How to change the horrible robotic voice when navigating with Android phone?

[Drabslab]

@Jack-van-Tilburg hai jack, they probably don't know that we know each other already a bit longer and can take some banter and teasing from each other with a big smile.

The negative votes are well meant for sure but luckily not needed in this case

[Jack van Tilburg]

@Drabslab

[PAT62]

Ik heb hetzelfde probleem met mijn iPhone, een afschuwelijke mannelijke robot stem en ook nog in het Engels, het zout toch mogelijk moeten zijn om en de taal en de stem te kiezen zoals het geval is bij andere navigatie apps, bijvoorbeeld bij Scenic heb ik gekozen voor een aangename en vriendelijke vrouwelijke stem in het Frans mits dit mijn moedertaal is. Ik begrijp niet dat ze bij MRA hier niet aan gedacht hebben, hopelijk wordt dit wel opgelost in een nabije toekomst.

[Jack van Tilburg]

@PAT62
Heb je de instellingen op jouw iPhone al bekeken?
Ga naar 'Instellingen' > 'Toegankelijkheid' > 'VoiceOver' en tik op 'Spraak'.
Kies daar de gewenste stem.

[Con Hennekens]

Voor de Android gebruikers:
instellingen - Toegankelijkheidsfuncties - toegangkelijkheid - Tekst-naar-Spraak

[Rob Verhoeff]

@PAT62 in iOS niet kiezen voor Siri Stem 1 of Stem 2!
Overigens is het volledige pad in Nederlands:
Instellingen > Toegankelijkheid > Gesproken materiaal > Stemmen > Nederlands > [kies je stem: Claire, Xander of Ellen (Ellen = Vlaams)].

[PAT62]

@Jack-van-Tilburg
Hallo Jack,
sorry voor de late antwoord, ik heb pas vandaag een test route kunnen doen en ja hoor nu zijn de instructies door een aangename dame stem, na dat ik uw instructies heb gevolgd en de instellingen van mijn iPhone heb aangepast.

Hartelijk dank hiervoor.

[PAT62]

@Rob-Verhoeff
Hallo Rob,
sorry voor de late antwoord, ik heb pas vandaag een test route kunnen doen en ja hoor nu zijn de instructies door een aangename dame stem, na dat ik uw instructies heb gevolgd en de instellingen van mijn iPhone heb aangepast.

Hartelijk dank hiervoor.

[Lenny O]

@Con-Hennekens
Hello, Con!
On my Samsung 22+ I only have 2 options under "text to speech" - English or Spanish.
What should I change than to get rid of the ugly voice I am getting....?
Thanks!

[Corjan Meijerink]

@Lenny-O As of the latest update, you can directly choose the voice from the app

Go to settings > Navigation settings > Audio.

[Con Hennekens]

@Lenny-O, Nowadays (since the last update) you can set the voice in the app-settings itself. It also gives much more choice in voices then most Android OSses. It is however still the OS speech synthesis being used. Tak a look at the Audio settings in the app.

[Lenny O]

@Corjan-Meijerink Thank you! I did try that, but no matter which voice I choose, I still get the ugly robotic voice. And I have no idea what setting on the phone needs to be changed or whatever causes that...

[Lenny O]

@Con-Hennekens Thank you! I did try that, but no matter which voice I choose, I still get the ugly robotic voice. And I have no idea what setting on the phone needs to be changed or whatever causes that..

[Lenny O]

******UPDATE *** ***** ISSUE RESOLVED ********

Ok, folks. All good now!
Going thru the settings in the Audio section of the MyRoute App on my Galaxy S22+,
I've noticed that the TTS Engine was saying <Unknown>.
Upon touching it, the new screen came up and offered 2 choices:

1. Samsung Engine
2. Google Engine

Both work nicely with pleasant voice. BUT...
the Google Engine is the one that offers many languages and many voices within.
Samsung Engine offered English or Spanish with limited voices.

SO, I hope it helps someone else.

P.S. I was, as suggested by the Forum, looking for the "Engine" in phone settings, and that did not cure anything, no matter what I did...

[Corjan Meijerink]

@Lenny-O great!

[Con Hennekens]

@Lenny-O, That's indeed what we meant

[M. Schrijver]

Does anybody know a good alternative to the robotic voice of the Google engine.
The previous MRA navigation app had it's own voice engine. That one sounded much better.

[Con Hennekens]

@M-Schrijver said in How to change the horrible robotic voice when navigating with Android phone?:

Does anybody know a good alternative to the robotic voice of the Google engine.

The MRA app offers a plethora of voices to choose from within the app audio settings. Some are pretty fluent. Try them.

[M. Schrijver]

Those are variants (speed corrections) of the standard Google Engine which are also selectable in the Android settings. De selectable voices in MRA are not specific for MRA. MRA just made the already available option easy accessible.
The Google Engine does have some better voices than the standard horrible female robotic voice. But they are still not that easy to listen to and still low on volume.
But the famous dutch voice "Bram" (many TomTom devices) is much much more easier to listen to. This is a natural voice.

The previous MRA navigation app had also the option for those more natural voices.

[Con Hennekens]

@M-Schrijver said in How to change the horrible robotic voice when navigating with Android phone?:

Those are variants (speed corrections) of the standard Google Engine which are also selectable in the Android settings.

I cannot argue about your phone, but on mine that is definitely not true. In the Android settings I have no choice in voices whatsoever. In the app I get to choose between 11 Dutch voices. Some of them really sound alike. but not all. Voice 1 is the standard android voice which Google Maps also uses. I guess that this is the one you call "robotic". I prefere Voice 11, a naturally speaking female voice. Voice 10 is a naturally speaking male voice.

This recording shows 3 completely different voices:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4y6bNgHKbhGgyKhc8