Enable Eleven Labs Text-to-Speech (TTS)

AnkiDroid (Android) Suggestions
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Current Situation:
AnkiDroid’s built-in text-to-speech (TTS) functionality is already a great tool for language learners, helping with pronunciation and listening practice. However, the current TTS voices can sometimes sound robotic and less natural, which might reduce engagement for some users.

Proposed Improvement:
Integrate Eleven Labs TTS into AnkiDroid as an optional voice provider. Eleven Labs offers highly natural AI-generated voices in multiple languages and accents, which could greatly enhance the learning experience.

Benefits:

  1. More Natural Pronunciation: AI-powered voices mimic real human speech patterns, making language learning more effective.
  2. Better Engagement: High-quality audio improves immersion, keeping users motivated.
  3. Multilingual Support: Eleven Labs supports various languages and accents, which can be useful for diverse learners.
  4. Customizability: Users could select different voices, adjusting pitch and speed for better comprehension.

Implementation Considerations:

  • API Integration: Eleven Labs provides an API for real-time TTS conversion, and has free and paid tiers. Users may need to create an API Key and save in Ankidroid settings. Users may need an Eleven Labs subscription for usage beyond certain quota.
  • Offline vs. Online Usage: Since Eleven Labs is cloud-based, an internet connection is required. A fallback to cache media from previous requests, or to the current offline TTS system would be useful.
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I won’t speculate about whether the AnkiDroid team is interested in building out the TTS functionality to allow other services. Right now it integrates only with the OS’s built-in TTS – which is the same way all versions of Anki work.

But I use ElevenLabs TTS right now just fine (and it is excellent!). With the HyperTTS add-on on desktop Anki, I have my own free ElevenLabs API key, and with a couple clicks I generate my TTS audio in advance as collection audio mp3 files, which sync to AnkiDroid. That deals quite nicely with quota and offline concerns.

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