Support
Pronunciation Problems on Android
If the pronunciation button in Remind Cards AI stays silent, cuts off, or reads words in the wrong voice on an Android phone, the cause is almost always the phone's own text-to-speech engine — not the app. Remind Cards AI plays audio through the text-to-speech (TTS) engine that is already installed on your device, so when that engine breaks, every app that speaks out loud breaks with it.
Why this happens
On some phones the TTS engine ends up in a broken state: a voice download fails halfway, an update leaves stale data behind, or the manufacturer's own engine is installed as the default and does not support the language you are studying. The result is a play button that appears to work but produces no sound, or a voice that mispronounces words badly.
The good news: this is repairable in your Android settings in a few minutes, and you only have to do it once. Work through the steps below in order and test after each one — most people are fixed by step 3.
Check which engine is the default
Open your phone's settings and follow this path:
Settings → System → Languages & input → Text-to-speech output → Preferred engine
The engine you see there will usually be one of these:
- Speech Recognition & Synthesis — the current name for Google's TTS engine.
- Google Text-to-speech Engine — the older name for the same thing.
- Samsung text-to-speech engine — the built-in engine on Samsung phones.
If the preferred engine is anything other than Google's, switch it to Speech Recognition & Synthesis (or Google Text-to-speech Engine). Google's engine supports the widest range of languages and is the most reliable. Then test the pronunciation button in the app again.
Test with the system's own preview
On that same Text-to-speech output screen there is a Listen to an example (or Play) button. Tap it. This is the fastest way to tell where the fault is:
- You hear the example — the engine works, so restart Remind Cards AI and the pronunciation should play.
- You hear nothing — the engine itself is broken. Continue with step 3.
Clear the engine's cache
The TTS engine is a system app, so it is hidden in the app list by default. To reach it:
Settings → Apps → ⋮ menu (top right) → Show system → find your TTS engine → Storage & cache
On some phones the second step is Apps & notifications → See all apps. The Show system step matters — without it, the engine will not appear in the list no matter how you search.
Tap Clear cache first, then test the pronunciation again. This is the safe option: it removes nothing you would need to download again.
Still broken? Clear storage and restart
Go back to the same Storage & cache screen and tap Clear storage (sometimes called Clear data).
⚠️ This removes the downloaded voice data, so you will need to download your languages again in step 5.
After clearing storage, restart your phone before testing. The text-to-speech service needs to start up cleanly, and a restart is what makes that happen reliably.
Re-download the voices and verify
Return to the text-to-speech settings and install the voice data again:
Settings → System → Languages & input → Text-to-speech output → ⚙️ next to the engine → Install voice data
The menu may be called Voices instead of Install voice data. Download the language you are studying, then go back one screen and tap Listen to an example once more.
If the system preview plays, the pronunciation button in Remind Cards AI will work too — the app uses exactly the same engine.
Samsung, Xiaomi and other brands
The steps are the same, but manufacturers rename the menus. On Samsung, for example, the path is:
Settings → General management → Text-to-speech
If a manufacturer's own engine keeps failing, set the preferred engine to Speech Recognition & Synthesis (Google) and update that app in the Play Store. Google's engine covers more languages and is updated far more often than most built-in alternatives.
If nothing above works
If the system's own Listen to an example still refuses to play after all of these steps, the engine installation itself is damaged. Open the Play Store, find Speech Recognition & Synthesis (or Google Text-to-speech Engine), and uninstall the updates, then install it again. Restart the phone afterwards.
Still stuck? Contact us and tell us your phone model, your Android version, and which language you were trying to hear. We will help you from there.
Quick summary
Set the preferred engine to Google's Speech Recognition & Synthesis, clear its cache, and test. If it is still silent, clear its storage, restart the phone, and download the voice data again.
Use Listen to an example in the Android settings to check your progress: once that plays, the app plays too.