Male", {rate: 1.5});

responsiveVoice.speak("hello world", "UK English Male", {volume: 1});

responsiveVoice.speak("hello world", "UK English Male", {onstart: StartCallback, onend: EndCallback});

Speak a specified element on the page:

responsiveVoice.speak(document.getElementById("article-container").textContent);

cancel()

Stops playing the speech.

responsiveVoice.cancel();

voiceSupport()

Checks if browser supports native TTS

if(responsiveVoice.voiceSupport()) {
  responsiveVoice.speak("hello world");
}

Returns: true/false

getVoices()

var voicelist = responsiveVoice.getVoices();

Returns: a list of available voices

setDefaultVoice(string voice)

Allows setting a default voice, which will be used by responsiveVoice.speak whenever a voice is not specified as a parameter.

responsiveVoice.setDefaultVoice("US English Female");

setDefaultRate(number rate)

Allows setting a default rate of speech, which will be used by responsiveVoice.speak whenever rate is not included in the parameters. The rate parameter must be > 0 and <= 1.5
Please note this might not work with all voices, as certain voices don’t support variable rate of speech.

responsiveVoice.setDefaultRate(0.5);

isPlaying()

Detects if native TTS or TTS audio element is producing output.

if(responsiveVoice.isPlaying()) {
  console.log("I hope you are listening");
}

Returns: true/false

pause() and resume()

Pauses/Resumes speech

responsiveVoice.pause();

responsiveVoice.resume();

setTextReplacements(Array replacements)

Replaces selected words or expressions in the text. Useful for specifying pronunciation variations for different voices.

responsiveVoice.setTextReplacements expects an array of objects where each object is a replacement. The replacement object has the following parameters:

searchvalue: (required) text to be replaced. Regular expressions are supported.
newvalue: (required) replacement text.
collectionvoices: (optional) Voice name (from ResponsiveVoice collection) for which the replacement will be applied. Can be a unique name or an array of names.
systemvoices: (optional) Voice name (from System voices collection) for which the replacement will be applied. Can be a unique name or an array of names.

Examples

Replace “human” with “robot”. It will be replaced for any voice selected.

responsiveVoice.setTextReplacements([{
    searchvalue: "human",
    newvalue: "robot"
}]);

Replace “human” with “robot” and “dog” with “cat”.

responsiveVoice.setTextReplacements([
    {
        searchvalue: "human",
        newvalue: "robot"
    },
    {
        searchvalue: "dog",
        newvalue: "cat"
    }
]);

Replace “human” with “robot” only for “Google UK English Female” voice in responsiveVoice.voicecollection.

responsiveVoice.setTextReplacements([{
    searchvalue: "human",
    newvalue: "robot",
    collectionvoices: "Google UK English Female"
}]);

Replace “human” with “robot” for “de-DE” and “fr-FR” system voices. These correspond to german and french on iOS devices.

responsiveVoice.setTextReplacements([{
    searchvalue: "human",
    newvalue: "robot",
    systemvoices: ["de-DE", "fr-FR"]
}]);

Replace any combination of numbers with the word “numbers”.

responsiveVoice.setTextReplacements([{
    searchvalue: /[0-9]+/g,
    newvalue: "numbers"
}]);

enableWindowClickHook()

On some devices, such as mobile, browsers prevent audio from being played without a user gesture. ResponsiveVoice can listen for a click on the window and take it as the user gesture required by the browser. This will grant ResponsiveVoice permission to play any audio from that moment on.

Note: This click hook is automatically enabled on mobile devices.

responsiveVoice.enableWindowClickHook();

Alternatively, in the case that listening for a click on the window is not possible, responsiveVoice.clickEvent() can be called directly from any user gesture and it will grant ResponsiveVoice the required permission.

responsiveVoice.clickEvent();

enableEstimationTimeout

Sometimes performance can have an impact on the TTS engine, causing unexpected behaviors when the system load is high. ResponsiveVoice uses a timeout as a fallback mechanism so the onstart and onend events will be triggered normally even if the TTS engine didn’t respond to the speak request. This is specially useful for a multiple phrase setup such as a dialog where the next phrase needs to be played after the current one.

Note: enableEstimationTimeout is enabled by default.

We recommend to disable this feature for non-latin character languages. It can be disabled by setting the parameter as false:

responsiveVoice.enableEstimationTimeout = false;