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The read-aloud voice used to be a very smooth speaking female voice and overnight it changed to a robotic voice. When I go into the settings it says I have to be signed in to change the voice. I am signed in. I tried signing out and resigning in deleting the app and reinstalling but it still says the same thing. I am using an Android with the mobile app. I was originally using just the word doc connected to my OneDrive I've even tried the Microsoft 365 app still same results. How do I get the old voice back?
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
After several reboots and an overnight rest, the natural voice is back! I'm still a bit unsure about how it was fixed but at least it's back to normal now.
I reported the problem to a Microsoft Support technician in an online chat accessed from the Help menu of Word. I was told this was a recognised problem, with a solution. Namely, to reinstall the latest version of Office (Co pilot?) which will be out soon in an automatic update. I had a choice of doing this myself by following instructions or allow him to take over my PC and install the update for me. I chose the latter. It was quick and efficient, but it didn't really work. The voices are marginally better but still haven't returned to the previous fully-natural ones. But I did try!
So far I don't think 'we' can. From what I have been able to gather this is affecting all Office 365 apps that use text-to-voice of any kind and all offered solutions that I have seen for the user end of the equation have had no effect.
Best thing to do is to report it as a problem through the Feedback help section in Word.
So, how do you fix the problem of the voice change?
You don't. You wait for Microsoft to fix it.
There are a plethora of threads about this in the past few days. You cannot get a different voice until Microsoft fixes this.
It is apparently a bug that is for all devices introduced with a recent update.
Writing here does not bring it to the attention of anyone who can do anything about it.
You are addressing your fellow users here.
Microsoft is aware of the problem, though. They are working to fix it. Of course it popped up over a weekend!
I recommend using the Public Feedback Portal. https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472
Then, once your feedback is posted, copy the URL and then come back here and post it so that others can comment and vote.
Be the squeaky wheel. Keep pressure on.
You can search for and vote on other feedback already posted. I would suggest a search for "read aloud."
Here is a list of some feedback links:
Feel free to vote and vent a little.
For more on using feedback, see my article: This is a user-to-user support forum. -- You can give feedback TO MICROSOFT designers and decision makers on Microsoft Word or other Microsoft Products using their feedback mechanisms, (not here). (This is a link to directions.)
I am having the same issue. My read aloud went from natural speech sounding to annoying robotic voice after the recent 365 update