@Karen, it looks like your current posts are getting the text to speech feature even though this older one still doesn’t have it. Do you know what allowed you to enable the feature? or have a guess?
My best guess is that signing up for the TTS beta program (link in the article) is how / why Substack enabled voiceover for my newsletters. The emails I got from Substack said read-aloud would be enabled on all old text posts automatically with their default (male) voice. I was able to choose the voice to be used for future posts, but the choice was not retroactive. It’s not obvious why this post wouldn’t have voiceover when my other old posts do. 🤷🏻♀️
I, for one, find the feature super helpful to keep up with my stacks of newsletters 🙃 indeed it’s a bummer that this feature is only available on the app!
Thank you for this. I just noticed TTS on a post and wondered how it is enabled. I'm very new to substack. Thank you for clarity. It's saved my brain some rabbit hole searching.
I'm wondering if it is only enabled on substacks that bring in significant funding. I'm guessing running TTS uses a not insignificant amount of processing power, so they probably only enable it if you are bringing in enough money to pay for the processing. I don't like it and may never bring in enough to gain the functionality, but I understand the business decision.
They say most have access, but I think that is misleading. I don't see it hardly at all. (Maybe never). Maybe it is on more than half of reads, but not on more than half of substacks.
TTS can certainly use resources. But *I* definitely don't bring in significant funding. My newsletters aren't paywalled and any paid subs are donations (Wikipedia model). I have less than 10 paid subscribers on each of my newsletters. So that can't be it ;) Maybe they waited to see if I would stick with it before they committed resources to my newsletters? And maybe me submitting the beta request was a factor in even getting mine considered after so many months. I do agree with you that 'most have access' doesn't feel accurate, Christy. I read a lot of 'small' newsletters and I don't see it on most of them.
I tend to read more than listen myself, because it's faster and doesn't disrupt anyone in my household ;) But read-aloud seems like a basic accessibility feature that Substack really ought to support natively for everyone. Making people with low vision, or more listening time than reading time, have to wrangle a separate screen reader doesn't seem fair or inclusive.
I googled (as I have before) to figure out how to enable text-to-speech because they just included it again in their On Substack post. I arrived at your post. It's good to know there is nothing I can manually do to enable it. My posts still do not have it and yet the majority of those that I read have it enabled. I wish I could know why I am in the minority.
Cheryl, I was also hoping that ElevenLabs starter plan would be an ethical way to use AI to solve this. (Related article) But they just came out with an AI music feature that seems not to be ethical. So they are off my ethical shoestring tool list.
Have you experimented with recording manual voiceovers or using any AI tools?
I was really hoping after I saw Jasmine’s post that we all can have automated voiceovers now. Still not, I guess 🙁 It would be Really Good for Substack to fix this inequity.
I just ended up here as Substack's newsletter mentioned it.... and it's not available on my posts, with no ability to change the "narrator" for "Publishers with TTS enabled."
Oh wow, that’s a bummer - I didn’t realize TTS still wasn’t enabled yet for everyone’s newsletters. My only suggestion is to try using that ‘beta signup’ link I used months ago, and see if it gets you in the queue for TTS enablement. I don’t have any indication or proof that this is what got TTS enabled for me, but since it apparently isn’t universal, that’s my best guess as to how I got it.
It's been 2.5 weeks; no word yet on being allowed into the beta program for automated voiceovers. So far I've manually recorded 4 post voiceovers for a total of about 32 minutes. The recording process wasn't as painful and repetitive as I feared. The audio time runs about 50-100% longer than the estimated reading time. I'm not sure yet where to see in the post metrics whether anyone has played the audio.
@Karen, it looks like your current posts are getting the text to speech feature even though this older one still doesn’t have it. Do you know what allowed you to enable the feature? or have a guess?
My best guess is that signing up for the TTS beta program (link in the article) is how / why Substack enabled voiceover for my newsletters. The emails I got from Substack said read-aloud would be enabled on all old text posts automatically with their default (male) voice. I was able to choose the voice to be used for future posts, but the choice was not retroactive. It’s not obvious why this post wouldn’t have voiceover when my other old posts do. 🤷🏻♀️
Great post Karen! I signed up too :)
Good - I hope TTS comes through for you quickly, Karo 😊
I, for one, find the feature super helpful to keep up with my stacks of newsletters 🙃 indeed it’s a bummer that this feature is only available on the app!
