Text-To-Speech On TikTok: How Does It Work?

Many of us have become accustomed to the convenience of text-to-speech, whether we’re in the car listening to texts from friends, having a Google Doc read aloud to us, or using the function that’s now included with modern Windows or Mac devices.

TikTok is one of the only social media platforms to have text-to-speech built in. It’s a valuable feature for content creators who want to make their posts more accessible to TikTok users, but it’s also useful for adding narration over music, attracting more attention to TikTok videos, and as a way to add entertaining content elements.

If any of that sounds complicated, don’t be intimidated. You don’t need any special technical expertise to use text-to-speech on the app. Here’s what to do.

How Text-to-Speech Works on TikTok

You start by recording a video (or uploading content) as you normally would. Tap the “+” icon in the middle of the home screen, choose the maximum length of your video, and hit the big record button on the Creator screen. (If you’re uploading video or photos from your camera reel, do it from the icon to the right of the record button.)

After you’ve finished recording:

1. Tap “Next” to move to the Editing screen.
2. If you want to use music in your video, click “Add sound” at the top of the screen and choose the song that should play in your TikTok content.
3. Tap the “Text” icon (Aa) on the right-hand editing menu.
4. Type the text you want to convert to speech. When done, either tap the “Text to speech” button or the icon showing a talking head, depending on your TikTok version. You’ll hear the system’s default voice reading your text; you can change to an enormous range of alternative voices in many different categories (like narration, comedy, and entertainment) selectable from the top bar in the pop-up window.
5. When satisfied, tap “Done.” Preview the video to make sure you’re happy with the text-to-speech insertion, do any other necessary editing, and you can upload your TikTok post.

We told you it was simple!