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How to Use Google's Text-to-Speech Feature on Android

Search the Settings app for Select to Speak to read text aloud with Google's TTS feature

• How to Use Select to Speak
• Managing the Options
• Translating Text
• Frequently Asked Questions

What to Know

• Open the Settings app and go to Accessibility > Select to Speak .
• Tap the toggle to turn it on, then tap Allow or OK to confirm permissions.
• Open any app, tap the Select to Speak shortcut, then tap an item to read it aloud. Tap Stop to end playback.

This article explains how to use the Google text-to-speech feature on Android so that you can have texts read out loud. It includes information on managing the language and voice used for reading text aloud. Instructions apply to Android 7 and up.

How to Use Google Text-to-Speech on Android

Several accessibility features are built into Android. If you want to hear text read aloud to you, use Select to Speak.

Swipe down from the top of the phone, then tap the gear icon to open the Settings app.

Tap Accessibility .

Tap Select to Speak .

If you don't see Select to Speak , tap Installed services to find it.

Tap the Select to Speak toggle switch to turn it on. On some phones, this is called Select to Speak shortcut .

Tap Allow or OK to confirm the permissions your phone needs to turn on this feature.

Open any app and tap the Select to Speak icon from the side of the screen.

Tap the Play icon to have your phone read everything on the screen, starting at the top. If you only want some text read aloud, trigger Select to Speak by tapping the floating icon, then tap the text.

Tap the left arrow next to the Play button to see more playback options.

Tap Stop to end playback.

Use TalkBack on your Android if you want spoken feedback as you use your device.

How to Manage Android Text-to-Speech Voices and Options

Android gives you some control over the language and voice used to read text aloud via Select to Speak. It's easy to change the language, accent, pitch, or speed of the synthesized text voice.

Go to Settings > General management > Language and input . Or on some devices, Settings > Languages .

Tap Text-to-speech or Text-to-speech output .

In the menu that appears, adjust the Speech rate and Pitch until it sounds the way you want.

To change the language, tap Language , then choose the language you want to hear when text is read aloud.

Use Select to Speak With Google Lens to Translate Written Words

Another way you can use this text-to-speech functionality is while translating languages. Google Lens is great for this. Just point the camera at some text you don't understand and it'll be translated into your language. Select to Speak can then read that aloud.

To turn off text-to-speech, go to Settings > Accessibility > Select to Speak and tap the toggle switch to turn it Off .

The Android text-to-speech feature works in the Google Docs app, but on a computer, you must download the Screen Reader extension for Chrome . Then, go to Tools > Accessibility settings > Turn on Screen Reader Support > OK , highlight the text, and select Accessibility > Speak > Speak selection .

To use voice typing in Google Docs , place your cursor in the document where you want to begin typing, then select Tools > Voice Typing . Alternatively, you can also use a keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + S or Command + Shift + S .

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How to use Google Assistant voice typing with Gboard

Published on June 16, 2023

If you’ve got a Pixel 6 or later, one of the perks Google offers is dictation using Gboard and Google Assistant , a combo that enables more elaborate voice commands. Here’s how to enable and control Gboard voice typing, plus info on supported languages.

QUICK ANSWER

To enable Gboard voice typing, open any app you can type with, then tap in a field where you can enter text. At the top of the keyboard, tap Settings (the gear icon ), then Voice typing . Toggle Assistant voice typing if it's not on already. Whenever you want to use feature, tap and hold the keyboard's mic icon or say "Hey Google, type."

JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS

• How to turn on Google Assistant voice typing on a Pixel

How to use Assistant voice typing

Which languages does google assistant voice typing support, how to turn on google assistant voice typing on a pixel device.

In most cases the feature should be on by default, the exception being if you’ve installed multiple languages on your Pixel. In that situation you may need to switch to a supported language (see below) using the globe icon on your keyboard.

Regardless of how many languages you’re using, here’s how you can make sure Gboard voice typing is enabled:

• Open any app that supports typing, such as Messages.
• Tap on a field that supports text entry — this is just to pop up the keyboard.
• Towards the top of the keyboard, tap Settings (the gear icon ), then Voice typing .
• Toggle the Assistant voice typing switch if it isn’t already on.

Starting and stopping voice typing

Whenever the keyboard is active, start dictation by tapping and holding the mic icon or saying “Hey Google, type.” Double-tap the mic icon to keep listening for multiple messages. Either way, you’ll see a glowing mic icon when Assistant can hear you — say whatever it is you want to be typed.

When you’re done, tap the mic icon again or say “Stop.”

Using Assistant commands

The advantage of dictating with Assistant is that you can control it with voice commands while still entering text.

These are the most essential commands:

• “Delete last word.”
• “[Name] emoji.”
• “Clear” deletes the last sentence.
• “Clear all” starts dictation from scratch.
• “Next” moves to the next open field if you’re filling out a form.
• “Send” delivers a chat message.

Tap the Info ( question mark ) button during voice typing to learn other phrases.

Editing text

Google Assistant can make mistakes, just like humans. When you catch one, tap on the relevant word, then speak or type out what you meant to say. If a word is still being misinterpreted, you can spell it out or select onscreen suggestions.

Managing automatic punctuation

Normally, Assistant inserts punctuation itself based on the tone and cadence of your voice. If there are too many errors, you can turn this off through the keyboard’s Settings > Voice typing > Auto punctuation toggle and use typing to insert your own punctuation.

Per Google , you can only use Assistant voice typing in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, or Spanish. You’ll need to add one of these to Gboard , and make sure both your keyboard and the rest of Android are switched to the same language.

System Intelligence is both an app and a core component of Android. If you’re still using Android 12, you should upgrade to Android 13 or later if possible, or update System Intelligence through the Google Play Store.

You can only download these updates over Wi-Fi, so try connecting to a (trusted) Wi-Fi network before launching voice typing again.

Pocket-lint

How to access gemini live, google's new lifelike voice assistant.

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Key Takeaways

• Gemini Live is Google's new lifelike voice assistant, available to Android users with a Gemini Advanced subscription.
• You can access it through the Gemini app, and it's generally faster than text chat.
• It's not as useful as it could be because it doesn't currently connect to other Google services, but Gemini Live does bring Google closer to a true next-generation voice assistant.

