Every Android user should keep a text-to-speech app handy. You don't need to have a vision impairment to enjoy the benefits. For example, they'll let you listen to the news on your morning commute, catch up with new text messages in bed, or even enjoy your favorite eBooks without looking at the screen.

But which Android text-to-speech apps are the best? Keep reading to find out.

1. Android's Native Text-to-Speech Feature

Android has lots of accessibility tools that make a phone easier to use. One of the tools is a native text-to-speech function. The feature has fewer customizable settings than some of its competitors, but you can adjust the speech rate and pitch and install additional languages.

To change the text-to-speech settings, head to Settings > Accessibility > Text-to-speech output.

Android's text-to-speech feature automatically works with other Google apps that offer a read-aloud feature. For all other apps, you'll need to enable Select to Speak in Android's settings menu, which you'll find at Settings > Accessibility > Select to Speak. To use it, select text in any app and choose Speak from the popup menu.

If you only want basic text-to-speech functionality, you can stop here. The other options are only worth exploring if you need more features.

2. Voice Aloud Reader

Voice Aloud Reader is easy to use and supports a few different ways of reading text. If the app from which you want to read text has a share feature, just send the content to Voice Aloud Reader using the native Android Share menu. This also works for on-screen items that have their own share buttons, like tweets and Facebook posts.

Similarly, if the text you want to read is selectable, you can use the Share button in the popup context menu.

The app also works with URLs. Just paste the site's (or article's) address into Voice Aloud Reader, and it will automatically parse and read the relevant text for you. It's intelligent enough to strip out the menus and other junk. You can even add text files (like DOC and PDF) directly into the app; it can open the files and read their contents.

Download: Voice Aloud Reader (Free)

3. Narrator's Voice

Narrator's Voice offers something a bit different. The usual features are here: it is an app that reads text from apps, the web, messages, and other sources.

However, the app also has a fun side. You can add various sound effects to the speech synthesis, such as echo, reverb, gargle, and choir. It features a wide selection of voices to choose from. Some tech favorites like Cortana and Siri are present, as are some of the developer's own creations like "Steven" and "Pink Sheep" (don't ask).

Additionally, Narrator's Voice lets you add your own text, which it will then run through its synthesizer. It makes the app a great way to add a voiceover to video narrations, slideshow presentations, and more. You can even save your audio output file as an MP3, store it offline, and share it with friends.

An in-app purchase removes the ads.

Download: Narrator's Voice (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. Talk

Talk takes a more minimal approach than Voice Aloud Reader and Narrator's Voice, but it is still one of the best free text-to-speech apps for Android. The app can import web pages directly from your phone's browser or read the text from other third-party apps. You can export all the audio files and save them offline in the WAV format.

It's important to note that Talk Free relies on your phone's pre-existing text-to-speech (TTS) engine to work. Most Android devices will already have Google's engine installed. If you have deleted your phone's TTS engine, you can re-download Speech Recognition & Synthesis free from the Play Store.

The benefit of using Google's TTS engine is its support for lots of languages. If Google offers the language, Talk can generally work with it.

Download: Talk (Free)

5. T2S

T2S is a text-to-speech app that offers one of the most modern interfaces out of the apps we've discussed so far.

The app's standout feature is the presence of a simple built-in web browser. It's not going to win any awards for the number of features it offers, but it lets you easily listen to web pages without worrying about copying and pasting URLs or using the Share menu.

T2S's copy-to-speak feature is also worth mentioning. It shows an on-screen popup button whenever you copy text into other apps. Pressing the button will make the app start reading the copied text instantly. As with the other apps on this list, T2S lets you save your audio readouts and share them with other people. The pro version removes ads.

Download: T2S (Free, in-app purchases available)

6. NaturalReader

With AI being all the buzz, we ought to include an AI-powered solution to this list. NaturalReader offers almost 150 AI voices in different languages and over 25 dialects so that you can customize your text-to-speech experience to your liking.

The app can run in the background, so you can use other apps while listening to content. Moreover, it supports over 20 document formats, including PDF, DOCX, and eBook formats.

Other than the usual text-to-speech features, you can also use NaturalReader to detect and read text from images. This feature can come in super handy if you deal with a lot of scanned documents.

This feature is not perfect yet, but it works. If you're not satisfied with the built-in image-to-text functionality, you can convert images to text using OCR apps and then use NaturalReader for text-to-speech.

Download: NaturalReader (Free, in-app purchases available)

7. Pocket

We'll leave you with a slightly left-field choice: Pocket. You probably already know it as one of the best apps to save articles to read later when you're offline.

You may not know, however, that Pocket also has a text-to-speech reader. The feature supports multiple voices and languages and includes adjustable pitch and speed. It even supports background playback, meaning you can keep listening while you use other apps.

Because the text-to-speech reader is one of Pocket's native features, it's great when you want to listen to some long-form content on a journey when you are without the internet. Obviously, if you want to listen to text from all your apps, this isn't the right choice for you.

Download: Pocket (Free, premium version available)

The Top Text-to-Voice Apps

Hopefully, you now appreciate the benefits of keeping a text-to-speech app installed on your Android device. Once you become more familiar with their use, you'll start to rely on the apps a lot more. Don't believe us? Try a couple, stick with them for a week or two, and thank us later!

There's also an opposite way of communicating with your Android device, that is, speech-to-text. Such apps are particularly great for note-taking.