Hear2Read NG Text to Speech

Hear2Read

About this app

To use Hear2ReadNG with TalkBack:
• Download the desired Indic voice first in the App.
• In the TTS settings menu under Android Settings, choose Hear2ReadNG as the preferred TTS engine.
• Set the TTS language to the desired Indic voice/language

After the TTS engine has been changed to Hear2ReadNG, it will start speaking the English UI with the Google TTS voice and all Indic language text will be read with Hear2ReadNG.

Hear2Read Ⓡ NG Text-To-Speech (TTS) service uses Deep Neural Network (DNN) technology to provide natural (human like) synthetic speech.
This is not an online text to speech App. No internet connection is required to convert text to speech after the Voice (DNN model) for the particular language has been added to the App.

The App is useful for users with Visual Impairment (VI) for use with Talkback, as well as users without Visual Impairments who wish to read by listening.

Speech synthesis using DNN technology requires a text string of several words rather than a character or word at a time. This is necessary to generate natural (not robotic) speech. This results in some delay at the beginning. The delay depends on the CPU speed and the length of the initial text string being synthesized. DNN technology requires faster CPUs than TTS apps that synthesize character or word at a time, such as eSpeak and the original Hear2Read App released in 2016.

We are in the process of adding a measurement (Real Time Factor) that tells the user how fast the synthesis occurs on the device used being used. This number needs to be .1 or less. The first implementation of this factor in release 2.4.2 (dated Sep 10, 2026) is not correct. We are working on correcting it.

Currently it supports the following Indic languages:

* Assamese
* Gujarati
* Hindi
* Kannada
* Malayalam
* Marathi
* Nepali
* Odia
* Punjabi
* Sinhala
* Tamil
* Telugu

After installing the App and the voice(s), set Hear2Read as “Preferred engine” under Text-to-speech output setting.

Starting with Release 2.4.2, the App uses an alternate TTS for English with the Google English TTS default. This makes navigation smooth and more responsive. Users can change the English TTS to their preferred English TTS.

Hear2Read App includes a demo screen for each supported language. In addition to the prepopulated sample text in the demo screen, users can paste any text (up to 1000 bytes) of their own choosing to read by listening. The demo screen is not a screen reading App.

Hear2Read TTS Engine runs as a background service (same as Google TTS service) to convert text to speech. Any App (such as Talkback or @Voice Aloud) can use it to convert Indic text to speech thereby "Reading by Listening”. It does not save the text sent to it or the speech audio output. All audio output is sent to the App that sent the text for conversion.

Requires devices Android 12 or higher.

Please send comments and questions to [e-mail].

What’s new

- Adding separate TTS for English. English text will now be spoken by the Google TTS, making usage possible without AutoTTS
- Correcting thread overuse issue and improving response time and robustness
- Adding Real time factor to the demo screen, which indicates performance independent of text length