Among the announcements Google packed into the official launch of the Pixel 9 , its demo of Gemini Live is by far the most impressive. Not just because it was a dramatic step up from the old days of call and response with Google Assistant , but also because the company decided to start rolling it out to customers the same day as the event. There's a good chance you can access Google's lifelike Gemini Live right now.

The company originally teased the new voice mode at Google I/O 2024 , as a similar, if less natural, answer to the updated voice mode OpenAI demoed earlier in 2024 . Right now, Gemini Live is dedicated to conversation , it doesn't provide visual answers, and it can't access other Google services like Gmail or YouTube Music in the same way that normal Gemini can. But it's pretty clear Google thinks it could be a hit, something you talk to with your Pixel Buds , or even from a new Nest speaker down the road.

Whether or not you'll find it useful requires trying it, and luckily Google has made it relatively simple to start talking to Gemini Live right now. Here's how to access Google's new voice assistant on your phone.

Gemini and Google Workspace can help you be more productive… most of the time

Google's Gemini is a pro at summarizing Google Docs and emails, but things get a little quirky when it comes to Sheets and other Workspace tools.

How to talk to Gemini Live

Sign up for gemini advanced.

Google's Gemini Live feature is currently available in English, and can only be used by anyone with an Android phone, the Gemini app, and a Gemini Advanced subscription. Gemini Advanced uses Google's more powerful and is designed to have a larger context window, meaning it can handle analyzing and working with larger quantities of data (the PDFs, images, and text you drag into its chat window).

Currently, the only way to subscribe to Gemini Advanced is through the Google One AI Premium plan, which costs $19.99 per month, and comes with other benefits like 2TB of storage and access to Gemini and other premium features in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Provided you already have a Google account, you can sign up for the Google One AI Premium plan online or in the Google One app on your Android phone.

Access voice chat through the Gemini app

Once you're subscribed, you can access Gemini Live inside the Gemini app. Here's how to use it:

• Download or open the Gemini app .
• Tap on the Gemini Live icon in the bottom right (a waveform with a sparkle) to start Gemini Live.
• Agree to Google's terms and conditions by tapping "Okay."
• Select a voice by swiping through Gemini Live's 10 options and start chatting.

You're able to ask Gemini questions like you normally would and can interrupt responses just by speaking or tapping the screen. Tapping on the red "X" at the bottom ends the Gemini Live chat and dumps you back into a Gemini text chat covering what you just talked about. Tapping the Hold button turns off your microphone in case you don't want Gemini to respond. If you can get comfortable interrupting some of Gemini's more verbose responses, Gemini Live can be quicker and easier than normal text chat.

Google has a glimmer of a next-generation voice assistant

It just needs to connect to more apps.

That doesn't mean Gemini Live is perfect. Even if it feels more natural to talk to, the information it provides isn't any less machine-generated to be inoffensive. The Gemini Live voices sound different, but there's no personality to contend with. For right now, that doesn't make it more useful than more general text-based chats, especially because Google hasn't added a way for Gemini Live to access or control other apps and services, unlike Gemini.

But in Google's hands, it suddenly feels like we're closer to the Siri or Google Assistant that were originally imagined. A computer interface that you can talk to normally to get things done. Whether or not Google ever fully gets there, Gemini Live makes it feel like it's possible.

If you'd prefer to use ChatGPT, the AI's existing Voice Mode is slower, but fairly similar to Gemini Live. And if you're an iPhone user, Pocket-lint's hands-on preview of Apple Intelligence has some good insights into how Apple is currently approaching AI.

Q: Will Gemini Live be available on iOS?

Yes. You can currently access Gemini through the Google app on iOS and, according to Google's blog announcing Gemini Live , "in the coming weeks [Gemini Live] will expand to iOS and more languages."

How to use Google text-to-speech on your Android phone to hear text instead of reading it

• You can use Google 's text-to-speech feature to do things like help you hear grammatical oddities in your text or documents.
• Before you can use it, however, you'll have to enable the feature on your phone.
• Here's what you need to do to enable and use Google   text-to-speech on your Android device.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

Speech-to-text is a popular productivity hack that many use to more quickly and easily create written sentences. 

Its counterpart, text-to-speech , can help with productivity too, albeit in a different way: By hearing the text read back to you in a robotic voice, you may be able to catch skipped words, grammar mistakes, and awkward phrasing.

Here's what you need to know to start using text-to-speech on your Android :

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Google pixel 3a (from $399.99 at best buy), how to enable google text-to-speech.

1. Go into your device's settings.

2. Tap "Accessibility."

3. Depending on your device, you may need to tap "Vision."

4. Choose "Select to speak."

5. Toggle the feature on and confirm by tapping "Ok" in the pop-up window.

Depending on your device, you will either see a circle pop-up with the text-to-speech icon, or it will appear in the lower-right corner of your screen.

How to use Google text-to-speech

Once you've set up the feature and you've navigated to a bit of text you want to have read back to you, here's what you'll need to do:

1. Tap the text-to-speech icon — you'll see a red stop button appear, with a greyed-out play button next to it.

2. Tap and select the speech you want read back to you. Drag your finger across the screen if there is more than one section, or press the play button to have everything on the screen read back to you, including button commands.

3. Tap the play button to begin the text-to-speech playback.

If you tap the carrot to the side of the icon, you'll also see the ability to pause the read-back, or go back or forward.

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What is Gemini Live? Google’s new AI voice chat tool explained

Google has announced the rollout of Gemini Live, a new voice chat tool enabling users to have human-like coversations with the new artificially intelligent assistant.

The new feature is rolling out today for people who subscribe to the Gemini Advanced tier, but Google also says it is trying to bring the new Gemini features to Pixel, Samsung, and other Android phones in the next few weeks.

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The Pixel Watch 2 is available at a huge £200 discount ahead of the launch of the Pixel Watch 3.

The feature was originally previewed at Google I/O in May and arrives in time to rival OpenAI’s controversial ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode .

During the Made by Google event, where the company is about to launch the Pixel 9 series of handsets , Google said Gemini Live will allow users to have in-depth conversations, as well as “emotionally expressive” voice chats on mobile devices.

Google even says it’ll be possible to interrupt Gemini in mid-flow to ask follow-up questions. The speech will quickly adapt to your interruptions.

“Gemini Live is a mobile conversational experience that lets you have free-flowing conversations with Gemini,” Google writes in a blog post .

