How to Do Text-to-Speech on YouTube Shorts

Adding a narrator voice to your YouTube Shorts is a surefire way to grab a viewer's attention, and the popular text-to-speech effect is one of the easiest ways to do it. This guide walks you through exactly how to add text-to-speech voiceovers to your Shorts using a few simple methods. We’ll cover the most popular workarounds and share some tips to make your content even more engaging.

Why Use Text-to-Speech on YouTube Shorts?

You’ve probably heard that iconic, slightly robotic voice across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. It’s more than just a trend, it's a powerful and practical creative tool for a few key reasons:

• It Boosts Engagement: The distinct text-to-speech sound is now a core part of short-form video culture. Using it makes your content feel instantly familiar and can add a layer of humor, drama, or personality that hooks viewers in the first three seconds.
• It Increases Accessibility: Not everyone watches videos with the sound on. TTS, paired with on-screen text captions, gives viewers multiple ways to understand your message. It also helps viewers who are hard of hearing or have auditory processing difficulties follow along.
• It's Incredibly Efficient: Don't like the sound of your own voice? Don’t have a high-quality microphone lying around? Don’t have time to record and edit audio? Text-to-speech is a quick fix. You can create a clear, effective voiceover in seconds without any special equipment.
• It Guides the Narrative: Use TTS to explain what’s happening on screen, tell a story, or provide context. It’s like having a dedicated narrator to direct your audience’s focus and reinforce your key message.

The Honest Truth: You Can't Natively Add TTS in the YouTube App (Yet)

Let's get this out of the way first. As of right now, YouTube's native Shorts editor does not have a built-in text-to-speech feature. This is a common point of confusion for creators coming from TikTok or Instagram, where adding a TTS voice is a simple one-click process.

But don't worry - the lack of a native tool doesn't stop anyone. Thousands of creators are using TTS on Shorts by following one of two simple workarounds:

1. Creating the video in another app first (like TikTok) and then uploading it to YouTube.
2. Using a dedicated third-party video editor (like CapCut) to add the voiceover before uploading.

We'll walk you through both methods step-by-step.

Method 1: The TikTok to YouTube Shorts Workflow

This is by far the most popular method for getting that classic "social media voice" on your Shorts. You’ll leverage TikTok’s excellent and intuitive text-to-speech engine and then transfer the finished video over to YouTube.

This workflow might seem like it has a few extra steps, but it usually takes less than five minutes once you get the hang of it.

Step 1: Record or Upload Your Video in TikTok

Open the TikTok app and start a new project. You can either record your video directly within the app or upload a clip you’ve already recorded from your phone's camera roll. Trim it to the desired length (keeping it under 60 seconds for Shorts).

Step 2: Add Your On-Screen Text

Next, tap the aA icon on the side of the screen to open the text editor. Type out the first line of your narration. Here are a few tips for your text:

• Break it Up: Instead of typing your entire script in one text box, create separate text boxes for each sentence or phrase. This gives you more control over the timing of both the voiceover and the on-screen captions.
• Style It: You can change the font, color, and add a background to your text to make it stand out against your video.

Step 3: Activate the Text-to-Speech Function

Once you’ve written your text, tap on the text box itself. A small menu will appear. Look for the icon that looks like a person's head with sound waves coming out of it and tap Text-to-speech.

TikTok will process the text and apply a voiceover. You can then tap on the different voice options (like the popular "Jessie" or the deeper male voice) to preview how they sound.

Repeat this for every line of text you want narrated.

Step 4: Set the Timing for Your Text and Voice

This step is important for making your voiceover sync perfectly with your video. For each text box you've created, do the following:

1. Tap the text box and select Set duration.
2. A timeline will appear at the bottom of the screen showing your video clip. Drag the edges of the red highlight box for your text to control when it appears and disappears.
3. The speech will only play when the corresponding text is visible on screen. Use this to time your narration to specific moments in the video.

