TikTok has become an emerging platform for creators to share their voices online. But few voices on TikTok are as recognizable as “Jessie,” its default text-to-speech bot. Jessie debuted in May 2021, revamping her previous default voice and has now become the official narrator of countless viral videos. If you notice her energetic candor in her videos, or the voices of her preset text-to-speech bot companions Joey, Eddie, Chris, Alex, and Scream, you may be wondering how to use the TikTok text-to-speech feature.
One of the biggest benefits of TikTok text-to-speech is that it enhances the app’s accessibility for people with visual impairments, allowing them to watch TikTok without having to read any text on the screen. It has become a standard for creators to provide closed captions for users who are deaf, mute, or hard of hearing, and TikTok’s automatic captioning feature facilitates this. Therefore, using text-to-speech can go hand in hand with using closed captions, simply turn on text-to-speech when closed captions are available on the video. It's a simple way to make TikTok an easier place for everyone to enjoy.
If you've been wanting to implement this feature on your videos, here's a step-by-step guide on how to use TikTok's text-to-speech feature.
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How to use TikTok’s text-to-speech feature
To use text-to-speech in your next TikTok video, shoot a TikTok as you normally would on the app, just tap the plus sign in the middle of the tab at the bottom of the app. Select 15 seconds, 30 seconds or 3 minutes as the time limit for your video, then shoot the video as usual. Once you're done, click the red checkmark in the lower right corner of the screen to edit your footage.
Next, add any text you plan to use on TikTok. To do this, click on the "Aa" icon at the bottom of the screen and enter any message you want. You can also use Set Duration to format the appearance of the text, where it appears on the screen, and at what point in the video it appears. (While you can add closed captions manually or automatically on TikTok, adding text-to-speech to any subtitles you're already speaking out loud in a video isn't ideal—because text-to-speech's voice only speaks to you.)
Once you've finished writing your text, you can add text-to-speech in one of two ways. While you're still editing text, you can select Text-to-Speech using the third icon from the left that looks like a talking head. If you've added text to your video, you can choose to add text-to-speech by clicking on the text and selecting the talking avatar icon.
From here, you'll be prompted to choose from TikTok's preset sound selections. Jessie is the default voice with an American accent, and Joey and Alex also speak with American accents. Eddie and Chris speak with Australian accents, and Scream talks like Ghostface from Scream . Choose your favorite sound and voila. TikTok text-to-speech bot will read your text instantly. (There's no guarantee, though, that the bot will know how to pronounce all your words — as TikTokers have discovered with some hilarious faux pas.)
