Ask Different (Apple)

Q&A for power users of Apple hardware and software

Latest Questions

0 votes

1 answers

360 views

Turn off voice of "Your computer remotely control by **" ScreenSharing MacOS

macos system-settings screen-sharing voiceover speech

I using 2 laptops, both on MacOS with ScreenSharing.\ And when I trying to use second laptop without VNC/ScreenSharing,I hearing voice with attention.\ "Your compture remotely control blah blah"\ How can I disable it ?

                                  I using 2 laptops, both on MacOS with ScreenSharing.\
And when I trying to use second laptop without VNC/ScreenSharing,I hearing voice with attention.\
"Your compture remotely control blah blah"\
How can I disable it ?

                                

Sam (101 rep)

Jun 7, 2024, 06:41 PM • Last activity: Jul 2, 2025, 10:01 PM

2 votes

4 answers

1571 views

Text To Speech - Custom Rate (not on the slider)

preferences macos speech

In System Preferences, under **Dictation & Speech**, there is a **Speaking Rate** setting: ![Dictation & Speech - System Preferences](https://i.sstatic.net/LZidW.png) Is there a way to change the **Speaking Rate** to a value that is not on that slider bar? For example, if I want the speech rate to b...

                                  In System Preferences, under **Dictation & Speech**, there is a **Speaking Rate** setting:

![Dictation & Speech - System Preferences](https://i.sstatic.net/LZidW.png) 

Is there a way to change the **Speaking Rate** to a value that is not on that slider bar? 

For example, if I want the speech rate to be faster than the maximum slider value, how can I do that? There's a way to make the terminal speak certain lines of text faster (e.g. say --rate 500 "hello world"), but I'd like it to be the system-wide setting.

Can this be set using something like default write com.example.apple.speech.rate 999?

user3621156 (51 rep)

Nov 14, 2014, 01:44 AM • Last activity: Mar 8, 2025, 04:21 PM

3 votes

1 answers

408 views

Can Apple Watch read aloud web sites or web pages?

text-to-speech speech

I know that Apple Watch comes with Siri, which is capable of understanding spoken phrases and respond with a short answer. But can it also read an entire website or web page, similar to Android apps like Culinary Pal or Wiki Pal?

                                  I know that Apple Watch comes with Siri, which is capable of understanding spoken phrases and respond with a short answer.

But can it also read an entire website or web page, similar to Android apps like Culinary Pal or Wiki Pal?

WinWin (131 rep)

Apr 9, 2015, 03:27 AM • Last activity: Jun 17, 2024, 07:07 AM

0 votes

0 answers

259 views

Switching voice or accent during Speak Screen when reading same language

iphone ios accessibility language speech

I hope to switch the voice on different languages via Speak Screen. It switches voice and accent on different sentences or paragraphs even when all the text is in the same language, in my case English. - Nothing to do with any translation being needed. - This happens on web pages and pdfs and not ju...

                                  I hope to switch the voice on different languages via Speak Screen. It switches voice and accent on different sentences or paragraphs even when all the text is in the same language, in my case English. 

 - Nothing to do with any translation being needed. 
 - This happens on web pages and pdfs and not just on word processor
   documents where there might be a language field embedded.
 - I've got an English UK voice installed and reading an English document it keeps switching to a Spanish sounding voice speaking in English that is
   very difficult to understand and yet there is no Spanish sounding
   voice installed on the phone. 

Using iOS 14.4 so everything is up to date. Please help with my project 
                                

MikeW (1 rep)

Feb 28, 2021, 02:51 PM • Last activity: Jun 8, 2024, 07:43 PM

1 votes

0 answers

21 views

In MacOS, how do you use the Signet symbol of the Live Speech window?

mac text-to-speech macos speech

I am trying to use Live Speech to easily dictate things repeatedly instead of having to say them I see a signet icon at the right of the Live Speech window, but I cannot understand how to use it. When I click it, it does nothing and the sentences disappear after having been spoken by the computer. [...

                                  I am trying to use Live Speech to easily dictate things repeatedly instead of having to say them

I see a signet icon at the right of the Live Speech window, but I cannot understand how to use it. When I click it, it does nothing and the sentences disappear after having been spoken by the computer.

