Skip to main content

How to use text-to-speech on TikTok

TikTok's text-to-speech is an accessibility feature that lets you put a voice to your videos' on-screen text. If added to your videos, text-to-speech automatically reads selected lines of text from your video out loud. For visually impaired TikTok users, the text-to-speech feature means that they can watch these videos and they won't miss out on what's said by the on-screen text. When reading the text is not possible or is difficult, text-to-speech lets people hear it as well.

If you want to be able to add text-to-speech to your own TikTok videos, we can show you how. Keep reading to learn how to use text-to-speech on TikTok in just a few minutes.

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • The TikTok mobile app

  • A video you want to post

How do I use TikTok text-to-speech?

Adding text-to-speech to a TikTok video isn't as complicated as it sounds and only requires a few minutes of your time. You'll need to use the TikTok mobile app to follow these steps.

Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Open the TikTok mobile app and select the Plus sign icon at the bottom of your screen.

Close up of TikTok mobile app's Plus sign icon.
screenshot

Step 2: On the next screen, you'll be given the option to either film a video using the TikTok app or upload an existing video. Pick either option and go to step 3.

Step 3: At this point, you should be looking at the video's editing screen. This screen has a lot of editing options to choose from (these are the white icons on the right side of your screen). From these options, choose the Text icon in the top right corner of your screen.

Selecting the add text option on the TikTok mobile app.
screenshot

Step 4: On the next screen, type in the text that you want to add to your TikTok video and choose your text formatting options.

Adding text to a TikTok video.
screenshot

Step 5: Select the lines of text you want to hear read out loud and then select the text-to-speech icon, which looks like the outline of a person's head with sound waves coming from it.

Step 6: On the Text-to-speech window, choose the type of voice you want to read your text out loud by selecting a voice and then selecting the circle next to the phrase Apply [name of voice option] to the following text-to-speech. Then select Done in the top right corner.

Choosing a text-to-speech voice for a TikTok video.
screenshot

Step 7: Back on the text input screen, select Done again in the top right corner.

Then select Next to finish publishing your TikTok video.

Selecting the Next button to finish publishing TikTok video.
screenshot

Editors' Recommendations

Anita George
Anita has been a technology reporter since 2013 and currently writes for the Computing section at Digital Trends. She began…
TikTok faces outright ban in first U.S. state
TikTok icon illustration.

TikTok received more bad news on Wednesday after Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) signed into law a bill banning the popular app from January 1, 2024.

While more than half of U.S. states have already issued TikTok bans on government-issued devices, Montana’s action against the Chinese-owned app is significant as it’s the first state to impose a total ban on the app.

Read more
Former ByteDance exec claims China had access to TikTok data
TikTok logo on an iPhone.

TikTok is feeling the heat again after a former leading executive at its parent company, Byte Dance, made a series of damning claims in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed recently in the San Francisco Superior Court

Among the allegations made by Yintao Yu was that the Chinese Community Party (CCP) “maintained supreme access” to TikTok data stored in the U.S. when he worked for the company between 2017 and 2018.

Read more
TikTok CEO to face Congress on Thursday. Here’s how to watch
TikTok icon illustration.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before Congress

TikTok CEO Shou Chew faces the fight of his life on Thursday, when he will try to convince a congressional committee that the hugely popular app poses no threat to national security.

Read more