What is speech synthesis, text to speech, and TTS?

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Self-driving cars, chatbots, and automated workflows can only mean one thing: robots.

You know how it goes — soon they’ll take over. Who doesn’t remember I, Robot with Will Smith, where the robots got tired of humanity and decided to do something about it?

But if we set aside their world-domination plans for a moment, robots are actually a good thing — at least if you ask me. We embrace artificial intelligence (AI) every day, and it helps us improve, analyze, and simplify our work.

Now it’s time to talk about speech synthesis — or as they say on the other side of the Atlantic: text to speech (TTS).

Let’s go through what TTS is, how it works, why it’s useful, and how we use it in lynes.

Let’s dive in!

What is speech synthesis (TTS)?

Speech synthesis is the process of generating spoken language from text. It’s an AI-based technology used to communicate with people who either can’t or prefer not to read from a screen.

It enables features like having a news article read aloud in your browser while you’re unpacking groceries.

And the technology? It’s become really impressive. Thanks to continuous machine learning (yes, the robots are learning), we now get more natural-sounding speech with realistic tone, pitch, inflection, and emphasis.

Today, text-to-speech is more common than you might think. It’s used in:

News readers
Games
Public announcements
E-learning
Telephony services

—all generating audio content for users and customers through TTS.

How it works in lynes

A business phone system relies heavily on audio files, from welcome messages and queue announcements to voicemail greetings.

You’ve probably heard something like:

“Your call is important to us. Please hold, and we’ll be with you shortly.”

Traditionally, you’d record these messages manually. Sure, it doesn’t require a full studio setup — just a decent mic, a quiet room, and a script.

But then there’s the issue of time… and planning.

And we all know how that goes — time slips away.

That’s where text-to-speech in lynes comes in.

Just type what you want to say, choose a voice, and voilà — you’ve got an audio file ready to activate in your PBX or voicemail.

The best part? It’s just as easy to do from your mobile as from your computer.

Here’s how it works:

Write your message
Choose language & voice
Click save

Easy? lynes!

Where it’s used in lynes

There are several places where you can use TTS in lynes:

Voicemail
IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
Presence / availability messages
Call queues
Welcome and hold messages

Using TTS ensures consistent branding — the same voice across your organization, whether customers call your main number or reach a voicemail.

Why use it?

The main reason text to speech has become so popular is simple: time — or rather, the lack of it.

It also solves the problem of human unpredictability. Planning isn’t always our strong suit, and unforeseen events happen — from power outages to billing errors that flood your phone lines.

Imagine your billing system accidentally sends out 4,540 incorrect invoices. Instead of answering every call individually, you could instantly update your PBX using TTS:

“Our latest invoice batch was sent with incorrect amounts. We’re issuing credits and sending corrected invoices shortly.”

Problem solved — no endless queue, no frustrated customers.

The advantages of speech synthesis

We’ve already covered several benefits, but here’s a quick summary:

Flexibility
Create, edit, or remove voice messages from anywhere — desktop or mobile.
Simplicity
No need for recording equipment or scripts. Just type and save.
Languages
Not everyone has multilingual staff to record messages. With TTS, you can instantly choose from multiple languages and voices.

How does it sound?

Actually, really good.

I know, it’s hard to take my word for it — but you should. Still, for fairness’ sake, I’ll let you meet my “robot colleagues”:

Sven, 56, Ödeshög
Retired woodworking teacher with a passion for stamp collecting.
Amy, 37, Watford
Etiquette lecturer and two-time winner of “Watford Citizen of the Year.”
Liv, 34, Trondheim
Multi-time Norwegian ski champion in the 10km discipline. Soon releasing her autobiography “Off Track.”

Want to learn more about TTS and how it works in lynes?

👉 Get in touch — we’ll be happy to show you.

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