TTS Settings in Jieshuo Screen Reader

Jieshuo screen reader is known for its extensive customization options. This post will cover the TTS settings, which include configurations for TTS engines and other speech-related settings.

Accessing TTS Settings

To access the TTS settings, go to “Screen Reader Settings” and select “TTS Settings”.

Main and Secondary TTS Engines Settings

The first two items in the TTS settings are the main TTS engine and the secondary TTS engine. Jieshuo uses two TTS engines: the main engine is the primary engine, while the secondary engine reads specific types of information, such as time announcements when unlocking the device or incoming notifications.

Main TTS Engine

In this section, you will find the following options:

• Select TTS engine: You can choose the TTS engine you want Jieshuo to use. Free users can select between the system TTS engine or the built-in eSpeak (available in the Jieshuo+ version). Pro subscribers can choose from all installed engines, in addition to the Baidu cloud TTS engine.
• Open engine settings: This opens the settings for the selected engine. If the system engine is chosen, it will open the system’s text-to-speech settings. For other engines, their respective apps will open, but this may not work with all engines.
• TTS rate acceleration: Allows users to increase the speech rate beyond normal limits, although it may not work with all engines (e.g., AutoTTS).
• TTS rate/volume/pitch: Controls the speech rate, volume, and pitch respectively. To select a value, simply double-tap from the list of available values.
• Use a single TTS engine: When checked, only the main TTS engine is used for all speech output. However, configurations in the “scenario adaptive TTS configurations” settings will still apply.
• Audio ducking: Lowers the volume of other sounds (e.g., media playback) when Jieshuo is speaking.
• Use accessibility volume: By default, Jieshuo uses the media volume for speech and earcons. To use the accessibility volume channel instead, check this box.
• Use proximity sensor: When enabled, Jieshuo will stop speaking when the proximity sensor near the earpiece is triggered. This feature may not work on devices without a hardware sensor, such as most current Samsung phones.
• Stop reading when touching the screen: Interrupts speech immediately when the screen is touched.
• Prevent screen from locking while speaking: Keeps the screen unlocked as long as Jieshuo is speaking.

Secondary TTS Engine

This section covers settings for the secondary TTS engine. All of the above options are found here except the option to prevent the screen from locking while Jieshuo is speaking.

Scenario Adaptive TTS Configurations

In this section, you can customize TTS settings specific to certain modes or announcements. For more detailed information, refer to the post on Scenario Adaptive Configurations.

System TTS Settings

This is simply a shortcut to the system’s text-to-speech settings.

iFlytek TTS and eSpeak TTS Settings

These sections are dedicated to the iFlytek Chinese TTS engine, which is available in the pro Jieshuo Plus version, and the eSpeak TTS engine, which comes with Jieshuo+ and is available to all users. Note that while the iFlytek engine can read English, it does so with a Chinese accent.

Custom Symbol Definition Settings

For more details on this feature, refer to the post on Custom Symbol Definitions.

Word Exclusions and Symbol Handling Settings

You can learn more about these features in the word exclusions and symbol handling post.

Other Settings

In this section, you will find the following options:

• Queue notifications: When enabled, Jieshuo will not interrupt what it is reading to read incoming notifications (if notification reading is enabled). Instead, it will wait until it finishes speaking before announcing the notifications. If disabled, speech will be interrupted as soon as a notification arrives. This option only applies when the same TTS engine is used for both the main engine and notification reading. If different engines are used, the main engine will continue speaking while the secondary engine reads the notification.
• Slow down speech in character by character browsing mode: Whether checked or not, there doesn’t seem to be any noticeable change in the speech speed while in character by character browsing mode or when using the “spell current focus” function.
• Bypass bluetooth speaker/headphones for speech output: This option is supposed to direct Jieshuo’s speech to the phone’s speaker instead of a connected Bluetooth device. However, in practice, it often doesn’t work as expected on most devices, and results in Jieshuo’s speech coming from both the Bluetooth device and the phone’s speaker simultaneously.
• Pause speech while microphone Is in use: When checked, Jieshuo will stop speaking while the microphone is being used by an app, such as during voice recording or voice input. However, Jieshuo will still announce user interactions, such as the focused item when navigating by touch or gestures.
• Use the enhanced accessibility volume: It is not recommended to enable this option unless you need to use the accessibility channel for Jieshuo and are facing issues. Some users have reported that this option can lead to unnecessary battery drain.
• Enhanced screen locking prevention mechanism: This option should only be enabled if the setting to prevent the screen from locking while Jieshuo is speaking is not working. Enabling this might resolve the issue.
• Read numbers as single digits, Read punctuation, and Read capital letters while typing: These options are straightforward. However, during testing, their functionality was unreliable, or they didn’t work at all. Note that there is a related option for announcing capital letters while typing in the Typing settings.

Notes

1. It is not guaranteed that all settings will work consistently across different devices and Android versions. The purpose of this post is to provide an overview of the available options only.
2. If you want Jieshuo to follow the system speech rate set in the system’s text-to-speech settings and not use its own speech rate, you must set Jieshuo’s speech rate to 0. You may need to restart Jieshuo after applying this setting.
3. Changes made to volume, speech rate, and pitch in the settings are saved only for the selected engine. This allows you to set different speech rates for different engines, and these settings will automatically apply when the engines are used.