Xbox party chat text to speech: how to turn it on
Xbox can read what you type in party chat aloud to your friends in a synthetic voice. It was added for players who cannot or choose not to speak, and it is just as handy when you are sick, it is late at night, or your microphone has died. The same settings can also turn your friends’ speech into text on screen.
This guide shows where the switch is on the console and on Windows, what the feature does not cover, and how to talk in a character voice from a PC.
Turn it on on Xbox
Press the Xbox button to open the guide and go to Profile & system > Settings > Accessibility > Game and chat transcription (the names follow your console language). Tick Text-to-speech so that your chat text is read aloud to other players, and pick the voice in the Text-to-speech voice menu; the In-game chat voice menu sets the voice for games that support transcription. Tick Speech-to-text to see what others say as text.
On Windows with Game Bar
Press Windows key + G, sign in to Game Bar if asked, open the Xbox Chat widget, then Xbox Chat Options in its title bar and Accessibility. Under Game chat transcription, turn on Text-to-speech and choose a voice. On Windows this works in games that support game transcription; party chat transcription is available only on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles.
What it cannot do
Party chat transcription does not work in Discord-hosted party chats. You choose from the voices Xbox offers and cannot add your own. If others do not hear you, Xbox Support suggests connecting a headset before launching the game and setting privacy for communications to Everybody.
A character voice from a PC
On a PC, any app that lets you choose a microphone can take a generated voice, including Discord and many games. Install the free SuperClonica engine with python -m pip install superclonica-cpu, voice a line in one of the ten stock voices or a catalog voice, and play it into a virtual microphone such as VB-CABLE. Our VRChat guide shows the whole setup with a small type-and-speak script. On a console, the headset is the microphone, so the built-in voices are the way to speak by typing.
Good manners
A TTS voice is normal in party chat. Keep the volume level with other players, do not use a voice that imitates a real person or another player, and follow the rules of the game and community. Catalog character voices are fan-made: fine for fun, never for pretending to be someone.