Can one bookmark their Live Speech items for future reuse? How does it work?
---

MicroMachine (4051 rep)

May 10, 2024, 06:09 AM

0 votes

0 answers

84 views

Set several preferred custom voices on MacOS Ventura

ventura language text-to-speech macos speech

In Ventura, under System Settings > Accessibility > Vision > Spoken Content > System Voice, I have the option to set a single preferred voice. However, I would like to maintain a preferred voice for language 1 and also a preferred voice for language 2, so that toggling languages lets me easily toggl...

                                  In Ventura, under System Settings > Accessibility > Vision > Spoken Content > System Voice, I have the option to set a single preferred voice. However, I would like to maintain a preferred voice for language 1 and also a preferred voice for language 2, so that toggling languages lets me easily toggle between my preferred voices. I would like this also for switching between different dialects of the same language, E.g. UK English and US English. 

Where are the settings to do this in Ventura?

Jason Hemann (123 rep)

Aug 12, 2023, 06:44 PM

1 votes

1 answers

201 views

system wide shortcut for start speaking not working in Microsoft Edge

keyboard speech

I added a shortcut for "start speaking" [![enter image description here][1]][1] it works in Safari: I can select a piece of text then use the shortcut to make my Mac read it aloud for me While in Edge, it stops working, though I can see the shortcut is set in the menu bar: [![enter image description...

                                  I added a shortcut for "start speaking"

it works in Safari: I can select a piece of text then use the shortcut to make my Mac read it aloud for me
While in Edge, it stops working, though I can see the shortcut is set in the menu bar:

Is there ways to make it also work in Edge? I do need this functionality.

Red (13 rep)

Mar 20, 2023, 06:10 PM • Last activity: May 30, 2023, 05:41 PM

0 votes

1 answers

169 views

How to avoid audio clipping when using SAY command in AppleScript?

applescript audio speech

When "say" command is used in AppleScript it seems the audio channel is asleep because the beginning of the word always gets clipped. Subsequent words are find but after a few minutes the audio channel goes into some hibernation mode and the problem happens again. I've tried various things with vari...

say "?"
say "something"

But still the result is not good. Has anyone come up with a solution to this problem?

Steve Torrence (175 rep)

Aug 16, 2021, 05:39 PM • Last activity: May 9, 2023, 06:09 PM

2 votes

1 answers

604 views

Globally Disable Microphone in Big Sur?

cpu macos microphone privacy speech

After upgrading to ***Big Sur*** from ***Catalina***, I remarked my fan was running continuously. Opening Activity Monitor I remarked that "***com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.speechrecognitiond***" was chewing through CPU at 37.3%. Looking a likely candidate, and just being a bit anal about having a...

                                  After upgrading to ***Big Sur*** from ***Catalina***, I remarked my fan was running continuously. Opening Activity Monitor I remarked that "***com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.speechrecognitiond***" was chewing through CPU at 37.3%.

 Looking a likely candidate, and just being a bit anal about having a microphone in an ***always-on*** state, I wanted to knock that nonsense on the head.

There was a microphone graphic on my screen which presented the option to "***Sleep***" which when clicked then presented the option to toggle the mic to "***Wake Up***". Clicking this did nothing: Speech Recognition nonetheless kept the fan humming and chomping through CPU cycles.

After toggling every application's access to the microphone to deny access, "***com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.speechrecognitiond***" was still happily chomping through CPU.

***Where is a setting to toggle the microphone off at OS level in Big Sur?!?!?!***

F1Linux (1731 rep)

Jan 6, 2021, 12:26 AM • Last activity: Oct 3, 2021, 03:09 AM

3 votes

2 answers

996 views

How do I use AppleScript or Automator to turn Time Announce on or off at specified times?

applescript automator high-sierra time speech

I like Time Announce during the day while I am working. But I want it off when I am sleeping. Apple's Do Not Disturb function will mute notifications and sounds associated with them, but it has no effect on Time Announce. Elsewhere on this site there is an old answer from a number of years ago that...

                                  I like Time Announce during the day while I am working. But I want it off when I am sleeping. 

Apple's Do Not Disturb function will mute notifications and sounds associated with them, but it has no effect on Time Announce.