“Want to brainstorm potential jobs that are well-suited to your skillset or degree? Go Live with Gemini and ask about them. You can even interrupt mid-response to dive deeper on a particular point, or pause a conversation and come back to it later. It’s like having a sidekick in your pocket who you can chat with about new ideas or practice with for an important conversation.”

Google says the feature will be available hands free, and you’ll also be able to keep chatting with Gemini when your phone is locked. So it’s a lot like a regular phone call in that respect. There are ten unique voices to choose from, with Google previewing them today during the Made by Google keynote.

Gemini Live will also be compatible with the Pixel Buds 2 , which are launching today too.

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Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He's based in South Florida, USA.  …

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How-To Geek

How to modify google text-to-speech voices.

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How to Get Google to Pay for Your Android Apps

How i made a minimalist dumb phone with free software, samsung messages is dead, and that’s not good for android, quick links, changing speech rate and pitch, choosing text-to-speech tone, switching languages, changing text-to-speech engines.

While Google focuses on the Assistant, Android owners shouldn't forget about the Text-to-Speech (TTS) accessibility feature. It'll convert text from your Android apps, but you might need to modify it to get the speech to sound the way you want it.

Modifying Text-to-Speech voices is easily done from the Android accessibility settings menu. You can change the speed and pitch of your chosen voice, as well as the voice engine you use.

Google Text-to-Speech is the default voice engine and is pre-installed on most Android devices. If your Android device doesn't have it installed, you can download the Google Text-to-Speech app  from the Google Play Store.

Android will use default settings for Google Text-to-Speech, but you might need to change the speed and pitch of the Text-to-Speech voice to make it easier for you to understand.

Changing the TTS speech rate and pitch requires you to get into the Google accessibility settings menu. The steps for this might vary slightly, depending on your version of Android and your device manufacturer.

To open the Android accessibility menu, go to Android's "Settings" menu. You can get to this by swiping down on your display to access your notification shade and tapping the gear icon in the top right, or by launching the "Settings" app from within your apps drawer.

In the "Settings" menu, tap the "Accessibility" option.

Samsung device owners will have two extra steps here. Tap "Screen Reader" and then "Settings." Other Android owners can go straight to the next step.

Select "Text-to-Speech" or "Text-to-Speech Output," depending on your Android device.

From here, you'll be able to change your Text-to-Speech settings.

Changing Speech Rate

Speech rate is the speed your Text-to-Speech voice will speak at. If your TTS engine is too fast (or too slow), the speech could sound deformed or hard to understand.

If you've followed the steps above, you should see a slider under the heading "Speech Rate" in the "Text-to-Speech" menu. With your finger, slide this right or left to raise or lower the rate you're seeking.

Press the "Listen to an Example" button to test your new speech rate. Samsung owners will have a "Play" button, so tap that instead.

Changing Pitch

If you feel the Text-to-Speech engine is too high (or low) pitched, you can change this by following the same process as changing your speech rate.

As above, in your "Text-to-Speech" settings menu, adjust the "Pitch" slider to the pitch you like.

Once you're ready, press "Listen to an Example" or "Play" (depending on your device) to try the new rate.

Continue this process until you're happy with both your speech rate and pitch settings, or tap "Reset" to return to your default TTS settings.

Not only can you change the pitch and rate of your TTS speech engine, but you can also change the tone of the voice. Some language packs included with the default Google Text-to-Speech engine have different voices that sound either male or female.

Similarly, the Samsung Text-to-Speech engine included with Samsung devices has a varied selection of gendered voices for you to use.

If you're using the Google Text-to-Speech engine, tap the gear menu button in the "Text-to-Speech Output" settings menu, next to the "Google Text-to-Speech Engine" option.

If you're on a Samsung device, you'll only have one gear icon in the "Text-to-Speech Settings" menu, so tap that instead.

In the "Google TTS Options" menu, tap the "Install Voice Data" option.

Tap your chosen regional language. For example, if you're from the U.S., you might want to choose "English (United States)."

You'll see various voices listed and numbered, from "Voice I" onwards. Tap on each one to hear what it sounds like. You'll need to make sure your device isn't muted.

With the "English (United Kingdom)" language pack, "Voice I" is female, while "Voice II" is male, and the voices continue to alternate in this pattern. Tap on the tone you're happy with as your final choice.

Your choice will be automatically saved, although if you've selected a different language to your device's default, you will also need to change this.

If you need to switch languages, you can easily do this from the "Text-to-Speech" settings menu. You might want to do this if you've chosen a different language in your TTS engine than your system default language.

You should see an option for "Language" in your "Text-to-Speech" settings menu. Tap this to open the menu.

Choose your language from the list by tapping it.

You can confirm the change in language by pressing the "Listen to an Example" or "Play" button to test it.

If the Google TTS language isn't suitable for you, you can install alternatives. Samsung devices, for instance, will come with their own Samsung Text-to-Speech engine, which your device will default to.

Installing Third-Party Text-to-Speech Engines

Alternative third-party Text-to-Speech engines are also available. These can be installed from the Google Play Store, or you can install them manually. Example TTS engines you could install include Acapela and  eSpeak TTS , although others are available.

Once installed from the Google Play Store, these third-party TTS engines will appear in your Text-to-Speech settings.

Changing Text-to-Speech Engine

If you've installed a new Text-to-Speech engine and you want to change it, go to the "Text-to-Speech" settings menu.

At the top, you should see a list of your available TTS engines. If you have a Samsung device, you might need to tap the "Preferred Engine" option to see your list.

Tap on your preferred engine, whether it's Google Text-to-Speech or a third-party alternative.

With your new TTS engine selected, tap "Listen to an Example" or "Play" (depending on your device) to test it.

For most users, the default Google or Samsung Text-to-Speech engines will offer the best sounding speech generation, but third-party options could work better for other languages where the default engine isn't suitable.

Once your engine and languages are selected, you're free to use it with any Android app that supports it.

Google Upgrades Text-to-Speech Voices on Android

Google Voices

The new models will be used for all 421 voices in 67 languages offered through Speech Services by Google. The upgrade will happen on the backend, so developers using text-to-speech and other voice services won’t have to change anything. Google will include the new voices automatically when users download the latest update for any 64-bit Android device from the Google Play Store. Plenty of native Google apps will deploy the new voices too, including Google Maps and Google Translate.

