Google’s Speech Services speech engine is being improved to increase clarity and make text-to-speech voices in Android applications seem more realistic. You can hear the difference between the old and new voices for yourself by listening to taped clips on the Android Developers Blog.
The system’s 421 voices in 67 languages are receiving a new voice model and synthesizer. The present default voice in “English-US” is being replaced with one created using “fresher speaker data,” which, when combined with other improvements, results in a noticeable improvement over the previous default voice. You may now hear the updated voices in languages like “Spanish-US” and “Brazilian-Portuguese.”
According to the update release, those who currently use text-to-speech technology don’t need to do anything to get the new voices since “all will happen behind the scenes” with the upgrades being downloaded automatically. The service is already utilized by a range of native programs such as Google Maps, Google Translate, and the Android Recorder app, so chances are that if you use an Android device, you probably already use the Speech Services by Google speech engine, even if you don’t realize it. The update will be available to all 64-bit Android devices over the following several weeks through the Google Play Store.
