Window.speechSynthesis

This is an experimental technology
Because this technology's specification has not stabilized, check the compatibility table for usage in various browsers. Also note that the syntax and behavior of an experimental technology is subject to change in future versions of browsers as the specification changes.

The speechSynthesis read-only property of the Window object returns a SpeechSynthesis object, which is the entry point into using Web Speech API speech synthesis functionality.

Syntax

var synth = window.speechSynthesis;

Value

A SpeechSynthesis object.

Examples

In our basic Speech synthesiser demo, we first grab a reference to the SpeechSynthesis controller using window.speechSynthesis. After defining some necessary variables, we retrieve a list of the voices available using SpeechSynthesis.getVoices() and populate a select menu with them so the user can choose what voice they want.

Inside the inputForm.onsubmit handler, we stop the form submitting with preventDefault(),  create a new SpeechSynthesisUtterance instance containing the text from the text <input>, set the utterance's voice to the voice selected in the <select> element, and start the utterance speaking via the SpeechSynthesis.speak() method.

var synth = window.speechSynthesis;
var inputForm = document.querySelector('form');
var inputTxt = document.querySelector('input');
var voiceSelect = document.querySelector('select');
function populateVoiceList() {
  voices = synth.getVoices();
  for(i = 0; i < voices.length ; i++) {
    var option = document.createElement('option');
    option.textContent = voices[i].name + ' (' + voices[i].lang + ')';
    if(voices[i].default) {
      option.textContent += ' -- DEFAULT';
    }
    option.setAttribute('data-lang', voices[i].lang);
    option.setAttribute('data-name', voices[i].name);
    voiceSelect.appendChild(option);
  }
}
populateVoiceList();
if (speechSynthesis.onvoiceschanged !== undefined) {
  speechSynthesis.onvoiceschanged = populateVoiceList;
}
inputForm.onsubmit = function(event) {
  event.preventDefault();
  var utterThis = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(inputTxt.value);
  var selectedOption = voiceSelect.selectedOptions[0].getAttribute('data-name');
  for(i = 0; i < voices.length ; i++) {
    if(voices[i].name === selectedOption) {
      utterThis.voice = voices[i];
    }
  }
  synth.speak(utterThis);
  inputTxt.blur();
}

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Web Speech API
The definition of 'SpeechSynthesis' in that specification.
Draft  

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Edge Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari (WebKit)
Basic support 33 (Yes) 49 (49) No support ? 7

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Contributors to this page: erikadoyle, chrisdavidmills
 Last updated by: erikadoyle,