Effective June 26 2023, “Alice” voices are no longer supported for Text-To-Speech and any request will be redirected to an alternative voice. No action required from customers and no service disruption is expected. Twilio encourages to review and re-test applications using “Alice” voices (that are mapped to an alternative voice) to confirm that they work as intended. It is highly recommended to update configuration in Console, Studio flows and application to remove any references to “Alice” voices.

Going forward, “Alice” would be mapped to “Woman” voices where the language is available in a “Woman” voice and requests for non-available languages would be mapped to a paid alternative. Also, the quality of free voice alternatives (Man, Woman) is similar to those being removed and paid alternatives are significantly better. 

Why is this happening?

The third-party service responsible for Alice voices is being deprecated so Twilio will remove these voices from Text-To-Speech offering in order to meet partnership eligibility criteria and provide customers a reliable service. As a result, some languages would not have a basic free option anymore because they are not available in “Man” &”Woman” voices.

Language Mapping for Alice voices alternatives

Twilio will automatically redirect “Alice” voice requests to the best alternative available, meaning mapping of voices will try to maintain the same or better performance and experience. Note that if an exact match of locale/language is not available as a “Woman” voice, a paid alternative would be used.  

This is the  detailed list of each language and its mapped voice that will occur starting June 26 2023.

 

Why some Alice requests are redirected to a paid alternative?

As a result of removing “Alice” voices from Text-To-Speech offering, some languages would not have a basic free option anymore because they are not available in “Man” &” Woman” voices. In order to try to maintain the same or better performance and experience, Twilio will automatically redirect “Alice” voice requests to the best alternative available, free of charge when possible, otherwise a paid option. 

If you don’t want to be charged for those requests redirected to a paid alternative, you can use a “Man” or “Woman” voice instead, as long as a locale is available for that language, even if no exact accent is available. For example, you may select fr-FR instead of fr-CA for your french communications in Canada. 

Note: Portuguese (pt-XX) and Japanese (jp-XX) don’t have a free voice available in any locale. 

How to use a different voice instead of the mapping defined for Alice requests?

If you want to use a different voice instead of the automatic mapping defined, you can update configuration in Console, Studio flows and application to specify a voice from Text To Speech languages and voices catalog instead of Alice. See complete list of available voices and pricing in our Text-to-Speech (TTS) documentation.

How to update Text To Speech Configuration in Console?

1. Navigate to Text To Speech settings in Console
2. If the default provider is “Basic”, review that Alice is not set as default. Instead select “Man” or “Woman”
3. Review Language Mapping section to ensure that Alice voice is not set as default for any language

How to update Text To Speech flows in Studio?

1. Navigate to Studio in Console
2. Open a flow that has a <Say>/<Play> widget
3. If the Message Voice is Alice, select “Man” or “Woman” instead
4. Repeat steps 2-3 for each flow that has a <Say>/<Play> widget

How to update Text To Speech requests in Twiml?

1. Review the Twiml code with <Say> instructions
2. Open a flow that has a <Say>/<Play> widget
3. If the Message Voice is Alice, change it to “Man” or “Woman” instead

<Response>
  <Say voice="Woman">John’s phone number is</Say>
</Response>