Read Aloud Function in Word

Question

Hi

I am signed into my Microsoft Account but in Word the Read Aloud function which used to speak in a natural British voice, it is now speaking like a robot. I have tried logging out of my MS Account and signing back in, but this has made no difference. Can anybody suggest a solution please? Many thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,

I think this issue was already fixed in an update. Have you checked if your Word is up to date? If updating doesn’t solve the problem, try the marked answer from this thread to see if it helps.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5578356/natural-sounding-read-aloud-voice-in-microsoft-wor

Answer 2

The change from a natural-sounding British Read Aloud voice to a robotic one is a known issue that has appeared after recent updates for some users.

A commonly reported fix is to reset the Read Aloud voice configuration in the registry so Word will rebuild it:

1. Close Word completely.
2. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter to open Registry Editor.
3. Navigate to the key mentioned in the recommended fix (under the Word/Office speech or Read Aloud configuration path).
4. Locate the specific value used for the Read Aloud voice configuration.
5. Right-click that value and rename it (for example, add -1 to the end of the name).
6. Close Registry Editor.
7. Reopen Word and test Read Aloud again.

Renaming the value forces Word to recreate its Read Aloud voice settings, which can restore the natural neural voice instead of the fallback robotic voice.

If the issue persists, also ensure:

• Signed in with the Microsoft 365 account in Word.
• A stable internet connection is available, because neural voices require online access.

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References:

• Natural-sounding Read Aloud voice in Microsoft Word changed by itself to robotic default voices - Microsoft Q&A
• Listen to your Word documents