Elsewhere on this site there is an old answer from a number of years ago that offered this script:

**do shell script "defaults write ./com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs TimeAnnouncementPrefs -dict TimeAnnouncementsEnabled -bool YES"**

Similar script to turn it off.

Another answer can be found here, but goes back to the days of Mountain Lion:

*https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/53495/how-do-i-enable-announce-the-time-programmatically* 

I am new here and a rank beginner to Aapplescript. I do not have the privilege of commenting yet to seek clarification from the authors of the answers presented. 

These scripts do not work on Mac OS X High Sierra (10.13). While the first script will compile, when run nothing happens. The script from the page referenced won't even compile. Syntax error about an unknown token after an identifer.

In addition, making a change manually to this preference in settings requires my password to unlock. Can AppleScript or Automator deal with that too?

NormG (43 rep)

Oct 22, 2017, 05:25 PM • Last activity: Sep 1, 2021, 04:09 AM

2 votes

1 answers

504 views

The speech voice my new Mac speaks is different from my old one

mac audio speech

I purchased M1 MacBook Air but it speaks different voice from my old Mac (2017 MacBook). I thought the voice is set at System Preferences | Accessibility | Spoken Content, but both of my Mac are set to Ting-Ting. However, the voices my Macs speak are different between devices, and I don't like the w...

                                  I purchased M1 MacBook Air but it speaks different voice from my old Mac (2017 MacBook). I thought the voice is set at System Preferences | Accessibility | Spoken Content, but both of my Mac are set to Ting-Ting. 

However, the voices my Macs speak are different between devices, and I don't like the way my M1 Mac speaks. 

I play the speech either on Memrise or Anki, where I use the third-party speech tools:

* https://github.com/cooljingle/memrise-audio-provider 
* https://github.com/AwesomeTTS/awesometts-anki-addon  (where I use 'OS X Speech Synthesis)

Ting-Ting is a Chinese female voice but I play the speech on Korean and English as well as Chinese, and all of them seem to be different. 

Is there something I'm missing? Why are these different and how can I make them speak in the same voice? 

Both Mac is run on the latest version of Big Sur. 

--- 
### UPDATE

I have found that the setting on System Preferences | Accessibility | Spoken Content does not have any effect on the voice of the aforementioned tools. I tried several different speaker such as French male but the voice did not change.

Blaszard (3903 rep)

Dec 20, 2020, 11:02 PM • Last activity: Feb 13, 2021, 12:46 AM

0 votes

1 answers

330 views

How to stop speech in automator action

applescript automator text-to-speech speech

I can make an Applescript within automator so it reads text at N speed: on run {input, parameters} repeat with thisText in input say thisText speaking rate 400 end repeat end run However, is there a way to stop the speech at any given point? There is the option of clicking the cogwheel at the top me...

                                  I can make an Applescript within automator so it reads text at N speed:

    on run {input, parameters}
      repeat with thisText in input
          say thisText speaking rate 400
      end repeat
    end run


However, is there a way to stop the speech at any given point? There is the option of clicking the cogwheel at the top menu bar, but I was looking for a shortcut-able way.
                                

Emmanuel Goldstein (103 rep)

May 27, 2020, 09:02 AM • Last activity: Jun 14, 2020, 04:15 PM

0 votes

1 answers

102 views

How to save text to speech as a voice recording?

macos bash zsh text-to-speech speech

say "Hello World" is pretty neato, but it requires the terminal to stay open. Is there a nice way to save the recording from what a "say" would output as a file?

                                      say "Hello World"

is pretty neato, but it requires the terminal to stay open. Is there a nice way to save the recording from what a "say" would output as a file?

madprogramer (143 rep)

Apr 28, 2020, 09:51 AM • Last activity: Apr 28, 2020, 12:51 PM

0 votes

1 answers

71 views

How to get back Chinese Speech after upgrading to Mojave?

macos speech

After upgrading to Mojave, I cannot use Chinese Speech any more. If I go to Preference → Accessibility → Speech and choose any of the Chinese Speech (Mandarin, Cantonese), for Ting-Ting, Sin-ji, Mei-Jia, it just gives me a "DONG" sound and doesn't work.