“We are upgrading the Speech Services by Google speech engine in a big way, providing clearer, more natural voice,” Google staff software engineer Rakesh Iyer and group product manager Leland Rechis explained in a blog post. “We’ve seen a significant side by side quality increase with this change, particularly in respects to clarity and naturalness. With this upgrade we will also be changing the default voice in en-US to one that is built using fresher speaker data, which alongside our new stack, results in a drastic improvement.”

Speech Clarity

Google’s ongoing improvements to its speech synthesis models are crucial as more and more companies look for advanced human speech synthesis as part of their software for both consumers and enterprise clients. Companies are eager to boast of improvements and new features, as exemplified recently by Nvidia’s upgraded Riva synthetic speech engine, WellSaid Labs’ upgraded voice models, and Neosapience rolling out an AI-powered tool allowing users to write out the emotion they want virtual actors to use when speaking. Reading websites, directions, or novels all require realistic sounding voices, and Google isn’t likely to forget that as it pushes out similar upgrades to its Speech Services in the future.

WellSaid Labs Teaches Synthetic Text-to-Speech AI Proper Pronunciation

New Neosapience Tool Synthesizes Any Text into Emotion for Virtual Actor Speeches – Exclusive

Nvidia Riva Synthetic Speech AI Adds New Languages and Voice Recognition

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Google assistant gets a new voice as gemini ai comes to google home.

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Google Home: Everything you need to know about the smart home platform

Google home's new thermostat ui is rolling out widely, and it even supports ecobee, i didn't want to like this walmart streaming device, but it won me over.

• Google is introducing new devices and AI models to enhance the smart home experience for users starting this year.
• Gemini AI will allow Nest Cameras to provide detailed event descriptions, while a Help Me Create feature simplifies automations.
• New voices for Google Assistant will offer a more conversational experience with better understanding and follow-up capabilities.

Google appears to be revamping its smart home portfolio, with two new devices unveiled on the same day. The Mountain View, California-based company introduced a new streaming device, called the Google TV Streamer , alongside the 4th-Gen Nest Learning Thermostat . Both new devices are available for pre-order starting today, with the thermostat officially available starting August 20 and the Google TV Streamer on September 24.

Now, as part of a wider smart home push, Google has announced that it is using its advanced Gemini AI models to redefine how users interact with smart home devices in their homes, supercharging the tech giant's Nest Cameras, automations within the Google Home app, and "a variety of new voices" for the Google Assistant.

Google Home is essential for your smart home setup and makes your day a little simpler

In a new blog post , the tech giant announced that its Nest Camera should soon be able to see beyond the obvious. With Gemini, the camera's feed can be analyzed to provide detailed descriptions of events happening in front of your Nest Camera. "Your Nest cameras will go from understanding a narrow set of specific things (i.e., motion, people, packages, etc.) to being able to more broadly understand what it sees and hears, and then surface what’s most important," wrote Google in its blog post.

So, for example, if you have a camera pointing towards your backyard, and your dog happens to be causing mischief there, the camera might pick it up as an animal event. Going forward (later this year), with Gemini integration, your Google Home app will be able to offer context into what the camera detected, likely specifying that the "dog was digging in the garden."

Such granular control should help users search for certain events within the Google Home app, like "Did the kids leave their bikes in the driveway?" The app will then sift through the feed to find the event in recent days, as seen in the GIF above.

It's worth noting that users would need a Nest Aware subscription to take advantage of the Gemini context feature.

Creating automations has never been easier

Creating automations isn't difficult, but tedious. Google is introducing a new Help me create feature within the Google Home app, which, as the name suggests, will help you create automations by describing what you want in plain language. In an example shared by the tech giant, seen in the GIF above, users would be able to use prompts like "Help the kids remember to put their bikes away when they get home from school." The tool can then create an automation and describe what will happen for you to review. In this case, it described it as "When someone gets home between 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, turn on the garage light, and broadcast a message."

The automation likely employs three smart home devices: a smart camera to detect when someone is home, smart speakers to announce/broadcast the reminder, and smart lights in the garage to help the kids put their bikes away.

Help me create and Gemini context for events will roll out to a limited number of Nest Aware subscribers in Public Preview later this year. The tech giant said that it will expand the features over time but wants to take it slow to get it right.

A more natural Google Assistant

In its blog post, Google said that users can expect to experiment with "a variety of new voices" later this year, built to make "interacting with your devices feel more conversational."

The tech giant said that it is improving the assistant on your Nest speakers and displays with Gemini tech, which should soon be able to better understand you, allowing you to put forward your queries in a more natural way. Elsewhere, users would also be able to ask follow-up questions without having to offer context about their previous query, offering an overall more natural dialogue with the assistant.

• Google Home
• Google Gemini

WaveNet launches in the Google Assistant

Aäron van den Oord, Tom Walters

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Just over a year ago we presented WaveNet , a new deep neural network for generating raw audio waveforms that is capable of producing better and more realistic-sounding speech than existing techniques. At that time, the model was a research prototype and was too computationally intensive to work in consumer products.

But over the last 12 months we have worked hard to significantly improve both the speed and quality of our model and today we are proud to announce that an updated version of WaveNet is being used to generate the Google Assistant voices for US English and Japanese across all platforms.

Using the new WaveNet model results in a range of more natural sounding voices for the Assistant.

US English voice I

Us english voice ii, us english third party voice, japanese voice.

To understand why WaveNet improves on the current state of the art, it is useful to understand how text-to-speech (TTS) - or speech synthesis - systems work today.

The majority of these are based on so-called concatenative TTS , which uses a large database of high-quality recordings, collected from a single voice actor over many hours. These recordings are split into tiny chunks that can then be combined - or concatenated - to form complete utterances as needed. However, these systems can result in unnatural sounding voices and are also difficult to modify because a whole new database needs to be recorded each time a set of changes, such as new emotions or intonations, are needed.

To overcome some of these problems, an alternative model known as parametric TTS is sometimes used. This does away with the need for concatenating sounds by using a series of rules and parameters about grammar and mouth movements to guide a computer-generated voice. Although cheaper and quicker, this method creates less natural sounding voices.

WaveNet takes a totally different approach. In the original paper we described a deep generative model that can create individual waveforms from scratch, one sample at a time, with 16,000 samples per second and seamless transitions between individual sounds.

