Voice feedback support about siri-api

[RobinMeis]

I already played with this API and wanted to implement it in the next version. But as far as I know it is not possible to start the speech automatically. So the user would have to click on a button to start the playback which is useless in my opinion.
Please let me know if you have an idea how to start the playback automatically.

[JBX028]

Hi,

I didn't realized this limitation that will have a big impact on the user experience. It's seems that this user found a workaround : http://www.broken-links.com/2013/09/20/web-speech-api-part-one-speech-synthesis/

"Update: From a little further experimentation it looks like on iOS the speech must be initiated by a user action, rather than on page load (for example). Also, I’ve added a little easter egg to my site: if you’re using Chrome Canary or Safari 6.1/7 (both for OSX), try using the site search box…"

copy/past of his source code (not yet tested)

    window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(){
        if(window.speechSynthesis != 'undefined') {
            var frm = document.getElementById('say'),
                pitchRange = document.getElementById('pitch'),
                rateRange = document.getElementById('rate'),
                volRange = document.getElementById('volume'),
                foo, txt, langRadio;
            frm.addEventListener('submit',function(e){
                e.preventDefault();
                var voices = window.speechSynthesis.getVoices();
                //console.log(voices);
                langRadio = document.querySelector('input[type=radio]:checked');
                txt = document.getElementById('sayit').value;
                foo = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(txt);
                foo.lang = langRadio;
                foo.pitch = pitchRange.value;
                foo.rate = rateRange.value;
                foo.voice = voices[10];
                foo.voiceURI = 'native';
                foo.volume = volRange.value;
                window.speechSynthesis.speak(foo);
                //console.log('Said',foo);
            });
        }
    });

I hope you will find useful info otherwise, i will try to create a static page and make some investigations on my side.

Johnny -

[RobinMeis]

This workaround only works on Chrome and Safari on Mac OS X but not on iOS. I tried the easter egg on my iPad and iPhone with iOS 7 and as expected it did not work.