Speech Typing or Read-Aloud “Not Available in This Browser”

Two tools rely on features built into your browser rather than our code: Speech to Text (dictation) and Text to Speech (read aloud).

Speech to Text

If you see Speech typing is not available in this browser, open the tool in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Safari. Firefox and some privacy browsers don’t include speech recognition.

Text to Speech

If you see This browser cannot read text aloud, try Chrome, Edge or Safari. The voices you can pick come from your device: phones and computers with more languages installed offer more voices.

No voice for my language

Android: Settings → search “Text-to-speech” → Preferred engine (Speech Services by Google) → install voice data.
Windows: Settings → Time & language → Speech → Manage voices → Add voices.
iPhone: Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices.

Which browser on which device?

Android: Chrome is the most reliable for both tools. Samsung Internet supports read-aloud; speech typing depends on the version.
iPhone and iPad: Safari supports both. Other iPhone browsers use Safari’s engine, so results are similar.
Windows: Edge has many natural-sounding online voices for read-aloud; Chrome works well for speech typing.
Mac: Safari or Chrome.

Why Firefox doesn’t work for speech typing

Speech recognition in browsers needs a speech service built into the browser. Firefox doesn’t include one yet, so the tool can’t offer dictation there. Read-aloud does work in Firefox with the voices of your system.

Other options

Most phone keyboards have a microphone key for dictation (Gboard on Android, the iPhone keyboard), which works in any app, including the tool’s text box.

Tools: Speech to Text · Text to Speech

Still stuck?

Contact support. Tell us which tool or page you were using, what you tapped, what you saw, and your phone or computer and browser (for example: Android phone, Chrome). We reply by email.