February 22, 2026

Voice Options in Guide

Guide supports three TTS engines: built-in voices, Windows Speech (SAPI), and NVDA. Learn what's available and how to switch.

Silhouette of a person speaking into a smartphone against a bright background

Guide gives you three ways to hear responses. You can switch between them any time in the Settings tab.

Built-in voices

Guide's default option. These are low-latency cloud voices that work out of the box with no extra setup.

Available voices:

  • Amelia
  • Rachel
  • Brian
  • Michelle (default)

To sample a voice before committing to it, select it from the dropdown and a short audio preview will play automatically.

Windows Speech (SAPI)

Guide can use your Windows built-in voices instead of its own. This is useful if you've already configured a preferred voice in Windows Settings, or if you want access to voices you've downloaded from Microsoft.

Availability: Windows Speech is enabled automatically if your system supports it. If the option is greyed out, SAPI voices aren't available on your device.

How to enable:

  1. Open Guide and go to the Settings tab
  2. Under Voice, select Windows Speech (SAPI)
  3. A dropdown will appear listing all voices installed on your system. Pick the one you want.

Guide will use whatever voice you select at the speed and pitch configured in your Windows Settings.

NVDA

If you use NVDA as your primary screen reader, Guide can hand off all speech to NVDA instead of speaking on its own. This keeps your audio experience consistent across everything you use.

Availability: The NVDA option is only enabled if NVDA is already running when Guide starts. If NVDA isn't detected at launch, the option will be greyed out. Start NVDA first, then open Guide to enable it.

Things to know in NVDA mode:

  • Guide uses your NVDA voice, rate, and pitch settings
  • The completion sound and window re-maximize are not available in NVDA mode, since Guide can't reliably detect when NVDA has finished speaking
  • Guide can't guarantee speech priority in NVDA's queue, so other things NVDA is reading may cut Guide off mid-response
  • To re-enable the completion sound and re-maximize, switch back to a built-in voice or Windows Speech

Switching between voice modes

All three options are available as radio buttons in Settings > Voice. Select a mode and Guide will switch immediately with no restart needed.

Need help?

Email support@guideinteraction.com and we'll get back to you.