The structure of the convolutional neural network that underpins the original WaveNet model

It was built using a convolutional neural network , which was trained on a large dataset of speech samples. During this training phase, the network determined the underlying structure of the speech, such as which tones followed each other and what waveforms were realistic (and which were not). The trained network then synthesised a voice one sample at a time, with each generated sample taking into account the properties of the previous sample. The resulting voice contained natural intonation and other features such as lip smacks. Its “accent” depended on the voices it had trained on, opening up the possibility of creating any number of unique voices from blended datasets. As with all text-to-speech systems, WaveNet used a text input to tell it which words it should generate in response to a query.

Building up sound waves at such high-fidelity using the original model was computationally expensive, meaning WaveNet showed promise but was not something we could deploy in the real world. But over the last 12 months our teams have worked hard to develop a new model that is capable of more quickly generating waveforms. It is also now capable of running at scale and is the first product to launch on Google’s latest TPU cloud infrastructure .

The WaveNet team will now turn their focus to preparing a publication detailing the research behind the new model, but the results speak for themselves. The new, improved WaveNet model still generates a raw waveform but at speeds 1,000 times faster than the original model, meaning it requires just 50 milliseconds to create one second of speech. In fact, the model is not just quicker, but also higher-fidelity, capable of creating waveforms with 24,000 samples a second. We have also increased the resolution of each sample from 8 bits to 16 bits, the same resolution used in compact discs.

This makes the new model more natural sounding according to tests with human listeners. For example, the new US English voice I gets a mean-opinion-score (MOS) of 4.347 on a scale of 1-5, where even human speech is rated at just 4.667.

The new model also retains the flexibility of the original WaveNet, allowing us to make better use of large amounts of data during the training phase. Specifically, we can train the network using data from multiple voices. This can then be used to generate high-quality, nuanced voices even where there is little training data available for the desired output voice.

We believe this is just the start for WaveNet and we are excited by the possibilities that the power of a voice interface could now unlock for all the world's languages.

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Google Unveils Gemini Live Voice Assistant to Rival ChatGPT Voice Mode Google Unveils Gemini Live Voice Assistant to Rival ChatGPT Voice Mode

Google's new AI-powered voice assistant offers advanced conversational capabilities and app integrations

August 15, 2024

Google has unveiled Gemini Live , a conversational voice assistant that’s set to rival OpenAI ’s Voice Mode .

Available through the Gemini app on Android and iOS, the new Live feature allows users to interact with the AI using their voice.

Powered by Google’s Gemini 1.5 Flash model , the Live feature can answer questions across a variety of generated voices, 10 in total. Users can ask the chatbot to manage their shopping lists or summarize incoming emails.

“With Gemini, we’re reimagining what it means for a personal assistant to be truly helpful,” said Sissie Hsiao, Google’s general manager for Gemini experiences and Google Assistant. “Gemini is evolving to provide AI-powered mobile assistance that will offer a new level of help — all while being more natural, conversational and intuitive.”

Google’s answer to ChatGPT Voice Mode lets users talk to the chatbot when moving to a different app and even when their phone is locked, allowing for interactions to occur as if they were taking a regular phone call.

Gemini Live is currently available in English to Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android phones, before coming to iOS and more languages in the coming weeks.

Gemini Advanced offers a free trial for the first month, with a subscription cost of $20 per month thereafter.

Related: OpenAI Rolls Out Upgraded ChatGPT Voice Mode to Plus Subscribers

In addition to the new voice functionality, subscribers have access to the Gemini 1.5 Pro model, and its mammoth input length, as well as more storage, access to Gemini in Workspace applications and the ability to upload files for the chatbot to interact with.

Live is getting further extensions — including interoperability with other Google apps such as YouTube Music, where the chatbot can create playlists from voice prompts.

Also in the works is calendar support, allowing the chatbot to interact with a user’s calendar app to set reminders about upcoming events.

New features are expected in the coming weeks.

“Because Gemini has built deep integrations for Android, it can do more than just read the screen,” Hsiao wrote in a blog post. “ It can interact with many of the apps you already use. For example, you can drag and drop images that Gemini generates directly into apps like Gmail and Google Messages.”

In addition to new functionality, Google plans to improve the speed and quality of Live responses. The underlying 1.5 Flash model was unveiled at this year’s Google I/O event and despite being smaller than the flagship 1.5 Pro model, it still boasts the same hefty context window, meaning it can handle huge data inputs.

Related: Google Refines AI Overviews After Bizarre Responses, Limits Content

Gemini Live comes as OpenAI steps up its improvements to ChatGPT’s audio feature, with the new GPT-4o greatly improving the chatbot’s voice functionality.

OpenAI recently began rolling out the newly revamped ChatGPT Voice Mode , though it’s currently locked to a small group of ChatGPT Plus subscribers.

Some might say Google is simply copying ChatGPTs Voice Mode, but the search company has been working on something similar for some time. 

Gemini Live is a glimpse of what its researchers have been working on, with a conversational agent being teased at I/O back in May under the tagline Project Astra .

Read more about:

About the Author

Ben Wodecki

Ben Wodecki is the Jr. Editor of AI Business, covering a wide range of AI content. Ben joined the team in March 2021 as assistant editor and was promoted to Jr. Editor. He has written for The New Statesman, Intellectual Property Magazine, and The Telegraph India, among others. He holds an MSc in Digital Journalism from Middlesex University.

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Use Google Assistant to type with your voice

You can dictate text through your voice with Assistant voice typing on Gboard.

• Punctuation is automatically added as you speak.
• You can type on your keyboard even if the mic is still on.

On Pixel 8+ and coming soon to Pixel 7, if you use multiple languages, Assistant voice typing can now automatically detect your spoken language seamlessly.

• In the new “Language tag,” you can find the language detected as you speak.
• To manually switch languages, switch to the relevant language keyboard.

What you need

To use Assistant voice typing, you must have:

• A Pixel 6 or later, including Fold
• Android 12 or later
• Google Assistant turned on

Turn Assistant voice typing on or off

• On your phone or tablet, open any app that you can type with, like Messages or Gmail.
• Tap where you can enter text.

• Turn Assistant voice typing on or off.

Tip: Based on words you've corrected in Gboard, Assistant voice typing improves just for you. You can change your voice typing personalization at any time .

Use voice commands

Important: Assistant voice typing is on by default unless you use multiple languages on your device. You can turn Assistant voice typing off at any time.

