TTS doesn't speak from a service whereas it does it from an activity in android

Question

I have been able to run TTS from an activity but when I try to execute the same code from a service, it's giving me message that TTS engine is initialised but not speaking anything.

Has anybody encountered the same issue anytime?

 public void onCreate() {

    super.onCreate();
    tts = new TextToSpeech(this, this //TextToSpeech.OnInitListener);

    timer.scheduleAtFixedRate( new TimerTask()                       
    {                                   // In timer

          public void run() {
          //On some condition
          tts.speak("thank you", TextToSpeech.QUEUE_ADD, null);
     }, 0, 60000);
    }

  @Override
  public void onInit(int status) {  
  if (status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
  Toast.makeText(BackgroundProcessforTimecheck.this, 
  "Text-To-Speech engine is initialized", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
 }
 else if (status == TextToSpeech.ERROR) {
  Toast.makeText(BackgroundProcessforTimecheck.this, 
  "Error occurred while initializing Text-To-Speech engine", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}

Answer 1

I had the same problem and solved it this way: Instantiate TextToSpeech Object in a separate Class (in my case I furthermore use a Factory to check if the Android Version is at least Donut) and reuse it (see method init(Context context)). Please notice that the onInit(int status) is far from being ready to release.

Service:

@Override
public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
Context context = getApplicationContext();
TtsProviderFactory ttsProviderImpl = TtsProviderFactory.getInstance();
if (ttsProviderImpl != null) {
    ttsProviderImpl.init(context);
    ttsProviderImpl.say("hope that helps);
}}

Factory:

public abstract class TtsProviderFactory {

public abstract void say(String sayThis);

public abstract void init(Context context);

public abstract void shutdown();


private static TtsProviderFactory sInstance;

public static TtsProviderFactory getInstance() {
    if (sInstance == null) {
        int sdkVersion = Integer.parseInt(Build.VERSION.SDK);
        if (sdkVersion < Build.VERSION_CODES.DONUT) {
            return null;
        }

        try {
            String className = "TtsProviderImpl";
            Class<? extends TtsProviderFactory> clazz =
                    Class.forName(TtsProviderFactory.class.getPackage().getName() + "." + className)
                            .asSubclass(TtsProviderFactory.class);
            sInstance = clazz.newInstance();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new IllegalStateException(e);
        }
    }
    return sInstance;
}}

Implementation:

public class TtsProviderImpl extends TtsProviderFactory implements TextToSpeech.OnInitListener {

private TextToSpeech tts;

public void init(Context context) {
    if (tts == null) {
        tts = new TextToSpeech(context, this);
    }
}

@Override
public void say(String sayThis) {
    tts.speak(sayThis, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
}

@Override
public void onInit(int status) {
    Locale loc = new Locale("de", "", "");
    if (tts.isLanguageAvailable(loc) >= TextToSpeech.LANG_AVAILABLE) {
        tts.setLanguage(loc);
    }
}

public void shutdown() {
    tts.shutdown();
}}

Answer 2

Did you installed the TTS engine in your device. I too faced the same problem with the same message. But later I found that I have to install the TTS engine to my real device also and it is available in the play store.