# Reading messages aloud

> Text-to-speech: the three engines, what each costs, and how to pick a voice.

Source: https://reverie.im/en/docs/media/reading-messages-aloud
Language: en

Any message can be played out loud. Tap the speaker button on it and the character's voice reads the reply; press and hold that same button for half a second and the voice picker opens instead.

## The three engines \[#the-three-engines]

Which engine a voice belongs to decides what it costs and whether you need a plan for it.

| Engine             | Voices                      | Cost                                                                             | Subscription | Notes                                                                          |
| ------------------ | --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Microsoft Edge** | 60 voices across 22 locales | Free                                                                             | No           | The default, and free at any length.                                           |
| **MiniMax**        | 160 voices                  | **25 credits per character** of text                                             | **Required** | Richer expressiveness. The **Premium** badge in the picker.                    |
| **Xiaomi MiMo**    | 9 voices                    | **Free** during a limited-time promotion (30 credits per character once it ends) | No           | The **Limited-time free** badge. Also the only engine that can design a voice. |

If you never touch the setting, a character speaks with an Edge voice chosen from your language and the character's gender.

> **MiniMax is billed per character, not per message.** At 25 credits per
> character, a 300-character reply costs 7,500 credits the first time it is
> played. The audio is then stored, so replaying it is free — for you and for
> anyone who plays it in a chat you shared. The first time you play a MiniMax
> voice, Reverie shows a **Text-to-Speech Credits** notice with the exact cost
> of that message; it appears once and then plays go straight through.

Without an active subscription, a MiniMax voice only plays audio that was already generated. Edge and MiMo have no plan requirement.

A shared chat plays the character in the voice its sharer chose, unless that voice is the sharer's own private clone; then it uses the character's own voice, or the default voice if the character has none.

## Choosing a voice \[#choosing-a-voice]

A voice is stored per character, for you, and follows you across devices. Setting it does not change what anyone else hears.

Open the picker in either of two ways:

* **Chat Settings → Voice & Input → Voice**
* Press and hold the speaker button on any message

The picker has two tabs — **Preset voices** and **My voices** (your own clones and designs from the [Voice Studio](https://reverie.im/en/docs/media/voice-cloning)). Filter by language and gender, or search by name or style. Voices are grouped as **Character voice**, **Recently used**, **For this character** and **All voices**, and each carries a price badge: **Free**, **Limited-time free** or **Premium**.

**Preview** plays a sample line in your language before you commit. A custom voice previews from the clip Reverie generated when the voice was created.

### The voice a creator chose \[#the-voice-a-creator-chose]

A character's creator can set a default voice in the character editor, and you hear that voice unless you pick another. If the default is a cloned voice, you can preview and use it on that character but you cannot add it to your own library.

## Playing replies automatically \[#playing-replies-automatically]

**Auto-play Voice** plays each new reply as it arrives. The toggle is in **Chat Settings → Voice & Input**, and it only appears while **Instant Chat Mode** is on — it is the setting for that mode, not a global one. Its scope is **This device**.

[Voice calls](https://reverie.im/en/docs/media/voice-calls) ignore it entirely: a call always speaks.

## What actually gets spoken \[#what-actually-gets-spoken]

By default the speaker button reads only the dialogue: the words inside quotation marks, or, with the **Speech with (actions)** format, the text left once the parenthesised actions are dropped. Narration, scene descriptions and actions are skipped, and a reply with no dialogue in it can't be played.

**Read Whole Message** reads the whole reply instead, narration and actions included; code blocks and tables, such as status panels, are still skipped. The toggle is in **Chat Settings → Voice & Input** and its scope is **This device**. It is hidden while **Instant Chat Mode** is on, because replies in that mode are written to be spoken and are always read in full. A whole reply is longer than its dialogue, so a paid engine charges more for it.

Before anything is synthesised, Reverie strips sticker and emoji-pack images, markdown formatting and emoji out of the text, so the voice reads the line rather than the punctuation around it.

Each synthesis request is capped at **500 characters** after that cleaning. Longer messages are split into chunks of up to 480 characters and played back to back, so a long reply still plays in full. The cost is unchanged — a paid engine bills per character either way.

## Voice notes a character sends \[#voice-notes-a-character-sends]

A character can send a real voice note on its own instead of a text message, up to 200 characters, in one of seven emotions. Replaying a voice note you were sent is free — Reverie verifies the message and skips the charge. See [Proactive messages](https://reverie.im/en/docs/chatting/proactive-messages).

## Related \[#related]

* [Voice calls](https://reverie.im/en/docs/media/voice-calls) — a live spoken conversation instead of playback
* [Voice Studio](https://reverie.im/en/docs/media/voice-cloning) — make a voice that isn't in the preset list
* [Credits](https://reverie.im/en/docs/billing/credits) — where the per-character charge lands
* [Subscriptions](https://reverie.im/en/docs/billing/subscriptions) — what unlocks the MiniMax engine