Voice - Use SSML for TTS

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This page explains how to use speech synthesis markup language (SSML) when using the text-to-speech (TTS) option with Telesign Voice.

What is SSML?

SSML is a web standard for the generation of synthetic speech. Use SSML when you want to specify fine details of how your message is converted to speech, as opposed to relying on the default conversion details used when sending a plain text message.

Reserved characters

The following characters are reserved in SSML, so use the associated escape code when including them in the content of your message.

Using quotation marks

There are a few special rules related to the " and ' characters above:

Double quotation marks

• Must always be escaped when in an attribute value delimited by double quotes.
• Do not need to be escaped when in textual context in the message. For example: <speak>He said, "Do. Or do not. There is no try."</speak>
• Do not need to be escaped when in an attribute value delimited by single quotes.

Single quotation marks

• Must be escaped when used as an apostrophe.
• Do not need to be escaped when in textual context in the message.
• Do not need to be escaped when in an attribute value delimited by double quotes.

Supported tags

Telesign's implementation of SSML supports the following tags.

<speak>

Enclose your entire message within these tags.

Example (SSML)

<speak>Do. Or do not. There is no try.</speak>

<break>

Add a pause in your message.

Attributes

Example (SSML)

<speak>Do<break strength="strong"/> Or do not<break time="1s"/> There is no try.</speak>

If you do not include any attributes, the effect varies depending on whether the tag is next to punctuation:

• Next to comma: Has the same effect as including the attribute strength="strong".
• Next to period: Has the same effect as including the attribute strength="x-strong".
• Not next to punctuation: Has the same effect as including the attribute strength="medium".

Example (SSML)

<speak>Do.<break/> Or do not.<break/> There is no try.</speak>

<prosody>

Control the volume, speaking rate, and pitch of the voice. At least one attribute must be included. <prosody> tags can be nested within other <prosody> tags.

Attributes

Example (SSML)

<speak><prosody volume="loud" rate="slow">Do. </prosody><prosody volume="-6dB" rate="150%">Or do <prosody pitch="low">not.</prosody> </prosody>There is no try.</speak>