How to Use Text to Speech on Discord

All you need is a chat command to use this feature

By
Molly McLaughlin
Molly McLaughlin
Molly McLaughlin
Senior Editor & Content Strategist
Molly K. McLaughlin has been a technology editor and writer for over a dozen years. She runs product reviews for Lifewire, overseeing the process from hands-on testing to publishing.
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Updated on March 8, 2021
Reviewed by
Jon Fisher
Jon Fisher headshot
Reviewed by Jon Fisher
  • Wichita Technical Institute
Jonathan Fisher is a CompTIA certified technologist with more than 6 years' experience writing for publications like TechNorms and Help Desk Geek.
lifewire's editorial guidelines

What to Know

  • To enable text-to-speech go to User Settings > Notifications.
  • Use the Discord chat command /tts, followed by your message. Be sure to leave a space between the command and the text.
  • Other users need to have this feature enabled to hear the audio.

This article explains how to enable text to speech in Discord and how to get your messages read out loud by a bot using the desktop app on a Mac or PC. Text to speech is not available in the mobile app.

How to Enable Text to Speech on Discord

There are two settings you need to turn on for the text to speech feature to work. You can enable the function across all of your channels or only the current one.

  1. Open the Discord app on your Mac or PC.

  2. Click the User Settings gear on the bottom left of the screen.

    Accessing Discord's settings.

  3. Click Notifications on the left rail.

    Setting up TTS on Discord.

  4. Scroll down to Text-to-Speech Notifications. 

    Setting up TTS on Discord.

  5. Select For all channels or For current selected channel to determine who will have a chance to hear your message. (To turn the feature off, select Never.)

    This setting works both ways: you’ll be able to send audio texts, and you’ll hear audio messages from others in the current channel or all channels, depending on the option you chose.

    Setting up TTS on Discord.

  6. Back on the left rail, click Text & Images.

    Setting up TTS on Discord.

  7. Toggle on the switch next to Allow playback & usage of /tts command. Click the X on the top right to leave Settings.

    Setting up TTS on Discord.

Have Discord Read Out Your Messages

Once you’ve enabled the feature, you can use it right away by typing a command, which is: 

/tts

Be sure to include a space between the command and your text.

If other members of the channel have the feature disabled, they won’t hear the audio. However, they can still see the text. Ask others to turn the feature on if you want to communicate this way.

  1. Open Discord and navigate to the channel in which you’d like to send a voice message.

  2. To have your message read aloud, type: 

    /tts your message
    Setting up TTS on Discord.

  3. Press Enter to send the message. The message will appear without the slash command. A voice bot will read aloud your message, preceded by “Username said.” For example, “Molly said hello.”

    Setting up TTS on Discord.

  4. Use the /tts slash command anytime you want to share an audio message.

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