Voice is becoming more and more prevalent as a mode of interaction with all kinds of devices and services. The ability to provide not only voice input but also voice output or Text-to-speech (TTS), is also becoming a critical technology that supports AI. Whether you need to interact on a device, over the phone, in a vehicle, through a building PA system, or even with a translated input, TTS is a crucial part of your end-to-end solution. It is also a necessity for all applications that enable accessibility.
We are excited to announce that the Speech API, a Microsoft Cognitive Service, now offers six new TTS languages to all developers, bringing the total number of available languages to 34:
- Bulgarian (language code: bg-BG)
- Croatian (hr-HR)
- Malaysia (ms-MY)
- Slovenian (sl-SI)
- Tamil (ta-IN)
- Vietnamese (vi-VN)
Powered by the latest AI technology, these 34 languages are available across 48 locales and 78 voice fonts. Through a single API, developers can access the latest-generation of speech recognition and TTS models.
This Text-to-Speech API can be integrated by developers for a broad set of use cases. It can be used on its own for accessibility, hand-free communication or media consumption, or any other machine-to-human interactions. It can also be combined with other Cognitive Services APIs such as the Speech to Text and Language Understanding ones to create comprehensive voice driven solutions, online or on device.
In addition, these new TTS languages will become available through the Microsoft Translator Speech API and the Microsoft Translator apps by the end of February 2018, making these new languages text-to-speech output available for developers integrating the Translator speech API as well as end-users of the Microsoft Translator apps and Translator live feature.
Try these new TTS languages today
For the complete list of our 34 languages, 48 locales and 78 voice fonts please refer to this documentation