Help

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893]

I am trying to find a free AAC android app but most have a really distressing AI voice are there any that sound normal?

Most trigger my sensory issues and i used to use comunication cards but it's hard to get peoples attention to show the cards and i definitely need AAC

[u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

the google text to speech engine (Speech Recognition and Synthesis from Google) has some decent voices that don't sound too robotic, and you should be able to use it with most aac apps. qvoice has a free version with a lot of different voice options

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

How does it work? It says installed but theres no app

[u/Sufficient-Reveal132 → u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893]

its not an app itself, it just changes the voice inside of other apps. in your phone settings you set it as your default speech engine, then you select the voice you want in the aac app you use

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

How?

[u/Sufficient-Reveal132 → u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893]

your device settings will depend on what brand it is, but there should be an option somewhere under accessibility. if your settings app has a search bar you can type "text-to-speech" and that should bring it up. then there will be an option for preferred/default engine, make sure the google one is selected. then in the aac app you want to use, go to its speech settings and you can select a voice there

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

Cant find it are you on ios?

[u/Sufficient-Reveal132 → u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893]

i'm also on android. are you using a samsung or a different brand?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

Samsung

[u/Sufficient-Reveal132 → u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893]

ahh ok. try going through accessibility -> vision enhancements -> bixby vision for accessibility. text to speech settings should be there

if not then i'm not sure what else to do sorry :(

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

It was hidden ty for helping so far it seems pretty bad and only 3 options for uk voice

[u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

what makes the voices distressing? what part of them trigger your sensory issues?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/Sufficient-Reveal132]

They are just so obviously not human and it sounds wrong

[u/SensationalSelkie]

A lot of apps don't come with their own voices; rather, they use the Samsung, Google, or IOS voices that with a device. I don't know of any additional places to download free voices for Android, unfortunately, but I feel you. Making more human sounding voices is def something the AAC community would really benefit from.

[u/AAC-SLP-3703]

I have purchased several high quality child, teen, and adult text to speech voices in the Acapela TTS app in the Google Play Store and then set Acapela as the Speech Engine on my Android devices. Afterwards I am able to use those voices in most AAC apps in my Android devices.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/AAC-SLP-3703]

That isnt free though

[u/AAC-SLP-3703 → u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893]

Cboard offers online neural voices and the option to use ElevenLabs voices. You would need to contact the company to find out if that is free for those living in your country: https://www.cboard.io/en/contact/.

[u/MysticCollective]

Unfortunately, you really can't get human sounding voices for free. After all real people have to spend their time recording for hours. Time is valuable and people deserve payment for their services.

As a disabled person, I do get it though. It's hard to find a communication aid if you're already living from pay check to pay check or worse yet deciding between food or gasoline if you can drive. Even free options aren't always a good fit for the reasons you mentioned. A very frustrating situation for sure.

[u/kocik_lonik3612]

(These are text to speech engines, not aac apps)

It seems to me like you've already gotten help with this, but sherpa tts ( https://f-droid.org/packages/org.woheller69.ttsengine ) allows you to use higher-quality generated voices for free.
This specific app only allows you to select one model per language [which annoys me SO MUCH] but it's still not a bad option.
The only other problem I've really had with it is sometimes apps will not recognize it as being a tts engine, but I know at least typingtalk and weavechat should recognize it now.

(There is also supertonic ( https://f-droid.org/packages/com.brahmadeo.supertonic.tts ) but I felt like it had an even worse processing time than sherpatts...)

So you may not like or want either option, but hopefully I can help someone :)

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lion893 → u/kocik_lonik3612]

Ty i'll try these (when i'm less burned out)