Step 5: Download Your Video (Watermark-Free)

Once you're happy with the timing, you need to get the video off of TikTok and onto your phone's camera roll. The catch? Simply saving the video from your draft or posting and downloading it will include the TikTok watermark.

While YouTube doesn't explicitly penalize watermarked content, it’s always best practice to upload clean, unbranded footage. To do this, many creators publish their video to TikTok privately (select "Only Me" under "Who can watch this video"), then use a third-party app or website often called a "TikTok video downloader" to save a watermark-free version to their device.

Step 6: Upload to YouTube Shorts

With the finished video in hand, the last step is simple. Open the YouTube app, tap the + icon, select Create a Short, and upload the video you just downloaded. You can now add a title, description, and hashtags just as you would with any other Short.

Method 2: Using a Third-Party Editing App like CapCut

If you don't want to use TikTok or prefer a more powerful editor, desktop and mobile applications are your best bet. CapCut (available on both mobile and desktop) is a fantastic - and free - choice. It's owned by the same parent company as TikTok and includes a similar, if not wider, variety of high-quality TTS voices.

Here’s how to do it in CapCut:

Step-by-Step Guide for CapCut

1. Start a New Project: Open CapCut and tap "New Project." Select the video clip you want to use from your camera roll.
2. Add Text: Tap the Text tool in the bottom menu. Select Add text and type in the phrase or sentence you want to narrate. Adjust the font and style as you see fit.
3. Activate Text-to-Speech: With your text box selected, find the Text-to-speech option in the bottom menu.
4. Choose Your Voice: CapCut offers tons of different voices, from standard narrators to character voices and even vocal effects that sing your text. Tap on a voice to preview it. Once you find one you like, tap the checkmark to apply it.
5. Check Your Timeline: You will now see two new layers on your editing timeline: the text layer and an audio layer directly beneath it for the voiceover. You can trim, cut, and move both layers independently, giving you precise control over your timing.
6. Export and Upload: Once everything is perfect, tap the export icon at the top right of the screen to save the full-resolution video to your device. From there, you can upload it directly to YouTube Shorts.

Other popular video editors like InShot, Veed, and Clipchamp also offer easy-to-use text-to-speech functions, and the process is largely the same.

Bonus Tips for Creating Great TTS Shorts

Knowing how to create the effect is just the beginning. Using it well is what sets your content apart.

• Sync Voice to Visuals: Don't just narrate. Make the voiceover perfectly sync with an action on screen for maximum impact. If your voiceover says, "I added the secret ingredient," it should be timed to exactly when the item appears on screen.
• Use the Voice as a Character: The default TTS voices have become characters in their own right. Creators use them to represent an internal monologue, a skeptical observer, or an omniscient narrator. Think about what role the voice is playing in your story.
• Keep Text Short and Punchy: The human brain can read much faster than the TTS voice can speak. To avoid losing your audience's attention, keep your on-screen phrases clear and concise. This keeps the pacing fast and engaging.
• Always Add On-Screen Captions: This is a non-negotiable for short-form video. The text you add for the voiceover serves as a great starting point for captions, creating a visual and auditory experience that's accessible to everyone, whether they're watching with the sound on or off.

Final Thoughts

Adding text-to-speech voiceovers is a straightforward tactic for making your YouTube Shorts more dynamic, accessible, and aligned with modern social media trends. Though YouTube's native editor doesn't yet have this feature, using apps like TikTok or CapCut is a quick and effective workaround that gives you full creative control over the final product.

Once you’ve mastered creating engaging video, you need a workflow that saves you from the chaos of manually managing all your content. We built Postbase because we found legacy social media tools just weren’t designed for a short-form video world. Our visual calendar lets you plan a full month of Shorts, Reels, and TikToks at a glance, and when it’s time to schedule, you can reliably post your content across every platform without video compression headaches or fighting with constantly disconnecting accounts.