Product suggestion: text to speech for notes

[Mark78 46]

I would really like Evernote for Android to be able to have text to speech functionality. I have long drives to work and the ability to have text to speech available so that my notes could be read to me would be fantastic.

 

Shouldn't be hard to implement, as Android has the best platform for TTS. Most of the major apps I have downloaded already have this capability. I'm surprised that Evernote does not.

 

Thank you for considering this.

Mark

[gazumped 11,666]

Is this necessary?  Depending on your hardware (Samsung etc) you may already have a TTS app installed,  and there are several on Play if you prefer something more natural sounding.  I have no experience of using either option to 'play' notes,  but it is noticeable that these apps involve LARGE downloads and would bloat out Evernote considerably if they were part of the standard action.

[Mark78 46]

Yes, it is definitely necessary. I have several TTS apps. But a host app, like Evernote, needs to port its text to the TTS app. For instance the Pocket app has a menu item that says "Listen (TTS)", which ports the article text to the TTS app and reads it aloud. 

 

No, it would not bloat Evernote. All that Evernote is doing is porting text to the TTS engine. I am not requesting that Evernote create its own TTS engine (which would bloat EN), just that it would port note text to a TTS engine selected by the Android OS.

[gazumped 11,666]

OK - just askin';  I don't use Evernote (or TTS) in that way,  so didn't know.  I did find I can 'share' a note to PDF reader - which just gets the URL to read.  If you're dealing with PDFs that might be an option for the meantime.  But I now agree - +1 for making the note available to text readers.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I would really like Evernote for Android to be able to have text to speech functionality. I have long drives to work and the ability to have text to speech available so that my notes could be read to me would be fantastic.

 

Shouldn't be hard to implement, as Android has the best platform for TTS. Most of the major apps I have downloaded already have this capability. I'm surprised that Evernote does not.

 

Thank you for considering this.

Mark

 

 

 

Yes, it is definitely necessary. I have several TTS apps. But a host app, like Evernote, needs to port its text to the TTS app. For instance the Pocket app has a menu item that says "Listen (TTS)", which ports the article text to the TTS app and reads it aloud. 

 

No, it would not bloat Evernote. All that Evernote is doing is porting text to the TTS engine. I am not requesting that Evernote create its own TTS engine (which would bloat EN), just that it would port note text to a TTS engine selected by the Android OS.

 

 

As to whether it's difficult or not, you really don't know.  Only those with intimate knowledge of how Evernote works & the interaction between the various platforms it runs on can say.

 

WRT it being 'necessary'...that's an opinion.  Many people successfully use EN without this feature. I could not care less about text to speech.   Many also consider another feature more necessary than what you do.

[BarclayB 2]

I don't understand why this idea was more or less shouted down by a moderator via criticism of phrasing. Isn't the point of this forum to suggest and advocate for new ideas which are by definition opinions? 

 

This feature is a great idea, in MY opinion and I found this forum entry because I was searching for this function! I put many things in Evernote that I plan "to read" and one way of reading them is have them read out via text to speech while I'm driving or puttering around the house. So much the better if text from an included pdf or other attached file could be read out as well! 

 

I would also agree that this is probably fairly low on the effort scale for implementation, based on a few decades of software development experience. Just my opinion

 

Any other +1's on this, or is there a workaround to accomplish it?

 

 

[gazumped 11,666]

Don't know about shouting - all I asked was "It is really necessary?" - and pointed out (as a workaround) that Samsung -and Android come to that- already have mature TTS options that should work with Evernote now.  Suggestions made here are read directly by Evernote staffers,  so the idea has been mooted - whether Evernote decide to play or not is up to them.  No development is 'simple' however,  so anything new probably isn't going to happen in the next year or so,  if ever...

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I don't understand why this idea was more or less shouted down by a moderator via criticism of phrasing.

No one has "shouted down" any ideas.

 

Isn't the point of this forum to suggest and advocate for new ideas which are by definition opinions?

Absolutely! Which is why I said:

 

WRT it being 'necessary'...that's an opinion.  Many people successfully use EN without this feature. I could not care less about text to speech.   Many also consider another feature more necessary than what you do.