Text-to-Speech

Hi,

it seems that text-to-speech (ttf) is no longer part of LineageOS (and iodé). As a result, voice messages do not work when using e,g, OsmAnd for navigation. Is there a chance to add a useful ttf engine to iodé?

Thanks & Regards
Tom

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Hi,
We have looked text-to-speech alternatives in the past but haven’t found any satisfying ones to integrate into iodé.
Suggestions are welcome if anyone has one alternative to share with us

Regards,

Hi Antoine

the best suggestion I found so far, is Vocalizer from CodeFactory.
https://codefactoryglobal.com/app-store/vocalizer-expressive-android

Under the following URL you can get an impression of the quality of Vocalizer:
https://codefactoryglobal.com/speech-technology

Unfortunately, I was not able to successfully install it, so far.

Regards
Tom

eSpeak App Screenshots

App eSpeak version 1.51 dev works on all devices with DivestOS 18.1 (an unofficial soft fork of LineageOS 18.1).

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I downloaded it but I was not able to install voice files from the SD. Whenever I try, it just does nothing.

For successful remote help, it always makes sense to specify device and OS version.

I’ve now installed eSpeak on a Galaxy S9 ‘starlte’ with iode-2.1-20210828 as the system app. The typed text is spoken with the system language. Setting the voice, male, female, other language, etc. -it works.

Sorry, you are absolutely right. I am on a FP3 with iode-2.1-20210828. I have installed eSpeak from f-droid. I got the voices from mbrola. I downloaded all 7 de-packages and put them into the root directory of the SD-card because when I open the eSpeak app I can only choose to install it from SD-card. There is a drop-down arrow next to the choice “Import from SD-card” but when I click on it, it does nothing. When I click OK, the dialog closes and nothing seems to happen. I can set voices now inside eSpeak’s settings. When I type some text I can hear a very strange voice (sounds like from science-fiction films of the 80’s) speaking the text, but choosing another voice does not yield any effect. From the system settings I can only get a voice when I set the language explicitely to german, system language greys out the button for testing. If I however choose german explicitely, I get the same science-fiction voice that I get inside eSpeak’s settings.

I just started using iode 3-20221014 on a Galaxy S10e (SM-G970F) and ran into the same issue.
I found the following workaround, that worked for me, on github:

  1. install espeak
  2. check that app displays that 0 voices installed
  3. select espeak as the tts in android settings
  4. somehow send text to espeak
  5. now app should display that 131 or so voices is available
  6. stop espeak app or reboot the phone

@dagerba

Thanks a lot. I just followed your instructions on my S9 and it works :+1:. There were just a few minor deviations from your steps, that I had to follow:

  1. see above
  2. see above
  3. In eSpeak open settings > general tts settings, go to preferred modul and tap on eSpeak, regardless if it appears to be already selected or not.
  4. This causes eSpeak to load the missing voices.
  5. In eSpeak enter some text in the field of text to be spoken and click on “speak”. Rebooting was not required for me.

Regards
Tom

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Thank you @dagerba and @Tom !
With your instructions, I could install espeak.

But espeak voices are not natural at all. At least in french.

My previous phone (Sony-Erricson Xperia Active under an alternative ROM called SuperJellyBean 8.0 that was based on Android 4.1.2) had no TTS.
On the Google Play store, I bought a TTS engine + voice called Suzanne TTS. I was happy with it. It worked well.

On my new phone (Samsung S10e SM-G970F with Iodé OS 3.5-20230131), I imported the Suzanne TTS_4.0.1.apk from the old phone. I tried to open the Suzane TTS app, but it displayed a message : “utilisateur non autorisé” (“Unauthorized user”). If I select Suzanne TTS as the TTS engine in the preferences, I have no voice output.

I guess that it is a matter of licence transfer from the old phone.
Is there any way to activate this app, that I bought in the past ?

Hi @Cobus ,
the voices in espeak really sound like robots in 80s science fiction movies. But I luckily can just ignore that.

For your problem with the app you bought on Google Play I don’t have a solution, but a guess: in Aurora Store you can use your Goole Account - if you don’t care about privacy issues. Using the account you bought Suzanne TTS with, should allow you to install it from there. Thins could possibly solve the license problem.

I personally prefer 80s robots over sharing my data with google, but at least you have the choice, thanks to iode.

I wish you luck!

Thank you for your advice @dagerba !
Like you, I prefer 80s robots over sharing my data with Google.
Too bad I cannot reuse my licence without Google.
C’est la vie !

Maybe this is interesting:
https://github.com/coqui-ai/STT
https://stt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Kind regards.

@Guillermo : Speech-To-Text, another feature that I miss a lot in Iodé !
Thank you for your discovery. It deserves a dedicated STT thread.
As far as I understand it, Coqui and Whisper both need Python.
It may be of use to Iodé programers, but is beyond my skills.
Most of us need a ready to use APK.

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Hi Tom,

The absence of text-to-speech (TTS) in LineageOS and iodé impacts functionalities like voice messages in apps such as OsmAnd for navigation. To address this, exploring the addition of a functional TTS engine to iodé might resolve the issue with AI Text to Speech.

Best regards,
Khushi

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