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.

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

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also