Google Text-to-speech, the underlying engine for converting on screen text to speech has been updated. Version 3.13.3 is now rolling out and with it comes support for Filipino and Greek languages.
Chances are that the majority of readers have never leveraged the TTS engine but it is a critical application for those with visual impairments who need the text on their device display’s read aloud to them. Setting up of the engine is done in Settings>Accessibility and powers Google’s TalkBack feature built into Android.
The addition of Filipino and Greek means that devices setup in these languages can now leverage Google Text-to-Speech to have their screen content read to them in that language.
Along with the language support, the app has a new experimental setting to detect the language in use on Android Oreo devices and other improvements to the voices used by the service. The language improvements are a benefit to all users of the app, not just the new languages.
The update will come to everyone via an OTA update that is rolling out now. You should see it come to your phone and tablet over the course of the next few days. For more details on the app itself, you can head over to the Google Play Store.
