Android is providing a cool feature (from Android 1.6) called Text to Speech (TTS) which speaks the text in different languages. This tutorial explains how to work with android text to speech or android speech synthesis. In this article i also explained changing the language type, pitch level and speed level.

     Android provides Speech package that makes Text to Speech conversion very easy. android.speech.tts.TextToSpeach class provides necessary methods to the trick. At the start we need to implement the TextToSpeech.OnInitListener to do the initialization. During initialization we can set the Locale, Audio pitch rate, audio speed. setLanguage() method is used to set the language.

In this article I am creating a sample for convert text to speech

1.      Create an android project

2.      Add following views in activity_main.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="#282828"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
 
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:padding="15dip"
        android:text="Text To Speech"
        android:textColor="#0587d9"
        android:textSize="26dip"
        android:textStyle="bold" />
 
    <Spinner
        android:id="@+id/spin"
           android:layout_margin="10dip"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="52dp"
        android:background="@android:drawable/btn_dropdown"
        android:focusable="false" />
 
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/txtText"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="10dip"
        android:layout_marginTop="20dip"
        android:hint="Enter some text to speak"
        android:textColor="#ffffff" />
 
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnSpeak"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="10dip"
        android:text="Speak Out" />
 
</LinearLayout>

3.      Add following code in MainActivity.class 

package com.example.androiddemospeech; 
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Locale; 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.Spinner;
import android.widget.TextView;
 
public class MainActivity extends Activity implements
           TextToSpeech.OnInitListener {
     /** Called when the activity is first created. */
 
     private TextToSpeech tts;
     int spinPosition = 0;
     private Button btnSpeak;
 
     private EditText txtText;
     Spinner spinner;
     ArrayList<String> llist;
     ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;
 
     @Override
     public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
           super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
           setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
           spinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spin);
           // add item in arraylist
           llist = new ArrayList<String>();
           llist.add("Select  Language");
           llist.add("CANADA");
           llist.add("CHINESE");
           llist.add("ENGLISH");
           llist.add("FRANCE");
           llist.add("GERMAN");
           llist.add("ITALIAN");
           llist.add("JAPAN");
           llist.add("UK");
           llist.add("US");
 
           // add list in array adapter
           adapter = new MyAdapter(getApplicationContext(),
               android.R.layout.simple_expandable_list_item_1, llist);
 
           // set adapter in spinner
           spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
 
  // TextToSpeech synthesizes speech from text for immediate playback //or to create a sound file
           tts = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
 
           btnSpeak = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnSpeak);
 
           txtText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.txtText);
 
           // button on click event
           btnSpeak.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
 
                @Override
                public void onClick(View arg0) {
                     speakOut();
                }
 
           });
     }
 
     @Override
     public void onDestroy() {
           // Don't forget to shutdown!
           if (tts != null) {
                tts.stop();
                tts.shutdown();
           }
           super.onDestroy();
     }
 
     @Override
     public void onInit(int status) {
           // TODO Auto-generated method stub
           int result;
           // check item selection from spinner
           if (status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
                switch (spinPosition) {
 
                case 1:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.CANADA);
 
                     break;
                case 2:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.CHINESE);
 
                     break;
                case 3:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.ENGLISH);
 
                     break;
                case 4:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.FRANCE);
 
                     break;
                case 5:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.GERMAN);
 
                     break;
                case 6:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.ITALIAN);
 
                     break;
                case 7:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.JAPAN);
 
                     break;
                case 8:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.UK);
 
                     break;
                case 9:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.US);
 
                     break;
                default:
                     result = tts.setLanguage(Locale.ENGLISH);
                     break;
                }
 
                // tts.setPitch(5); // set pitch level
 
                // tts.setSpeechRate(2); // set speech speed rate
 
                if (result == TextToSpeech.LANG_MISSING_DATA
                       || result == TextToSpeech.LANG_NOT_SUPPORTED) {
 
                } else {
                     btnSpeak.setEnabled(true);
                     speakOut();
                }
 
           } else {
 
           }
 
     }
 
     private void speakOut() {
 
           String text = txtText.getText().toString();
 
           tts.speak(text, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
     }
 // Add custom adapter class for spinner item 
     public class MyAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String> {
 
           public MyAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId,
 
           ArrayList<String> llist) {
 
                super(context, textViewResourceId, llist);
 
                // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
 
           }
 
           @Override
           public View getDropDownView(int position, View cnvtView, ViewGroup prnt) {
 
                LayoutInflater inflater = getLayoutInflater();
 
                View spinnerItem = inflater.inflate(
 
                android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, null);
 
                TextView mytext = (TextView) spinnerItem
 
                .findViewById(android.R.id.text1);
 
                mytext.setText(llist.get(position));
 
                mytext.setTextColor(Color.RED);
                
                // set selected item position
                spinPosition = position;
                mytext.setTextSize(16);
                mytext.setPadding(0, 5, 5, 6);
 
                return spinnerItem;
 
           }
     }
}

Now run your application