I actually didn’t even know about this. This was an eye-opening read, Karen! Thank you.
I’m glad the article was useful for you, Rebecca!
Thank you for this. I just noticed TTS on a post and wondered how it is enabled. I'm very new to substack. Thank you for clarity. It's saved my brain some rabbit hole searching.
I’m glad you found it useful! I still don’t get why TTS can’t be enabled for everyone, for accessibility.
I'm wondering if it is only enabled on substacks that bring in significant funding. I'm guessing running TTS uses a not insignificant amount of processing power, so they probably only enable it if you are bringing in enough money to pay for the processing. I don't like it and may never bring in enough to gain the functionality, but I understand the business decision.
They say most have access, but I think that is misleading. I don't see it hardly at all. (Maybe never). Maybe it is on more than half of reads, but not on more than half of substacks.
TTS can certainly use resources. But *I* definitely don't bring in significant funding. My newsletters aren't paywalled and any paid subs are donations (Wikipedia model). I have less than 10 paid subscribers on each of my newsletters. So that can't be it ;) Maybe they waited to see if I would stick with it before they committed resources to my newsletters? And maybe me submitting the beta request was a factor in even getting mine considered after so many months. I do agree with you that 'most have access' doesn't feel accurate, Christy. I read a lot of 'small' newsletters and I don't see it on most of them.
I agree, it would make sense. I would almost always use it for long pieces of text, articles etc.
I tend to read more than listen myself, because it's faster and doesn't disrupt anyone in my household ;) But read-aloud seems like a basic accessibility feature that Substack really ought to support natively for everyone. Making people with low vision, or more listening time than reading time, have to wrangle a separate screen reader doesn't seem fair or inclusive.
I really want the text-to-speech feature! Hopefully this is still on the roadmap for all users.
I hope so too, Leeza! It probably wouldn't hurt to try the 'beta signup' I used, though.
I am exploring how to add to my regular weekly productivity process to record my own (reading them outloud)
Michele, how did your experiments with manual read-aloud work out? Did you ever get automatic TTS enabled on your newsletter?
I googled (as I have before) to figure out how to enable text-to-speech because they just included it again in their On Substack post. I arrived at your post. It's good to know there is nothing I can manually do to enable it. My posts still do not have it and yet the majority of those that I read have it enabled. I wish I could know why I am in the minority.
Cheryl, I was also hoping that ElevenLabs starter plan would be an ethical way to use AI to solve this. (Related article) But they just came out with an AI music feature that seems not to be ethical. So they are off my ethical shoestring tool list.
Have you experimented with recording manual voiceovers or using any AI tools?
I was really hoping after I saw Jasmine’s post that we all can have automated voiceovers now. Still not, I guess 🙁 It would be Really Good for Substack to fix this inequity.
I just ended up here as Substack's newsletter mentioned it.... and it's not available on my posts, with no ability to change the "narrator" for "Publishers with TTS enabled."
Dear Substack, I'd like to enable TTS!
Oh wow, that’s a bummer - I didn’t realize TTS still wasn’t enabled yet for everyone’s newsletters. My only suggestion is to try using that ‘beta signup’ link I used months ago, and see if it gets you in the queue for TTS enablement. I don’t have any indication or proof that this is what got TTS enabled for me, but since it apparently isn’t universal, that’s my best guess as to how I got it.
It's been 2.5 weeks; no word yet on being allowed into the beta program for automated voiceovers. So far I've manually recorded 4 post voiceovers for a total of about 32 minutes. The recording process wasn't as painful and repetitive as I feared. The audio time runs about 50-100% longer than the estimated reading time. I'm not sure yet where to see in the post metrics whether anyone has played the audio.
Here’s another: https://open.substack.com/pub/eleanormills/p/eleanors-letter-its-official-queenagers?r=3ht54r
I found one publication that appears to have automatic Text To Speech enabled: it’s audible on this insightful Mother’s Day post - https://open.substack.com/pub/toooldforthis/p/my-mothers-death-was-the-best-thing?r=3ht54r