• Say the text you want to type. If your microphone is still on, the microphone icon continues to glow.
• To delete the last word: Say "Delete last word."
• To delete the last sentence: Say "Clear."
• To clear the text: Say "Clear all."
• To send a message: Say "Send."
• To fill out the next open field in a form: Say "Next."
• To add an emoji: Say the name of the emoji, like "Smiley emoji."
• To stop voice typing: Say "Stop."

Important: If you’re using "Fix it" for the first time, in the pop-up, tap Continue . You can use "Fix it" on most apps.

Eligibility requirements:

• Pixel 8 or 8 Pro
• English only
• United States
• Network connectivity

You can check and correct any typed, pasted, or voice dictated text in your text box for writing errors like typos, grammar, and punctuation.

• On your device, open the app where you'll input your text.
• Say the text that you want to type.
• To apply corrections to your text, say “Fix it” or tap on the suggestion that's shown when an error is detected.
• “More fixes” is shown after you say or tap Fix it .
• Optional: To remove the correction, say or tap Undo .

Use multiple languages with Assistant voice typing

• Turn Assistant voice typing on. Learn how to turn Assistant voice typing on .

• English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish are supported by Assistant voice typing.

For supported locales, voice typing is on by default, and you can switch between languages automatically. The language you’re speaking will be detected by Assistant.

Edit text with voice commands

• If Assistant misheard a word, tap on the word to select it.
• To correct a misheard word, speak, type, or spell out a correction, or tap one of the suggested alternatives.

Turn off automated punctuation

• On your phone or tablet, open any app that you can type with, like Messages or Gmail.
• Turn off Auto punctuation .

Manage voice typing personalization

Fix issues with assistant voice typing on gboard.

• Make sure your phone is connected to Wi-Fi.
• Restart your phone.
• Charge your phone overnight.

Turn on & connect

• Open your device's Settings app.

Learn how to connect to Wi-Fi networks on your Android device.

Assistant voice typing is available in:

• French 
• German 
• Japanese 

Switch languages on Gboard

• On your Android phone or tablet, open any app that you can type with, like Gmail or Keep.
• Touch and hold the space bar to switch languages.

Switch languages on your device

• Drag your language to the top of the list.
• Learn how to check your Android version.
• Learn how to update your Android apps.

Related resources

• Translate as you type
• Type with your voice
• Get word suggestions & fix mistakes
• Change your keyboard theme, sound, or vibration

A smarter phone number

A Voice number works on smartphones and the web so you can place and receive calls from anywhere

Save time, stay connected

From simple navigation to voicemail transcription, Voice makes it easier than ever to save time while staying connected

Take control of your calls

Forward calls to any device and have spam calls silently blocked. With Voice, you decide who can reach you and when.

Apple, the Apple logo, and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?

ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.

When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.

ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form .

How to try Google's new Gemini Live AI assistant for free

The current generation of mobile voice assistants -- with our simple requests often requiring multiple attempts to be understood -- surely leaves room for improvement. If you're ready for an upgraded experience, voice assistants supported by  generative AI  may be the solution, and there are some you can try today. 

On Tuesday at Made by Google , Google finally released Gemini Live, its advanced mobile conversational experience that enables users to have free-flowing conversations with an AI assistant, or -- as Google describes it -- "a sidekick in your pocket." 

Also: Google's new Pixel Screenshots may be the feature that finally converts me to use AI

The Live experience is supposed to mimic a conversation with a human. As a result, it can be interrupted, carry on multi-turn conversations, and even resume a prior conversation. 

Users also can continue talking to it in the background or while their phone is locked, much as an ordinary phone call with a friend or relative. There are 10 voices users can pick from, all resembling human voices with different intonations, sounds, and more. You can listen to the video below: 

We’re introducing Gemini Live, a more natural way to interact with Gemini. You can now have a free-flowing conversation, and even interrupt or change topics just like you might on a regular phone call. Available to Gemini Advanced subscribers. #MadeByGoogle pic.twitter.com/eNjlNKubsv — Google (@Google) August 13, 2024

Sound too good to be true? If you want to try it out for yourself, you can -- for free!

How to access 

Gemini Live is rolling out to Android users subscribed to Gemini Advanced, which is offered as part of the Google One AI Premium Plan  that costs $20 monthly. If you are an iPhone user, no worries, Google says Gemini Live will expand to iOS in the coming weeks. 

The $20 per month cost -- which is on par with other premium AI plans like ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro  -- includes other perks besides Gemini Advanced, such as Gemini in Gmail and Docs, 2 TB of storage, and unlimited Magic Editor in Google Photos. Still, if you want to try it before committing to buy it, there are two ways you can do so for free. 

The first (and easiest) way to try Gemini Live for free is a one-month free trial of the Google One AI Premium Plan. 

Also: OpenAI reveals an updated GPT-4o model - but can't quite explain how it's better

To get started, visit the Google One AI Premium Plan webpage , click "Try it for one month," and sign in. 

You will be asked to enter payment information because -- once the trial ends -- you start getting charged. To avoid paying, I suggest setting a reminder on your phone to end the subscription before the trial ends. 

If you are invested in Google's AI offerings and want to have the full experience, a second option is to purchase the newly released Pixel Pro 9, which includes access to Gemini Advanced at no additional cost for the first year, a $240 value. 

OpenAI offers a similar experience with its new and improved Voice Mode . However, this is rolling out in alpha to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users. Therefore, if you want a guaranteed way to access this experience, the Google One AI Premium Plan is likely your best bet -- at least for now.

Artificial Intelligence

Gemini live is finally available. here's how you can access it (and why you'll want to), gemini to replace google assistant as android's default - but you still have options, chatgpt vs. microsoft copilot vs. gemini: which is the best ai chatbot.

Gemini Live, Google’s answer to ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode, launches

Gemini Live, Google’s answer to the recently launched (in limited alpha) Advanced Voice Mode for OpenAI’s ChatGPT , is rolling out on Tuesday, months after being announced at Google’s I/O 2024 developer conference . It was announced at Google’s Made by Google 2024 event .

Gemini Live lets users have “in-depth” voice chats with Gemini, Google’s generative AI-powered chatbot , on their smartphones. Thanks to an enhanced speech engine that delivers what Google claims is more consistent, emotionally expressive and realistic multi-turn dialogue, people can interrupt Gemini while the chatbot’s speaking to ask follow-up questions, and it’ll adapt to their speech patterns in real time.

