Discord Text to Speech – Using Discord TTS (Step-by-Step Guide)

Discord Text to Speech – How to Use Discord TTS (Step-by-Step Guide)

The Discord text to speech function can be a great way to add variety and impact to your text messages. With Discord, you can activate text-to-speech using a simple slash command while typing out your message.  However, you will likely have to enable the feature first, depending on your current user settings.  Also, you should be aware that if others have the feature disabled, they won’t be able to hear what you say.

Those who already use Discord know what a useful and fun tool it can be. The app was originally designed with gamers in mind.  But, Discord now encourages communities and group chats to form around pretty much every type of fandom or subject.  The uses are endless – everything from humorous rants to training guides.  This broad usability is great.  Unfortunately, you can run into some communication issues sometimes.  There can be language barriers,  accessibility issues, and recipients disabling the function.  Nevertheless, Discord has text and voice channels currently available.  So now, anyone can give a text channel voice capability.  It’s simple to do with the Discord text to speech (TTS) feature. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to enable Discord TTS and make sure it’s working.

How to use Discord Text to Speech

Before you can use text to speech, you need to enable it.  To do this, you’ll need to take the following steps:

• Open Discord on your Mac or PC, and then click the gear icon in the bottom-left, near your username.
• Settings – Clicking the gear icon will open your settings. In the sidebar on the left, click “Notifications.”
• Text-to-Speech Notifications – Scroll down this page until you find “Text-to-Speech Notifications.” Underneath it, click either “For all channels” or “For currently selected channel.” The former will make it so you hear every text-to-speech message sent in every server and channel, while the latter will restrict it to the channel you currently have open.
• Text & Images – Next, click “Text & Images” in the sidebar.
• Enable Discord TTS Command – Scroll down to “Allow playback & usage of the /tts command” and toggle on the switch next to it.  Text-to-speech is now enabled.

Once enabled, use text-to-speech to hear your own messages and verify everything is working properly:

• Open Discord – Then navigate to the channel you want to send a voice message in.
• Type “/tts” – This should be followed by a space, and then your message.
• Send the message.

You’ll then see the message appear without the slash command. But, users of the channel will hear your message read aloud by a voice bot.

TTS follows the default system settings of how Discord is being used. Internet browsers such as Chrome or Firefox have a different Text-to-Speech reading bot than Windows or Mac do. Depending on what platform you’re using, you’ll be hearing different TTS voices!  The TTS option in the Text & Images tab is completely separate from the TTS options in the Notifications tab. If a user has TTS notifications enabled like in method one, they will hear your sentences written in TTS, regardless of what TTS settings you’ve selected. Similarly, if they disable TTS notifications, they won’t hear your sentences read in TTS at all.  (Source: support.discord.com)

Discord TTS – Discord Text to Speech not Working

Discord is used for chatting and is available in desktop and mobile versions. You can play messages in a chat using Discord TTS on the desktop version.  Discord TTS does not work on the mobile version. The voice can be changed to different sounds and accents from within the application. But, sometimes this TTS function stops working and the user cannot hear TTS bot sounds in a chat.

Discord text to speech (TTS) may stop working for a number of reasons.  Failure may be due to outdated Windows or if you are using a speaker configuration other then Stereo. The app may also not work if TTS notifications are set to Never.  These are common problems in Discord and can be fixed using easy workarounds. Before trying any solutions, make sure you are using the latest updated version of the Discord app.

Disable and Enable Discord Text to Speech 

Discord TTS not working could be the result of a simple communication or software glitch. To rule that out, it will be a good idea to switch off TTS and then turn it back on. This will reset all the temporary settings and configurations stored in the application.

1. Launch your Discord app.
2. Click on the Cog icon located to the right of the user panel (just below the channel window) to open the User Settings.
3. Select Text & Images.
4. In the right pane of the window, scroll down to the Text to Speech
5. Toggle the switch of Allow playback and usage of /tts command to off.
6. Save your changes and exit Discord.
7. Re-launch Discord and repeat the above steps to enable TTS in Discord.
8. Check if TTS in Discord is working properly once TTS is turned on.

Change the Never Option in TTS Notifications

If you have selected Never for Text to Speech notifications, then there will be no sound available within Discord. Changing this option may solve your problem For all channels or For the currently selected channels:

1. Open User Settings as explained above.
2. In the left pane of the window, click on “Notifications”.
3. In the right pane of the window, go to Text-to-Speech Notifications. Three options will be shown: For all channels, for the currently selected channel, and never.
   • For all channels: Messages of any channel of any server will be played in TTS regardless of TTS command is used or not.
   • For the currently selected channel: Only messages in the current channel will be played in TTS.
   • Never: Disables text to speech and will not allow any audio for the text bot.
4. Change option from Never – Enable either For All Channels or For Current Selected Channel.
5. Save your changes and exit Discord.
6. Re-launch Discord and check if TTS is working fine.

Update your System’s Windows Latest Release

Windows is frequently updated to fix bugs and improve performance. Maybe the bug you are facing has already been patched in the latest version of Windows.  There are instances of Windows conflicting with earlier versions of Discord. If that is the case, updating Windows to the latest release may solve the problem.

1. Close Discord and end its task from the task manager as well (Windows + R and ‘taskmgr’).
2. Press Windows key and type Update. Then in the search results, select Check for Updates. 
3. Click on the button of Check for Updates.  
4. If there are updates available, select install and then restart your system.
5. After your system has restarted, launch Discord and check if TTS is operating properly.

Change Speaker Configuration of Your System to Stereo

If you are using a speaker configuration other then Stereo, then TTS will not be able to function. This is a known bug in the Discord community. Technically there shouldn’t be any difference, but it seems that this option conflicts with the Discord App for some reason. In that case, changing your speaker’s configuration to Stereo may solve the problem.

1. Close Discord.
2. Press Windows key and type Control Panel. Then in the search results, select Control Panel.
3. Then open Hardware and Sound.
4. Click on Sound. 
5. Select your speakers and click on Configure. 
6. Under Audio Channels, select Stereo and click on Next. 
7. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the process of configuring Stereo audio.
8. Launch Discord to check if TTS is working fine.

Discord Text to Speech – Discord TTS Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Discord app do? 

Does the Discord Text-to-Speech feature work well?