General Text To Speech Tips
Text To Speech (TTS) is a technology that converts text into natural-sounding speech. Our reminder service makes use of it. The words that you type into the Subject or Description fields will be spoken over the phone. The technology is very powerful, but it is unfamiliar to many people. Here are some tips to make it easier for you to utilize that power.
  1. Keep it "speakable"
    For phone numbers, insert dashs between groups of digits. Input "987-654-3210", not "9876543210." Otherwise it will be spoken as one big number. Don't insert periods. The text "9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1.0" would be spoken as "nine point eight point seven...".
    Some acronyms may be pronounced as words, making it difficult to understand them. We recommend that you insert spaces between each letter of an acronym.
  2. Add proper pauses
    All punctuation marks following will produce a pause in the speech, each for different amount of time. A period (.) creates a longer pause than a comma (,), which in turn creates a longer pauses than a semicolon (;).
  3. Use capital letters to create emphasis
    The simplest way to emphasize something is to use words written in capital letters. However, don't use capitals for all of your text, otherwise there will be no difference - no emphasis at all.
  4. Use short sentences
    The TTS engine may not produce the correct rhythm and tone for long sentences, but it works well for short sentences.
  5. Keep messages short
    The voice used is not the most soothing voice imaginable. Most listeners would rather not hear it speak for a long time, but it works well for conveying short messages.
  6. English only
    Right now our TTS system only supports English. In the future, we may support other languages.