Hello everyone!
I’d like to report a bug related to the system speech synthesizer on macOS. I can’t make it speak any faster, no matter what I try. For example, when I enable “announce the time” on my Mac, there’s no way to increase the speech rate. The same goes for watching a video with subtitles — I can’t make the speech playback any faster there either.
Now I’m wondering: does this issue fall under Accessibility, and should anything related to speech synthesis be reported to the Accessibility Team? Or is there another place where I should submit such feedback?
I’d really appreciate any advice.
Warm regards 😁
By Ines, 18 October, 2025
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
Try the Feedback App
Try the feedback app or email [email protected]
Spoken Content
Just wondering - are you using VoiceOver? Is the rest of the speech the right speed and it's only a couple of places that aren't going fast enough?
You could try going to System Settings, then Accessibility, then Spoken Content and selecting Show Details where you can change the speed of Spoken Content. This is different to VoiceOver.
In the old days using VoiceOver to speak the time would use spoken content, but nowadays it does seem to use VoiceOver. But it is possible that you are somehow using the old method.
Anyway, this probably doesn't help but I thought I would try. But given neither is working then I would agree about feedback centre or the accessibility email address. It definitely sounds like an accessibility thing to me.
Thank you all for your replies.
So, I’ll answer collectively — I hope that’s not a problem.
I’ve written an email to [email protected].
Yes, I use VoiceOver every day. I’m completely blind and don’t rely on vision at all. I only have a small amount of light perception in my left eye, but I can’t distinguish any shapes.
What I meant isn’t the speech synthesis used by VoiceOver itself, but the macOS system in general. I can’t speed up subtitles in the Movist Pro app. Normally, I might assume it’s the app’s fault rather than Apple’s, but in this case, I’m sure it’s not — because even the hourly time announcement can’t be sped up in any way, and Movist Pro hasn’t had any updates recently.
As for VoiceOver itself, Ican adjust the speech rate there without any issue.
Read And Speak
If you're on the latest Mac OS 26, the options you are looking for are under Read And Speak in accessibility in system settings. It's different to voiceover and its what most apps call when they use TTS. You can change the voice and speed in there.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick and you've already tried this. Getting the wrong end of the stick is my specialty. You should see me with a cane.
Allow VoiceOver to be controlled with AppleScript
Have you tried opening the VoiceOver utility (VO key + F8 or VO key + Fn + F8) and tabbing to the Allow VoiceOver to be controlled with AppleScript control under General? I find that often after an update VO will lose the connection with this control, so I find that it needs to be toggled off then back on again. After that the Option T command reads time at the same speed as VoiceOver. it might also carry over to the other features you're citing as well.
Thank you so much for your replies and your willingness to help.
I’ve checked everything in both cases, and unfortunately, nothing worked.
I really appreciate that you’re trying to help — I’ve always believed it’s worth giving things a try, because even something that seems obvious can sometimes turn out to be the less obvious solution I wouldn’t have thought of myself.
As for announcing the time, I’m referring to the setting under System Settings → Menu → Announce the time.
I have it set to announce the time automatically every hour — that’s the interval I chose.
And that’s one of the places where I can’t do anything about it.
When I press VO + F7, everything works correctly.
But this issue isn’t related to the VoiceOver speech itself, strange as that may sound — everything works fine there, at least for the main voice.
Which voice?
Which voice is it you're having trouble with?
I’m having trouble with every voice.
I mean, I haven’t tried all of them because that would take a lot of time, but I tested several, and none of them work.
having a play
I've just gone into accessibility and am trying the Read And Speak options. I do notice that the voice, when you go into detail (I've got mine set as Siri1), isn't reflected in the selection when you come back out. Mine remained on Daniel and I had to change it.
I've also done some tests, turning on speek selection (option escape), and it seems to be working fine.
Again, please forgive if I'm asking you to try stuff you've already tried, but it might be worth checking that in Read and Speak, under system voice, the voice which you've edited from default to speak faster, is actually selected.