Guide To Text to Speech on TikTok: How To Use This Feature

TikTok’s text-to-speech (TTS) feature lets creators add narration without needing to record their own voice. Just type out your captions, and the AI handles the rest—turning text into clear, expressive audio that helps your content land with more impact.

While TikTok’s TTS generator can enhance storytelling and grab your audience’s attention, it doesn’t have as many customization options and functions as Captions. Our voiceover tools streamline the content creation process and allow you to tailor narration to your brand image.

Read on to learn more about how TikTok’s TTS tool works and why Captions is a strong alternative. 

What Does Text To Speech Mean On TikTok?

TikTok’s TTS is an accessibility feature that lets creators add an automated digital voiceover to their videos. This tool launched near the end of 2020 and has only gained popularity since. Below is a little more information on how TikTok’s TTS functions.

How Does TikTok’s TTS Work? 

Software developers train TTS models on massive sets of audio samples. These recordings feature a wide range of speakers, helping AI learn to replicate human pitch, tone, and pronunciation patterns. 

TTS tools also use natural language processing (NLP) techniques to understand text, allowing AI to convert written language into speech correctly. It can adjust speech output based on context, such as reading "173" as "one hundred and seventy-three" and "Dr." as "doctor." 

How To Do Text to Speech on TikTok

Here’s how to use this feature:

• Import or record content — Open the app and tap the “Plus” button. Select whether you want to record new footage or upload an existing video.
• Open the editing menu — Click “Text,” write subtitles, and then choose “Done.” ‍
• Create a voiceover — Tap your text and select “Text-to-speech.” Choose which voice actor you want to use, then click “Done.”

How To Use TikTok’s Text-To-Speech Feature With Captions

Although TikTok’s TTS tool works, it doesn’t offer nearly the same level of customization and quality as Captions’ integrations. We’ve partnered with companies such as ElevenLabs, OpenAI, and PlayHT to help you produce studio-quality voiceovers without a technical setup. 

Captions’ TikTok AI Voice Generator turns text-to-speech in seconds with enhanced tools, a wider range of voice options, and customization options unavailable in your TikTok account. Here’s how to use it:

• Upload your video — Import your footage into Captions. 
• Choose your model — Select “Voice” from the sidebar on the left, then pick which AI model you’d like to use. Captions offers all the best AI voice generators all in one platform. Pick from options like: Open AI TTS-1 and 4o-mini, Cartesia Sonic 2, and Play HT.
• Customize your video’s narration — Choose from one of Captions’ studio-recorded AI narrators or clone your own voice. With these features, you can add professional-quality voiceovers to any TikTok post. 
• Add text — Insert your video script, and tap “Generate voiceover.”
• Save your customized video — Download, export, and share your edited video on TikTok. 

What Can Creators Use TikTok Text To Speech For?

Here are just some of the ways TikTok creators can use TTS tools. 

Tutorials and Educational Content

Great how-tos, life hacks, and tutorial videos rely on strong audio narration to help viewers better understand how to complete tasks. Creators use TTS to add this necessary information to each post. 

Instead of using a built-in, robotic voice, tell your own story with an AI voice clone. This feature helps convey your knowledge, passion, and emotion as if you were having a one-on-one conversation with viewers, creating a more authentic connection.

Brand Promotion 

Promoting a brand successfully relies on creating a consistent, recognizable image across your content. Using your own voice clone for narration makes you the primary spokesperson for each video, and viewers will start to remember your voice and associate it with your company. This humanizes your brand and content, giving you a stronger connection to each potential customer who watches your posts and potentially boosting sales. 

Viral Trends and Challenges 

Popular TikTok trends change often, and keeping up with them can be difficult if you’re producing content at a traditional pace. By the time you’re done filming a video and making a voiceover for it, viewers may have moved on to the next big challenge. 

Using TTS lets you create content at scale. Rather than stepping into the recording booth for each post, you can simply upload a script and let AI do the rest. This means you can hop on a new challenge as soon as you see it — without worrying about getting left behind. 

Pros and Cons Of TikTok’s Text-To-Speech Feature

If you plan to use TikTok’s TTS, consider the following pros and cons.

Pros

• Improved accessibility — TikTok’s TTS helps visually impaired viewers understand on-screen text. It was originally introduced as an accessibility feature, so it’s specifically designed for these audience members.
• Higher engagement — Narration makes the stories you tell more immersive, which can encourage viewers to continue watching your posts and interact with them. 

Cons

• Limited voice options — TikTok’s TTS tool has fewer AI actors than Captions, so you may struggle to find a voice that matches your brand’s tone, mood, and emotion.‍
• Pronunciation issues — TikTok TTS often gets pronunciation wrong, especially in languages other than English. In particular, it struggles with names and technical terms. This lack of clarity and precision makes it difficult for viewers to understand the narration, which could cause them to scroll past your post.

3 Examples Of Text-To-Speech on TikTok For Creators

Content creators can learn how to implement TTS by studying how successful brands use AI on TikTok. Given that TTS has become such a popular feature with viewers on TikTok, it helps brands create authentic, instantly recognizable content for the platform. It also helps increase their relevance because they’re tailoring content to one of the features that engages TikTok users. 

Below are three examples to inspire your next TikTok video. 

1. The Sill 

In this TikTok video titled “Relatable am I right,” houseplant retailer The Sill humorously explains where the main character is spending all their money. The camera zooms in on a person shrugging and miming the phrase “I don’t know.” A TTS narrator explains, “When you’re trying to figure out where all your money is going when you know you’ve been spending it at The Sill.” 

Because the video uses TTS, this clip doesn’t sound like a traditional ad. Instead, it comes off more like the user-generated content TikTok is known for, helping The Sill fit in with the platform’s trends. This relatable feeling extends to the content and caption, all tailored to encourage viewers to share the post with their friends.

2. Giffgaff

Giffgaff, a mobile phone service provider in the UK, uses TTS in this video to explain how to use text-to-speech in TikTok. By effectively demonstrating the process, the video not only proves Giffgaff’s tutorial is accurate but also gives viewers a firsthand experience of the result. This positions Giffgaff as a tech-savvy brand, which could potentially boost consumer trust and drive more sales.

3. Lucy Edwards

Brands aren’t the only ones who benefit from this tool. In a post discussing the feature’s launch, blind content creator Lucy Edwards explains how TikTok’s TTS is a huge step in improving accessibility for visually impaired people.

Her video uses TTS at the end to showcase how the narrator sounds. This demonstrates the tool’s functions, of course, but it also acts as an example of the kind of content she hopes other creators will start to make.

Elevate Your TikTok Content With Captions

While there’s a time and place to use TikTok’s TTS tool, Captions’ TikTok AI Voice Generator gives you greater control over your content. Our advanced integrations help you generate higher-quality content you’ll be proud to share. 

With Captions, you can skip costly recording studios and complicated technical setups. Narrate videos quickly with your AI voice clone, and translate your spoken-word videos into multiple languages. 

Generate professional-quality content faster with Captions.