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PeabodyMake a free story

Get a better voice for Peabody

Peabody reads stories, game questions and recipe steps out loud with a voice that is already on your device. The default one can sound robotic and be hard for little ears to follow. A free download makes it sound like a person, and it takes about a minute.

Peabody speaks with your device's own voice

Peabody's wordsDevice voice
  1. Basic can sound robotic
  2. Good clear
  3. Natural sounds like a person
The tool below says which of the three your device has now, and shows the free download for a natural one.

Peabody's voice on this device

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Give your Mac a natural voice

Free. About one minute, and a download of a few hundred megabytes.

System Settings
  • Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth
  • Accessibility
  • Displays
Step 1 of 6Open System Settings and click Accessibility.

The steps, in words

  1. Open System Settings (the grey gear in the Dock, or the Apple menu).
  2. Click Accessibility, then Read & Speak (it is called Spoken Content on older Macs).
  3. Click the ⓘ beside System voice (or open its menu and choose Manage Voices…).
  4. Under English, click the download arrow beside Ava (Premium). Premium voices sound the most like a person.
  5. When the download finishes, quit your browser completely (press ⌘Q) and open it again.
  6. Come back to this page and press Check my voice.

Pick: Ava (Premium), Zoe (Premium), Samantha (Enhanced)

Safari and Chrome both read the Mac's voices, but a browser sometimes hides a downloaded one. If Check my voice doesn't find it, try the other browser. Siri's own voices can't be used by websites.

Did it work?

Quit your browser completely (⌘Q) and open it again. A browser only notices a new voice when it starts.

The maker's own page: Apple: change the voice your Mac uses to speak

Private: this page only reads the list of voices your browser offers. Nothing is sent anywhere. Steps checked 27 Oct 2026; menus change, so they are re-checked every few months.

Every device, in words

Mac

  1. Open System Settings (the grey gear in the Dock, or the Apple menu).
  2. Click Accessibility, then Read & Speak (it is called Spoken Content on older Macs).
  3. Click the ⓘ beside System voice (or open its menu and choose Manage Voices…).
  4. Under English, click the download arrow beside Ava (Premium). Premium voices sound the most like a person.
  5. When the download finishes, quit your browser completely (press ⌘Q) and open it again.
  6. Come back to this page and press Check my voice.

iPhone or iPad

  1. Open Settings, then Accessibility.
  2. Tap Read & Speak (it is called Spoken Content on older versions), then Voices.
  3. Tap English, then pick Ava (Premium). Tap the cloud arrow to download it.
  4. When it says Downloaded, close Safari completely (swipe it away in the app switcher) and open it again.
  5. Come back to this page and press Check my voice.

Windows PC

  1. Open Microsoft Edge (the blue-green wave in the taskbar or Start menu).
  2. Go to peabody.kids in Edge. Edge has free natural voices built in that other browsers on Windows don't show.
  3. Press Check my voice below.

Android phone or tablet

  1. Open Settings and search for Text-to-speech output (it is under Accessibility on most phones, and under General management on Samsung).
  2. Make sure the engine is Google, then tap the gear beside it.
  3. Tap Install voice data, then English (United States), and pick a high-quality voice. Tap to download.
  4. Close Chrome completely and open it again.
  5. Come back to this page and press Check my voice.

Chromebook

  1. Open Settings, then Accessibility, then Text-to-speech, then Text-to-speech voice settings.
  2. Beside the Chrome OS built-in text-to-speech extension, click Settings. Beside English, click Add natural voices.
  3. Restart Chrome, come back to this page and press Check my voice.
  4. On a school Chromebook the school decides what can be added. Ask the school's tech person.