Voices

A voice group (fka language group) is a group of languages and voices that your agents have access to. You can use the voice groups feature to create a set of languages with their associated voices and DTMF options. Then, you can link the language group to one or more agents, and update the agents’ messages to include a menu based on the language group so that the user can change languages if desired at the beginning of the conversation.

Create voice group

To create a new voice group, click “Voices” on the left navbar.

• Voice group name: The name of the voice group (must be unique within organization)
• Description (optional): Description of the voice group.
• Languages: Here you can select which languages are associated with the language group. For each language, you must enter a DTMF code (a number between 1 and 9, inclusive), select a voice provider, and select a voice from that provider. Note that your voice options are limited to voices that support the selected language. Each language in the group must be unique and have a unique DTMF code.
• The option “Skip first language when reading out language options” allows you to omit the first language in the group from the DTMF menu presented as part of the greeting message (see below). You can also configure speed and pitch (depending on if the voice being used supports it), both of which take decimal numbers. 

To give an agent the ability to understand a user’s request to speak in different languages, the process is as follows:

1. Create a voice group as outlined above.
2. Navigate to the desired agent. Your voice group should now appear as an option in the “Languages” dropdown on the agent edit screen. Select the voice group and save your changes.
3. Navigate to the agent’s message. Insert the tag {{ language.mode }} into the message (and/or the text of any message rules) where you would like the language menu to be delivered by the agent. Save your changes.

To give an agent the ability to understand a user’s request to speak in different languages:

1. Create a voice group
2. Navigate to the agent. Your voice group should appear as an option in the “Voices” dropdown on the agent edit screen. Select the voice group and save changes.
3. Navigate to the agent’s message. Insert the tag {{ language.mode }} into the message (and/or the text of any message rules) where you would like the language selection menu to be delivered by the agent. Save changes.

Now, when a user converses with your agent, at the beginning of the conversation it will deliver its associated message as normal, but at the point at which you inserted the {{ language.mode }} tag, it will instead read off a menu automatically generated from the voice group linked to the agent. 

For example, for the voice group with:

English - DTMF 1
Spanish - DTMF 2
Chinese - DTMF 3

the menu would be as follows:

For English, press 1.
Para Español, oprima el 2.
中文请按 3.

If the user had selected “Skip first language when reading out language options” when configuring the voice group, it would instead be

Para Español, oprima el 2.
中文请按 3.

Available voices and languages

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Google Cloud Text‑to‑Speech

Voice	Gender	Model	Languages
Aoede	Female	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Charon	Male	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Fenrir	Male	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Kore	Female	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Leda	Female	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Orus	Male	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Puck	Male	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Zephyr	Female	Chirp 3 HD	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
en‑US‑Neural2‑D	Male	Neural2	en‑US
en‑US‑Neural2‑F	Female	Neural2	en‑US
es‑US‑Neural2‑A	Female	Neural2	es‑US
es‑US‑Neural2‑B	Male	Neural2	es‑US
ko‑KR‑Neural2‑A	Female	Neural2	ko‑KR
vi‑VN‑Neural2‑A	Female	Neural2	vi‑VN
cmn‑TW‑Wavenet‑A	Female	WaveNet	cmn‑TW
yue‑HK‑Standard‑C	Female	Standard	yue‑HK
en‑US‑Studio‑O	Female	Studio	en‑US

OpenAI Text‑to‑Speech

Voice	Gender	Model	Languages
Alloy	Male	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Ash	Male	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Coral	Female	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Echo	Female	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Fable	Female	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Nova	Female	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Onyx	Male	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Sage	Male	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN
Shimmer	Female	TTS‑1	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, fa‑IR, es‑US, th‑TH, vi‑VN

ElevenLabs

Voice	Gender	Model	Languages
Alice	Female	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Bill	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Brian	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Callum	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Charlie	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Charlotte	Female	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Chris	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Daniel	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Eric	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
George	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Jessica	Female	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Laura	Female	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Liam	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Lily	Female	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Matilda	Female	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
River	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Roger	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Sarah	Female	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US
Will	Male	eleven_flash_v2_5	en‑US, ko‑KR, zh‑CN, es‑US

How to listen to AI voices in Console:

• Log into the Syllable Console
• Click the Voices tab, then select New Voice Group
• Name your new Voice Group.
• Select the default language.
• Pick a voice provider.
• Click the speaker icon to listen to a sample of the voice you want to hear.
• Tweak the Voice Speed and Pitch to your liking. We recommend small increments to maintain a human timbre.

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Pronunciations

Text-to-Speech systems often mispronounce proper nouns, brands, acronyms, and medical terms. Pronunciations will allow users to correct how agents pronounce words so that users can ensure agents are properly and clearly communicating with callers. 

• Note: Pronunciations are organization-wide and affect all agents using voices and languages.

Upload pronunciations

To upload pronunciations, go to “Voices” in the sidenav and click on the Pronunciations tab.

• Click “upload file” or download a sample CSV template, fill it in, and upload.

Sample CSV template columns

• text: The original word or phrase as it appears in transcripts or responses
• replacement: The phonetic or re-spelled version the TTS engine should use (For example: “kernel” for “colonel”).
• language: The relevant language (e.g., en-US, English, es-US, Spanish, etc.)

Note: There is no limit to the number of entries. Additionally, replacements are case-sensitive and match on the full word (i.e., if you had a replacement for the pronunciation of “pen”, it would not impact how “pen” is pronounced in “pencil”).

Remove pronunciations

When you remove an already uploaded pronunciations CSV file, it will revert to the default TTS model’s pronunciations

Test pronunciations

Pronunciations page displays all pronunciation customizations currently available in your organization. Each entry controls how a particular word or phrase will be spoken by the TTS engine used by your agents.

You can either test pronunciations at the organization level or at each voice group level. To test per voice group, click on a voice group and underneath the languages, try out different words to pronounce, for each language.

Add or update pronunciations

To add or edit pronunciation replacements, you must download the latest CSV, add your changes, and re-upload.

• Download CSV: Download your current pronunciation table from the Pronunciations page. The CSV will have the following columns: text | replacement | language
• Edit CSV: Add new rows for any words or phrases you wish to customize.

  • Example:

    

  • Tip: Use respelling or phonetic spelling. You may need to experiment to find the best pronunciation for your TTS voice.

• Upload CSV: Once you have made your changes, upload the CSV back to the platform. The system will immediately begin using your updated pronunciations.

Test pronunciations

You can test how your replacement spellings sound:

• Select a TTS provider, voice, and language
• Enter the replacement text or phrase
• Playback the result to ensure it sounds correct
• Adjust your replacement spelling as needed for clarity or naturalness

Best practices

• Be specific: The text column should match exactly how the word/phrase appears in your outputs.
• Phonetic spelling: Start with simple respellings, but if necessary, use more detailed phonetic hints or hyphenation.
• Language matching: Ensure the language field matches the TTS model you’re targeting.

Notes

• If you want to add more pronunciation replacements, download the latest CSV, add your changes, and re-upload.
• Pronunciation customizations are organization-wide and affect all agents using affected voices and languages.
• There is no limit to the number of entries you can add.

By customizing pronunciations, you ensure your agents speak naturally, improving user experience, and professionalism.