Here’s how Google describes it in a blog post: “With Gemini Live [via the Gemini app ], you can talk to Gemini and choose from [10 new] natural-sounding voices it can respond with. You can even speak at your own pace or interrupt mid-response with clarifying questions, just like you would in any conversation.”

Gemini Live is hands-free if you want it to be. You can keep speaking with the Gemini app in the background or when your phone’s locked, and conversations can be paused and resumed at any time.

So how might this be useful? Google gives the example of rehearsing for a job interview — a bit of an ironic scenario , but OK. Gemini Live can practice with you, Google says, giving speaking tips and suggesting skills to highlight when speaking with a hiring manager (or AI, as the case may be ).

One advantage Gemini Live might have over ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode is a better memory. The architecture of the generative AI model underpinning Live, Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 1.5 Flash, has a longer-than-average “context window,” meaning they can take in and reason over a lot of data — theoretically hours of back-and-forth conversations — before crafting a response.

“Live uses our Gemini Advanced models that we have adapted to be more conversational,” a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. “The model’s large context window is utilized when users have long conversations with Live.”

We’ll have to see how well this all works in practice, of course. If OpenAI’s setbacks with Advanced Voice Mode are any indication, rarely do demos translate seamlessly to the real world.

On that subject, Gemini Live doesn’t have one of the capabilities Google showcased at I/O just yet: multimodal input. Back in May, Google released pre-recorded videos showing Gemini Live seeing and responding to users’ surroundings via photos and footage captured by their phones’ cameras — for example, naming a part on a broken bicycle or explaining what a portion of code on a computer screen does.

Multimodal input will arrive “later this year,” Google said, declining to provide specifics. Also later this year, Live will expand to additional languages and to iOS via the Google app; it’s only available in English for the time being.

Gemini Live, like Advanced Voice Mode, isn’t free. It’s exclusive to Gemini Advanced, a more sophisticated version of Gemini that’s gated behind the Google One AI Premium Plan , priced at $20 per month.

Other new Gemini features on the way are free, though.

Android users can soon (in the coming weeks) bring up Gemini’s overlay on top of any app they’re using to ask questions about what’s on the screen (e.g., a YouTube video) by holding their phone’s power button or saying, “Hey Google.” Gemini will be able to generate images (but still not images of people , unfortunately) directly from the overlay — images that can be dragged and dropped into apps like Gmail and Google Messages.

Gemini is also gaining new integrations with Google services (or “extensions,” as the company prefers to call them) both on mobile and the web. In the coming weeks, Gemini will be able to take more actions with Google Calendar, Keep, Tasks, YouTube Music and Utilities, the apps that control on-device features like timers and alarms, media controls, the flashlight, volume, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and so on.

In a blog post, Google gives a few ideas of how people might take advantage. Sounds nifty, assuming it all works reliably:

• Ask Gemini to “make a playlist of songs that remind me of the late ’90s.”
• Snap a photo of a concert flier and ask Gemini if you’re free that day — and even set a reminder to buy tickets.
• Have Gemini dig out a recipe from Gmail and ask it to add the ingredients to your shopping list in Keep.

Lastly, starting later this week, Gemini will be available on Android tablets.

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• Google Pixel

Google Gemini’s voice chat mode is here

Gemini advanced subscribers can use gemini live for conversational voice chat..

By Wes Davis , a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.

Share this story

Google is rolling out a new voice chat mode for Gemini, called Gemini Live, the company announced at its Pixel 9 event today . Available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, it works a lot like ChatGPT’s voice chat feature , with multiple voices to choose from and the ability to speak conversationally, even to the point of interrupting it without tapping a button.

Google says that conversations with Gemini Live can be “free-flowing,” so you can do things like interrupt an answer mid-sentence or pause the conversation and come back to it later. Gemini Live will also work in the background or when your phone is locked. Google first announced that Gemini Live was coming during its I/O developer conference earlier this year, where it also said Gemini Live would be able to interpret video in real time.

Google also has 10 new Gemini voices for users to pick from, with names like Ursa and Dipper. The feature has started rolling out today, in English only, for Android devices. The company says it will come to iOS and get more languages “in the coming weeks.”

In addition to Gemini Live, Google announced other features for its AI assistant, including new extensions coming later on, for apps like Keep, Tasks, Utilities, and YouTube Music. Gemini is also gaining awareness of the context of your screen, similar to AI features Apple announced at WWDC this year. After users tap “Ask about this screen” or “Ask about this video,” Google says Gemini can give you information, including pulling out details like destinations from travel videos to add to Google Maps.

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Supported voices and languages

Text-to-Speech provides the following voices. The list includes Neural2 , Studio , Standard, and WaveNet voices. Studio, Neural2 and WaveNet voices are higher quality voices with different pricing ; in the list, they have the voice type 'Neural2', 'Studio' or 'WaveNet'.

To use these voices to create synthetic speech, see how to create synthetic voice audio .

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License , and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License . For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies . Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2024-08-09 UTC.

Google’s AI surprise: Gemini Live speaks like a human, taking on ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode

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Google sometimes feels like it’s playing catchup in the generative AI race to rivals such as Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic and Mistral — but not anymore.

Today, the company leapfrogged most others by announcing Gemini Live , a new voice mode for its AI model Gemini through the Gemini mobile app, which allows users to speak to the model in plain, conversational language and even interrupt it and have it respond back with the AI’s own humanlike voice and cadence. Or as Google put it in a post on X: “You can now have a free-flowing conversation, and even interrupt or change topics just like you might on a regular phone call.”

We’re introducing Gemini Live, a more natural way to interact with Gemini. You can now have a free-flowing conversation, and even interrupt or change topics just like you might on a regular phone call. Available to Gemini Advanced subscribers. #MadeByGoogle pic.twitter.com/eNjlNKubsv — Google (@Google) August 13, 2024

If that sounds familiar, it’s because OpenAI in May demoed its own “Advanced Voice Mode” for ChatGPT which it openly compared to the talking AI operating system from the movie Her , only to delay the feature and begin to roll it out only selectively to alpha participants late last month .

Gemini Live is now available in English on the Google Gemini app for Android devices through a Gemini Advanced subscription ($19.99 USD per month), with an iOS version and support for more languages to follow in the coming weeks.

