How to use TextToSpeech in an app without a View (and without a Title Bar)

Question

I'm trying to write an app that uses TextToSpeech to speak a brief message without interfering with what is displayed on the screen.

MainActivity.kt reads as follows:

package com.example.nearbyplaces

import android.os.Bundle
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech
import android.util.Log
import android.widget.Toast
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import java.util.*

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity(), TextToSpeech.OnInitListener {

    private var mTTS: TextToSpeech? = null

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        mTTS = TextToSpeech(this,this)
    }

    override fun onInit(status: Int) {
        if (status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
            val result = mTTS!!.setLanguage(Locale.ENGLISH)
            if (result == TextToSpeech.LANG_MISSING_DATA || result == TextToSpeech.LANG_NOT_SUPPORTED) {
                Log.e("TTS","The Language specified is not supported!")
            } else {
                speak("Nearby places")
            }
        } else {
            Log.e("TTS", "Initilization Failed!")
        }
    }

    private fun speak(mText: String) {
        mTTS!!.speak(mText, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null, "")
    }

    override fun onDestroy() {
        if (mTTS != null) {
            mTTS!!.stop()
            mTTS!!.shutdown()
        }
        super.onDestroy()
    }
}

and AndroidManifest.xml is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.nearbyplaces">

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity android:name=".MainActivity" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

With the default blank layout the app works, but displays the default Hello World view (with Title Bar) on top of what was there previously. If I remove the line setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) and safe delete the activity_main.xml, a blank view with Title Bar is still displayed.

Following advice on a separate thread I tried inserting android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar" in the Manifest. This worked OK with an app that did nothing but display a Toast, but in the app with TextToSpeech code I get the error "You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.". LogCat reports:

2021-02-28 16:37:40.378 17048-17048/? I/le.nearbyplace: Late-enabling -Xcheck:jni
2021-02-28 16:37:40.411 17048-17048/? E/le.nearbyplace: Unknown bits set in runtime_flags: 0x8000
2021-02-28 16:37:41.240 17048-17048/com.example.nearbyplaces I/TextToSpeech: Sucessfully bound to com.google.android.tts
2021-02-28 16:37:41.304 17048-17048/com.example.nearbyplaces D/AndroidRuntime: Shutting down VM
2021-02-28 16:37:41.306 17048-17048/com.example.nearbyplaces E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: com.example.nearbyplaces, PID: 17048
    java.lang.IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatDelegateImpl.createSubDecor(AppCompatDelegateImpl.java:843)
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatDelegateImpl.ensureSubDecor(AppCompatDelegateImpl.java:806)
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatDelegateImpl.onPostCreate(AppCompatDelegateImpl.java:527)
        at androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity.onPostCreate(AppCompatActivity.java:127)
        at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnPostCreate(Instrumentation.java:1402)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleStartActivity(ActivityThread.java:3528)
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.performLifecycleSequence(TransactionExecutor.java:221)
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.cycleToPath(TransactionExecutor.java:201)
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeLifecycleState(TransactionExecutor.java:173)
        at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:97)
        at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2183)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:107)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:241)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7604)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
        at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:492)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:941)
2021-02-28 16:37:41.358 17048-17048/com.example.nearbyplaces I/Process: Sending signal. PID: 17048 SIG: 9

Is there a "Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant)" with NoTitleBar, or any other way of preventing the blank view with Title Bar appearing?

It may help if you include what you're trying to do exactly and why, and how you expect a working version of this to behave. You may find there is a totally different approach/solution to the problem. — Nerdy Bunz, Mar 02 '21 at 04:31
Thanks, Nerdy. I'm thinking about a different approach and shall come back with more specific questions if I get stuck. — prepbgg, Mar 02 '21 at 16:32
After trying some alternative approaches, I've now done what Nerdy Bunz recommended and asked a new question describing what I'm trying to achieve, in case someone can suggest a better approach/solution. So far no responses: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66615429/hands-free-app-to-display-information-while-navigating-with-google-maps — prepbgg, Mar 14 '21 at 11:41

Sami Shorman · Answer 1 · 2021-02-28T19:12:25.733

0

you can hide and show action bar programmatically:

 actionBar?.hide()
 actionBar?.show()

or choose a theme without action bar:

 <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar">

and for the Hello World view just remove it from activity_main.xml.

edited Feb 28 '21 at 19:12

answered Feb 28 '21 at 18:55

Sami Shorman

149
1
11

Thanks for your suggestions. I tried actionBar?.hide() but still got the "You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme" error. styles.xml already includes – prepbgg Feb 28 '21 at 19:07
– Sami Shorman Feb 28 '21 at 19:12
OK. The ActionBar has disappeared, but the screen goes dark grey.. – prepbgg Feb 28 '21 at 20:31
– Sami Shorman Feb 28 '21 at 20:45
I've added the dependency you recommended to build.gradle (Module:app), then amended styles.xml to include just the Theme.Test line that you recommended and in AndroidManifest.xml I've changed the theme line to android:theme="@style/Theme.Test">. However, I'm afraid that hasn't worked. The view is replaced by a blank white screen. Thanks for all your help. I'm going to abandon these attempts and accept that the app wants to display a view, so I'll print the spoken text in the view then wait for the speech to finish before closing the app. Thanks again. – prepbgg Mar 01 '21 at 17:01

How to use TextToSpeech in an app without a View (and without a Title Bar)

1 Answers1