SpeechSynthesis: getVoices() method

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2018.

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The getVoices() method of the SpeechSynthesis interface returns a list of SpeechSynthesisVoice objects representing all the available voices on the current device.

Syntax

js
getVoices()

Parameters

None.

Return value

A list (array) of SpeechSynthesisVoice objects.

Examples

JavaScript

js
function populateVoiceList() {
  if (typeof speechSynthesis === "undefined") {
    return;
  }

  const voices = speechSynthesis.getVoices();

  for (let i = 0; i < voices.length; i++) {
    const option = document.createElement("option");
    option.textContent = `${voices[i].name} (${voices[i].lang})`;

    if (voices[i].default) {
      option.textContent += " — DEFAULT";
    }

    option.setAttribute("data-lang", voices[i].lang);
    option.setAttribute("data-name", voices[i].name);
    document.getElementById("voiceSelect").appendChild(option);
  }
}

populateVoiceList();
if (
  typeof speechSynthesis !== "undefined" &&
  speechSynthesis.onvoiceschanged !== undefined
) {
  speechSynthesis.onvoiceschanged = populateVoiceList;
}

HTML

html
<select id="voiceSelect"></select>

Specifications

Specification
Web Speech API
# dom-speechsynthesis-getvoices

Browser compatibility

See also