What is TTS?
Text-to-Speech (TTS) is a technology that reads written text out loud. Waze uses TTS to provide navigation instructions, including street names, in various languages.
Request a TTS voice for your language
Note: Adding a new TTS voice will depend on the localization team’s priorities and resource availability.
To begin the process, get in touch with the Localization Community Manager. Following this, the local community will arrange a group of at least 4 localizers to collaborate on the translation and voice integration. Preference will be given to those experienced in TTS Regular Expression (RegEx). After this, you’ll need to provide suggestions for both a male and female name for the voice.
Got questions?
How do I check new test voices on my phone?
To check new test voices on your phone, you need to first clear the TTS cache:
- Open Waze
- In the search bar, enter ##@cctts
- On your device’s keyboard, tap the search icon
- Restart Waze
How do I test my RegEx?
- Go to the Waze Map Editor
- In the sidebar, click Select
- Under the “General” tab, find the street name you want to test
- Click
- Select the language you want to test
- Click Listen to street name
Note: Don’t save your changes unless required.
I’m a RegEx master! How can I help with my language’s voice?
Please get in touch with waze-tts@google.com.
How many TTS voices can a country have?
There’s no limit to the number of TTS voices a country can have, as long as the TTS system supports the map’s character set. For example, a Japanese voice (Japanese characters) won’t work in Israel, which uses Hebrew characters.
Is TTS the default voice?
Yes. If a TTS voice exists in a country, it will be set as the default voice for all users in that region.
Where can I find TTS voices in the Waze app?
- Open Waze
- Tap
- Tap Settings
- Tap Voice and sound
- Tap Waze voice
TTS voices are listed under “Waze voices” and have the words “Including street names” below their name.