In other words: even though OpenAI showed off a similar feature first, Google is set to make it more available to a much wider potential audience (more than 3 billion active users on Android and 2.2 billion iOS devices ) much sooner than ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode.

Yet part of the reason OpenAI may have delayed ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode was due to its own internal “red-teaming” or controlled adversarial security testing that showed the voice mode in particular sometimes engaged in odd, disconcerting, and even potentially dangerous behavior such as mimicking the user’s own voice without consent — which could be used for fraud or malicious purposes.

How is Google addressing the potential harms caused by this type of tech? We don’t really know yet, but VentureBeat reached out to the company to ask and will update when we hear back.

What is Gemini Live good for?

Google pitches Gemini Live as offering free-flowing, natural conversation that’s good for brainstorming ideas, preparing for important conversations, or simply chatting casually about “various topics.” Gemini Live is designed to respond and adapt in real-time.

Additionally, this feature can operate hands-free, allowing users to continue their interactions even when their device is locked or running other apps in the background.

Google further announced that the Gemini AI model is now fully integrated into the Android user experience, providing more context-aware assistance tailored to the device.

Users can access Gemini by long-pressing the power button or saying, “Hey Google.” This integration allows Gemini to interact with the content on the screen, such as providing details about a YouTube video or generating a list of restaurants from a travel vlog to add directly into Google Maps.

In a blog post, Sissie Hsiao , Vice President and General Manager of Gemini Experiences and Google Assistant, emphasized that the evolution of AI has led to a reimagining of what it means for a personal assistant to be truly helpful. With these new updates, Gemini is set to offer a more intuitive and conversational experience, making it a reliable sidekick for complex tasks.

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Python Voice Assistant Tutorial

This python voice assistant tutorial series is designed to teach you how to create a python voice assistant using the google text to speech module as well as the speech recognition module.

What You’ll Learn

This series is packed full of valuable information. You will learn and understand the following after this tutorial:

• How to use the google text to speech module (gTTS)
• How to use the speech recognition module
• How to automate tasks with python
• How to scrape information off the web with web scrapers

Prerequisites

This is NOT a beginner tutorial and I will not be teaching python syntax

• Experience With Python 3 Syntax

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Use google assistant as Text-to-speech output

Is this possible? Google assistant voice is much more natural than embedded android solution

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Why ChatGPT’s Speech to Text Is the Best I’ve Ever Used

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The Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro Compared: Why I'm Getting the Pixel 9 Pro

5 ai-powered language learning apps worth trying, i create my own phone wallpapers with abstract photos: here's how you can too, quick links, chatgpt is better than google’s voice typing, what makes chatgpt’s speech-to-text function so good, note-taking using chatgpt on my phone, voice typing using chatgpt on my desktop, key takeaways.

• ChatGPT’s speech-to-text is superior to Google’s, eliminating the need to say punctuation out loud.
• WhisperAI neural network powers ChatGPT for flawless transcription, despite a lack of integration with keyboard apps.
• Use ChatGPT effortlessly on Android, iPhone, macOS, and soon on Windows for efficient note-taking and transcription.

You have to speak it to believe it; ChatGPT’s fantastic speech-to-text function, that is. It’s proved to be far smoother and more precise than some of the most established voice-to-text apps.

Google’s voice typing is a tool I’ve used on and off for years. It comes with the SwiftKey keyboard app and Google’s own Gboard keyboard for mobile phones. It was good for a time—above average, in fact—but not anymore. ChatGPT has leaped ahead of the competition, and the results are slick.

If you’ve ever used Google’s voice typing, you will know how awkward it is to say “comma” or “period” out loud each time you want to add punctuation to your text. In ChatGPT, there’s no need. You can speak as naturally as if you’re having a chat with your friend, and it will effortlessly add punctuation where you would expect it to go.

This makes a huge difference. Take this sentence, for example: “I want to go to the supermarket and buy apples, oranges, watermelon, pears, and cherries.” To dictate it using Google’s voice typing, you would need to say “...apples comma oranges comma watermelon comma pears comma and cherries.” Repeating the word “comma” five times is clunky and unnatural.

ChatGPT does an incredible job of converting speech to text thanks to WhisperAI, an advanced neural network. OpenAI released it as an open-source model aimed at people wanting to develop this technology into useful applications. Which brings us to a key sticking point. ChatGPT’s speech-to-text function is not yet integrated into something like a voice typing keyboard.

Despite this, I have begun using it all the time in my workflow. Even though Google’s voice typing is easily accessible from my keyboard, I end up wasting a lot of time fixing its mistakes. At one point, I started speaking in short fragments—think robocalls and computerized speech—to help it pick up my speech better.

That’s why I am happily using ChatGPT’s speech-to-text with a small workaround. In the end, it’s going to save me far more time and effort, besides letting me talk naturally.

ChatGPT is available on Android , iPhone , and macOS (M1 and later).

Those using Windows computers can expect a desktop app for ChatGPT in late 2024.

I write notes for my articles using pen and paper. This is, ironically, a very low-tech approach for a tech writer! While I enjoy it, eventually I need to get those words into a digital format if they are going to be of any use to me.

My preferred place to transfer my ideas to is a note-taking app. Google Keep, for example, is good because it automatically syncs your notes online and between devices. Or there’s Obsidian, my new favorite way to organize my thoughts into long-term storage. In the long run, it’s best to aim for a note-taking app that works on any device for added convenience.

My process is simple. Open ChatGPT and hit the microphone button, then start speaking. After that, press stop to convert the audio to text. Finally, copy the text and paste it into a note-taking app.

At my desktop, I follow the same process. The app looks nearly identical to the mobile version, so you simply need to press the microphone button to start recording, then press the tick button when you’re done. After this, you can copy the text to where it needs to go, such as a Word document or an email.

Sometimes it’s good to have a record of your transcription directly in ChatGPT. In that case, you can add the line, “Do not comment:” immediately before the transcribed text, then hit enter to add it to ChatGPT’s conversation feed. This stops ChatGPT from replying with a long-winded answer, with the added benefit of maintaining a record of your transcriptions.

There are plenty of things you can do with ChatGPT besides converting speech to text, making it a nice multipurpose app to have on hand.

It won’t be long before this speech-to-text AI model makes its way into voice typing apps or transcription tools. Until then, you can use ChatGPT to produce clean and accurate transcriptions for spots of note-taking, brainstorming, or dictation.

• Productivity
• Speech to Text