Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that works

[Average Joe 6Pack]

Im trying to get the text to speech thingy working for text messages, but cant seem to get it right. I have the following settings in my text to speech settings:

Driving mode is checked
In driving mode settings I have "Message" checked
my default engine is set to Samsung TTS

under "default settings" in the TTS settings menu, the "Install voice data" is greyed out and I cant select it. Under "engines", both Samsung and Pico show languages installed, so Im a bit confused.

Do I need to install voice data for this thing to work? I thought Samsung TTS and Pico had this coovered...??

With the above settings, I activate driving mode in Voice Talk, and it says it will read notifications out loud, but when I get a text, it doesnt say anything.

What am I doing wrong here??

Thanks

 

[j-bo]

Re: Trying to set up Text to speech for texts...cant get it to wo

Same question for me.

I thought I had read that another app was supposed to be downloaded to use driving mode, but I can't find it or even know if that's what I read for sure... old age!

 

[Average Joe 6Pack]

Re: Trying to set up Text to speech for texts...cant get it to wo

Anybody?

Im really digging this phone, but id like it a thousand times better if I could get it to read texts to me. I drive 5000 miles a month for work and need to get this working as soon as possible.

 

[jleliekelly]

I use speaktome and svox voices and even with the other stuff on there I still had to download svox text to speech engine app.....don't know if this helps

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

 

[Average Joe 6Pack]

Just found one that actually works! Its called sonalight (free in the Market), and it works like a charm. Didnt need to downlaod anything else, it runs in the background and reads every text out loud, and gives the option to respond or ignore (all by voice). Also has a trigger phrase for composing text by voice while the program is running. I didnt even need to set up any options or settings, just open the program and let it run.

So, anyone looking for a simple program that works with the SGSII, check it out. So far so good.

 

[j-bo]

Re: Trying to set up Text to speech for texts...SOLUTION FOUND!

That's all fine... but the S2 should be doing the same in drive mode with the installed voice talk app.

Guess need to do some more looking.

 

[Average Joe 6Pack]

Re: Trying to set up Text to speech for texts...SOLUTION FOUND!

That's all fine... but the S2 should be doing the same in drive mode with the installed voice talk app.

Guess need to do some more looking.

I agree, but for now this works, so Im gonna stop racking my brain for a bit

 

[j-bo]

Re: Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that w

Yep yep... I'm going to try sonalight too. Although, having an ad in every text seems a bit much and so does the $4.99 price tag. $.99-$1.99 should be more like it.

How accurate has it been?

 

[Average Joe 6Pack]

Re: Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that w

Yep yep... I'm going to try sonalight too. Although, having an ad in every text seems a bit much and so does the $4.99 price tag. $.99-$1.99 should be more like it.

How accurate has it been?

I got the free version...I wont be using it to send or respond to texts, but I constantly get texts from work while Im out on the road, so as long as I can hear em, im good for now...

If I wanna send a text while driving i use the built in Voice Command, it works really well...

As for accuracy, its been accurate so far, I only had it on for a bit to test it out (read 3 or 4 messages), so I cant really rate it yet.

 

[j-bo]

Re: Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that w

Holy cow that thing is loud. DONT FORGET TO EXIT IT and not let it run in the background unless you want your BOSS looking at you stupidly while it continues reading. I had media volume on low low low...wonder what volume controls that voice!

Do more testing it out after work. ha.

 

[ohio girl in tx]

Thanks to Average Joe!!

I just purchased the SGSII as well, and was frustrated over the exact same issue. For the money we pay, I fully expect all features advertised to work as they are supposed to, and have been very frustrated this has not been the case. The Vlingo app should already be sufficient for the task, but if it is, I am missing it too!!

Per your suggestion, because I have been pulling my hair out, I downloaded the sonalight app. It works great!! Another user indicated how loud it is, but as I only intend to use it in my car, I need a higher volume to hear over road noise.

I did try using it to type text, but it wasn't picking up my words correctly. The Vlingo Voice Talk feature doesn't either though. Like you, I will likely just use the Vlingo Voice Talk for sending messages. Special note though that this feature would not work for me while sonalight app was running. I just simply closed out of it, which was quick process.

Thanks for posting the problem Joe!! You saved me from having to buy a wig! If anyone sees this, and has an idea how to get the 'driving mode' feature to work properly with Vlingo, please let me know though!

 

[tunie]

Re: Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that w

I use Samsung voice and command. Set to use Pico tts, I haven't had any problems with text to speech when set on driving mode. I don't think it works if you use Samsung tts. Also, Samsung TTS really messes things up during navigation. It reads a bunch of tech speak to you. Pico doesn't do that.

 

[Average Joe 6Pack]

Re: Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that w

I use Samsung voice and command. Set to use Pico tts, I haven't had any problems with text to speech when set on driving mode. I don't think it works if you use Samsung tts. Also, Samsung TTS really messes things up during navigation. It reads a bunch of tech speak to you. Pico doesn't do that.

What do you mean by "haven't had any problems with text to speech when set on driving mode"?? Do you mean you can use your voice to compose and send texts, or that it reads the texts out loud to you?

Ive had zero problems sending texts using both Samsung and Pico, but neither will read texts out loud, even in driving mode.

To me, text to speech means the phone should turn texts INTO speech by reading them. Speech to text is the opposite, meaning I can use my voice to compose and send a text. Am I wrong on this? Im new to the whole voice/speech stuff.

 

[reelon]

I have been using the pico setting and it can read the texts outloud and send them too.

 

[tunie]

Re: Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that w

What do you mean by "haven't had any problems with text to speech when set on driving mode"?? Do you mean you can use your voice to compose and send texts, or that it reads the texts out loud to you?

Ive had zero problems sending texts using both Samsung and Pico, but neither will read texts out loud, even in driving mode.

To me, text to speech means the phone should turn texts INTO speech by reading them. Speech to text is the opposite, meaning I can use my voice to compose and send a text. Am I wrong on this? Im new to the whole voice/speech stuff.

Sorry for the delay in responding. Got a bit busy. Yeah, no problems here. I use my voice to create texts and incoming texts are read back to me with a choice to reply, etc. I misspoke though. I use Vlingo InCar with a Jawbone Icon and it works great. <edit> I do use Samsung Powered by Vlingo Voice a lot because I get sick of text messages sometimes and don't care to respond immediately. When I know I have to address texts, I use Vlingo InCar. <edit> I also create emails and Vlingo InCar reads them back to me. I don't use that a lot though because the max it checks for mail is every 30 mins and I don't want to eat up my battery that way. I only use it if I'm going to be on the road for a long time and email responses have to be timely.

You're right. Vlingo InCar, reads the incoming text messages out loud to me, through my BT (text to speech). I also create texts through my BT with Vlingo InCar (speech to text) If anyone wants me to detail my settings, let me know.

 

[Average Joe 6Pack]

Re: Tryin to setup Text to speech for texts...Found an app that w

tunie...

Thanks, I just downloaded vlingo in the market to check it out and SafeReader is reading texts out to me...Much better than the app I talked about above...

One thing that I figured out is it only works with the stock messaging app notifications. I had goSMS Pro as my only text notifications (disabled the stock one) and it wouldnt recognize when texts came in. So I switched off notifications in GoSMSPro (and unchecked "disable other message notification" in the receive settings), then turned on the stock app notifications, and boom, it started working perfectly.

Also, the InCar features seem to work well, even though I dont use BT. I was able to send, receive, and reply all hands free and by voice only.

So thanks again, this is exactly what Ive been looking for!