Question Does anyone use text to speech apps to read them novels (in Chinese)

OKAYY so umm

I'm super fluent in speaking Chinese, but horrible at reading it so I use a phone app where I paste the text in and it reads it out to me in Chinese, to listen to novels.

I used to use Speak Chinese (not available anymore) but that isn't supported on devices above iOS10. I just got a new phone which runs on iOS12 I've tried the newer version of the same app, but the voices are really off on the new version and sound super robotic/monotone, the speed and pitch is really weird too.

So I was just wondering if anyone does the same as me (use apps) and if so what apps do you use? (is this sort of question allowed?) I'd prefer one that doesn't sound too robotic, please recommend me some! I have both overseas & Chinese apple IDs so doesn't matter which store it's on & I'm fine with non-free apps.

I desperately need a new app!

Please share Thanks!

 

only using One click - Google Translate, for translated the whole page's.

 

Hmm... I don't know any apps like that but you can sometimes try your luck with ximalaya, it's an audio book place where people can just record reading some webnovels and stuff, so quality ranges from bad to awesome. I usually check if the book I wanna read has been done in there. if not, I sometimes use the Google translate text to speech option hahaha

 

Same as me then :3

But I don't use apps, I copy the text and get Bing Translate (browser) to read it to me.
You can choose from TWN Chinese, HK Chinese and CHN Chinese voice.
Not sure if it'll sound weird to you, but at least it's better than Google Translate.

 

I'll check them out, thanks guys!

The thing I like about using the app I had before is that I can pause/start it at any sentence/skip sentences I remember trying translate + read text a few years ago and if you paused it, it just starts from the beginning again which kinda sucks for long chapters. I'll have a look now though, hopefully there's been changes

 

I use text to speech apps when I'm too lazy to read novels on my own or I want to rest my eyes hahaha. One app I seriously super-duper absolutely recommend is 追书神器. It is by far the best app I've used that speaks the best, and actually listenable and bearable Chinese (nothing of the Baidu read-aloud sorts bleh).

追书神器 is a reading app on its own where you can find novels to read (and there are the usual locked chapters and payment and stuff), so one thing I do when I want to read my own novel I can't find on it is to get the novel I want in .txt format on my computer and airdrop it to my phone, then choose to open it in 追书神器. You can open the novel in the library and click the top right headphone button to listen to it as an audio book. It is absolutely amazing because you get to select different offline voice (there are 5 choices, I use the 2nd one), select the duration, and change the speed, I put my speed at about ~65-ish of the bar thing, and it sounds very nice at that speed, I like it when they read fast. If you make it too fast or too slow, it might sound robotic though. You can change the background colour, font size, font type *and* it has night mode.

There are two terrible downsides to this app though. One, (not sure if it's just for my phone but) it does not help you bookmark your page for your imported novels, oh the horror so I screenshot my page every time I stop loll and I have to manually find my chappie again after I resume. Second, if you download the novel .txt directly with your phone, you won't be able to open it in 追书神器, not very sure why. Oh and there is a 300 novel limit to the library (which I have unfortunately already maxed nuuh), I know the limit applies to actual novels you download through the app, but not very sure if the imported novels count, I didn't went to count mine.

The next app I use when for some reason the 追书神器 is unavailable is 起点读书 (yes qidian) (the Chinese version, not the international one). You can import the novel the same way, but I would say the voice is A LOT more robotic, and choppy and uneven, so hm, if you can't get 追书神器, you can try 起点读书 if you're desperate or just for the lolz.

One more app I use when I want to hear legit people talking + bgm + real life emotions is 懒人听书－热门有声小说相声评书电台, where there are licensed audio books of real-life recordings of legit people reading (fiction, non-fiction, they also have radio channels and music lol), but I would say the fiction collection is very limited and the majority will need you to pay, especially the popular ones. But usually, I find the reading speed way too slow for me, so I don't use this much unless I'm desperate.

All the mentioned apps above can be downloaded even without a China app store Apple ID, and are all free (with in-app purchases). The apps I've mentioned are with regards to IOS, not very sure about Android. And I'm not running on such a new IOS, so I'm not sure how different they'll be on IOS12.

 

Hi, just passerby You can try Type and Speak app if you have android (google play). You can actually pause/play and also skip the text in the app and the voice is also passable. Really a convenient and nice app. I recommend it ^^

 

I know you said apps and iphones, but if you are interested in using a desktop or laptop you can use Microsoft Word. Just download the Chinese language pack and it'll read to you.

 

I dont know if its me or my mistakes
I have seen similar post like this, if not 90% the same
The text isnalso the same cause i remember it day not available in iOS12

 

I've been using readaloud. It's a Firefox extension that works for mobile too. No need to cp stuff, pretty easy to deal with when you're driving and the like. Ximalaya and yst8/pttt/woaitingshu are searchable for actual audiobooks. A lot of Ximalaya's quality audiobooks are paywalled but a lot of them aren't. Unfortunately I haven't figured out a way to purchase from them without a Chinese number.

 

Readaloud is available in chrome too. It has a lot of voices. For ximalaya, I don't think you need a chinese number, i just purchase the ximalaya points thru the card thats connected to my account.

 

Holy shit you're a genius, why haven't I thought of this before?

 

How did you register an account without a Chinese number? That's where I keep getting stuck. I picked up WeChat trying to get it to work but even with it, Ximalaya won't let me put in a number that doesn't have a Chinese international area code.

 

I registered with my US phone number/email, shouldn't be a prob for international.. you can try it on their site

 

Did you register awhile ago? I've only been using Ximalaya for a few months, but trying to register via their site only allows +86 numbers as far as I can tell.

 

Theres an arrow next to +86 click click~ you should see a list that pops out.. i downloaded it like more than a year ago lol

 

Eh... oh. Actually, I realized I could search by country inside the app. I'm just going to go over there and facepalm. Thanks

 

I jus paste into Google docs > highlight everything > speak option, it’s to the copy, paste stuff. And you can pause too. And doc works offline too.