                                  After upgrading to Mojave, I cannot use Chinese Speech any more. If I go to 

    Preference → Accessibility → Speech

and choose any of the Chinese Speech (Mandarin, Cantonese), for Ting-Ting, Sin-ji, Mei-Jia, it just gives me a "DONG" sound and doesn't work.

nonopolarity (9766 rep)

Dec 7, 2019, 07:35 AM • Last activity: Dec 7, 2019, 10:48 PM

1 votes

1 answers

267 views

Is Speech Synthesis protected by copyright or patent law? What does Mac OS License protect?

music recording license speech copyright

I know that according to a question asked by another user here https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/43290/are-the-apple-text-to-speech-voices-copyrighted > "No other use of the System Voices is permitted by this License, including but not limited to the > use, reproduction, display, performance...

                                  I know that according to a question asked by another user here https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/43290/are-the-apple-text-to-speech-voices-copyrighted 

> "No other use of the System Voices is permitted by this License, including but not limited to the
> use, reproduction, display, performance, recording, publishing or
> redistribution of any of the System Voices in a profit, non-profit,
> public sharing or commercial context."

But what is that License? Is it a patent or is it copyright? What kind of protection does the license include?
At what point do these protections actually limit use?

I am considering Radiohead's Fitter Happier song for instance.
                                

Jss (11 rep)

Nov 13, 2019, 06:42 PM • Last activity: Nov 13, 2019, 08:04 PM

3 votes

2 answers

949 views

Talking clock in a different language

macos clock text-to-speech speech

I've got my Mac speaking me the time every hour, but I'm currently trying to learn French so I thought it would be a good idea to make it speak the time in French. However, rather than saying "Il est 11 heures." she says "It's 11 hours." (in a lovely French accent). Is it possible to make her actual...

                                  I've got my Mac speaking me the time every hour, but I'm currently trying to learn French so I thought it would be a good idea to make it speak the time in French.

However, rather than saying "Il est 11 heures." she says "It's 11 hours." (in a lovely French accent).

Is it possible to make her actually speak French?

Tom Leese (81 rep)

Mar 19, 2015, 07:04 PM • Last activity: Sep 13, 2019, 09:45 PM

1 votes

0 answers

31 views

Toggle "Announce the Time" when presenting?

macos automation time speech

[This answer](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/303113/13096) shows how to programmatically toggle "Announce the time", but how can I automatically trigger this when I dis/connect from/to (certain) external displays?

                                  [This answer](https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/303113/13096)  shows how to programmatically toggle "Announce the time", but how can I automatically trigger this when I dis/connect from/to (certain) external displays?
                                

Michael (447 rep)

Sep 5, 2019, 03:39 AM

2 votes

3 answers

7714 views

iPhone 5s speaks the words I type when I text

ios keyboard iphone text-to-speech speech

My iPhone 5s speaks the words I type while texting. How do I stop iPhone 5s from speaking the words I type when texting?

                                  My iPhone 5s speaks the words I type while texting.  How do I stop iPhone 5s from speaking the words I type when texting?
                                

user129993 (21 rep)

May 30, 2015, 07:51 PM • Last activity: Mar 22, 2018, 08:45 PM

1 votes

1 answers

154 views

Is there a way to start speaking a word using macOS text to speech by hovering over it and pressing a shortcut?

macos shortcut text-to-speech speech

I want it to speak the word without selecting it, just hovering over it + a shortcut. Or by pressing a shortcut after using the lookup feature in Mac.

                                  I want it to speak the word without selecting it, just hovering over it + a shortcut. Or by pressing a shortcut after using the lookup feature in Mac.
                                

Yaman KJ (13 rep)

Jun 5, 2017, 10:43 PM • Last activity: Jun 5, 2017, 11:40 PM

4 votes

1 answers

6756 views

Which ios devices support offline speech recognition

iphone ipad speech

Which ios devices allow a user to do speech recognition (the microphone in the keyboard to type) when there is no internet connection (or a slow connection). My brand new iPad mini cannot do it but some other devices can. Is there a list or some other way to know?

                                  Which ios devices allow a user to do speech recognition (the microphone in the keyboard to type) when there is no internet connection (or a slow connection).

My brand new iPad mini cannot do it but some other devices can.

Is there a list or some other way to know?

gregm (143 rep)

Mar 25, 2017, 01:47 PM • Last activity: Mar 25, 2017, 03:23 PM

Showing page 1 of 20 total questions