4 Best Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text Libraries for Flutter

From voice recorders to virtual assistants, advances in text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology have allowed developers to add unique voice features to their applications and websites. By utilizing the innovative Flutter framework, developers can create mobile applications using a single codebase and integrate powerful text-to-speech and speech-to-text libraries. In this article, we will discuss four of the best text-to-speech and speech-to-text libraries available for Flutter.

flutter_tts

flutter_tts is a plugin for Text to Speech. It supports many platforms, including iOS, Android, Web, & macOS.

FlutterTts flutterTts = FlutterTts();
Future _speak() async{
    var result = await flutterTts.speak("My first word");
    if (result == 1) setState(() => ttsState = TtsState.playing);
}

Future _stop() async{
    var result = await flutterTts.stop();
    if (result == 1) setState(() => ttsState = TtsState.stopped);
}

flutter_tts_improved

This is a fork of the flutter_tts plugin. It uses the progress reporters of the Utterance APIs, on both Android and iOS.

FlutterTtsImproved tts = new FlutterTtsImproved();
Future _speak() async{
    var result = await tts.speak("My first word");
    if (result == 1) setState(() => ttsState = TtsState.playing);
}

Future _stop() async{
    var result = await tts.stop();
    if (result == 1) setState(() => ttsState = TtsState.stopped);
}

aws_polly

This plugin is an unofficial AWS Polly client for Dart and Flutter. AWS Polly is an Amazon cloud service that converts text into lifelike speech.aws_polly is a simple wrapper for this service.

It allows generation of a URL given an input text and voice identifier. You must have an AWS account and enable this service to use this package.

Create a client using your new poolId and region:

final AwsPolly _awsPolly = AwsPolly.instance(
    poolId: 'us-east-1:xxxx-xxx-xxxxx',
    region: AWSRegionType.USEast1,
);

Generate a new URL:

final url = await _awsPolly.getUrl(
    voiceId: AWSPolyVoiceId.nicole,
    input: 'Please convert this text to speech!',
);

speech_to_text

This plugin contains a set of classes that make it easy to use speech recognition features.

import 'package:speech_to_text/speech_to_text.dart' as stt;

stt.SpeechToText speech = stt.SpeechToText();

bool available = await speech.initialize( onStatus: statusListener, onError: errorListener );
if ( available ) {
    speech.listen( onResult: resultListener );
}
else {
    print("Speech recognition is not allowed on this device.");
}

//stop speech
speech.stop()