Better AI for text to voice in Storyline 360

Hi George, 

Thanks for taking the time to reach out about what you'd like to see with Text-to-Speech! We currently have an active request for this feature, and I'm happy to add your plus one to the list and share your insight with our team.

We'll be sure to jump back in here to let you know as we expand that feature set or make any changes, as your voice truly helps us prioritize and determine the next steps.

My team and I would also love to see improvements in the TTS capabilities. TTS is such a great feature! However, one of the ongoing issues we've experienced is the difficulty in affecting pronunciation, or adding emphasis such as anger where appropriate. Any updates that would make the narrators sound more human would be helpful.

Articulate has done such a good job implementing TTS so far, I hope you continue development on this feature.

Thanks!

I agree, I think an update to the TTS capabilities of Storyline is very desirable.

Have there been any updates on this request? We are now having to use WellSaid for voice overs as Storyline TTS voices are too robotic. Looking forward to any enhancements!

Hi Elyse,

Thanks for checking in!

I don't have an update just yet, but we're currently tracking this feature request, so it's still on our radar. I'll add your vote and will be sure to update this discussion if this makes it to our feature roadmap.

Unfortunately tracking things doesn't actually get us users to have the requested function - I mentioned TTS limitations years ago and no changes have been made. Just like this feed which 2 years ago - same status. I now use Lovo AI to replace Storyline's built in TTS (just 1 example among so many out there). It's a pity to have to go outside to find a solution that Storyline should be offering to its users.

Hi Elyse and Katia, 

I just wanted to share some news about Storyline 360 Update 80. This update might be interesting for you since you’ve explored other options to improve the quality of TTS. In update 80, we have taken advantage of Amazon Polly’s neural text to speech feature. You will see better versions of most of the voices when inserting TTS audio. These will show up in the same place as the standard voices, under “Neural Voices”. These are voices that sound more natural and human-like and are considerably higher in quality compared to the older standard TTS voices.

A list of these voices can be found  here. Updating Storyline 360 to the latest version is super easy, here is the guide in case anyone needs it.

We will continue to keep tabs on requests to support ways to control emphasis, speaking rate, inserting silence, pronunciation and SSML support in general. Please let me know of any feedback (good or bad), around this enhancement and we’ll be happy to pass it along to our dedicated team of engineers. 

All the best,
Michael Marcos
Customer Support Product Liaison

Hi Michael

I haven't yet had the time to check out the updates  - will do so. But as this was a recurring request from our users (external & internal), we decided to subscribe to an external AI voice-generated tool which has now completely replaced our use of Storyline's TTS.

Hi Michael,

Like Katia, we also have subscribed to an external AI voice platform. I will check out the Neural Voices though. Curious to hear how they compare to the other application we are now using. Thanks!

Thank you both for spending the time to reply. Really appreciate it and I'll look forward to your feedback Elyse! 

Much appreciated,
MM

Hi, everyone!

I have some great news to share. We just released another update for Storyline 360. In Update 83, we’ve included important fixes and new features!

One enhanced feature we’ve included:

Unlock new possibilities for text-to-speech audio. Use speech synthesis markup language (SSML) to adjust the speaking rate, modify pronunciation, emphasize words, add pauses, and more.

To take advantage of this update, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer, and click the Update button next to Storyline 360. You'll find our step-by-step instructions here!