SpeechSynthesisErrorEvent: error property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨October 2018⁩.

The error property of the SpeechSynthesisErrorEvent interface returns an error code indicating what has gone wrong with a speech synthesis attempt.

Value

A string containing the error reason. Possible values are:

canceled: A SpeechSynthesis.cancel method call caused the SpeechSynthesisUtterance to be removed from the queue before it had begun being spoken.
interrupted: A SpeechSynthesis.cancel method call caused the SpeechSynthesisUtterance to be interrupted after it had begun being spoken and before it completed.
audio-busy: The operation couldn't be completed at this time because the user-agent couldn't access the audio output device (for example, the user may need to correct this by closing another application.)
audio-hardware: The operation couldn't be completed at this time because the user-agent couldn't identify an audio output device (for example, the user may need to connect a speaker or configure system settings.)
network: The operation couldn't be completed at this time because some required network communication failed.
synthesis-unavailable: The operation couldn't be completed at this time because no synthesis engine was available (For example, the user may need to install or configure a synthesis engine.)
synthesis-failed: The operation failed because the synthesis engine raised an error.
language-unavailable: No appropriate voice was available for the language set in SpeechSynthesisUtterance.lang. You can use the window.speechSynthesis.getVoices() method to determine which voices and languages are supported in the user's browser.
voice-unavailable: The voice set in SpeechSynthesisUtterance.voice was not available.
text-too-long: The contents of the SpeechSynthesisUtterance.text attribute was too long to synthesize.
invalid-argument: The content of the SpeechSynthesisUtterance.rate, SpeechSynthesisUtterance.pitch or SpeechSynthesisUtterance.volume property was not valid.
not-allowed: The operation's start was not allowed.

Examples

const synth = window.speechSynthesis;

const inputForm = document.querySelector("form");
const inputTxt = document.querySelector("input");
const voiceSelect = document.querySelector("select");

const voices = synth.getVoices();

// …

inputForm.onsubmit = (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();

  const utterThis = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(inputTxt.value);
  const selectedOption =
    voiceSelect.selectedOptions[0].getAttribute("data-name");
  for (const voice of voices) {
    if (voice.name === selectedOption) {
      utterThis.voice = voice;
    }
  }

  synth.speak(utterThis);

  utterThis.onerror = (event) => {
    console.error(
      `An error has occurred with the speech synthesis: ${event.error}`,
    );
  };

  inputTxt.blur();
};