Deprecate `ReadText` in favor of the new Desktop-compatible TTS mechanism

[BrayanDSO]

We now have a shiny improved TTS mechanism that is also compatible with the scheme of Anki Desktop, and the old one has bugs #15423. Since we should work in only one direction, the old one should be deprecated.

We can't do it just by removing the setting because a lot of people would get confused and frustrated. So, we should do it by steps.

What I propose is:

• Add a warning in 2.17 changelog with a link explaining how to migrate
• Show a snackbar or a toast in EVERY single card that ReadText runs. I want to be annoying here so people migrate fast
• Show a similar snackbar if someone tries to enable the setting
• Hide the setting in new installations
• Remove it completely in 2.18

[david-allison]

Discussed briefly in Discord: https://discord.com/channels/368267295601983490/1206745068111925268

My proposal was:

2.18

• documentation
• 'deprecated' icon in the Preferences + badge in the nav + links to deprecation page
• Warn strongly if a user tries to enable it
• Disable translations

2.19

• nag in the reviewer

2.20

• Force a user to disable before using the reviewer
• Remove

2.21

• Remove [remaining] translations

The current aim is to move as much as the 2.18 work to 2.17

We can likely move changes in 2.21 -> 2.20

[mikehardy]

I'd compress 2.19 proposed nag into 2.18 to get it done more quickly (deprecation without nagging to me has no effect, users won't read or notice deprecation, so the nag is the deprecation IMHO)

[david-allison]

Already done:

• start ReadText deprecation process #15489
  • documentation
  • 'deprecated' icon in the Preferences
  • badge in the nav + links to deprecation page
  • Warn strongly if a user tries to enable it
  • nag in the reviewer

[BrayanDSO]

For the future I suggest nagging even more, showing the snackbar in every card if ReadText is enabled

[david-allison]

We need to do better with the learn more documentation

https://docs.ankiweb.net/templates/fields.html#text-to-speech-for-individual-fields is not sufficient for a user to know what they need to do.

Specifically: a user frustration is the expectation that they'll need to do this for every card in their deck

Anki-Android/AnkiDroid/src/main/java/com/ichi2/anki/preferences/AdvancedSettingsFragment.kt

Lines 75 to 76 in 2426f47

	ttsPref.isChecked = false
	(requireActivity() as AnkiActivity).openUrl(R.string.link_tts)

[mfmeulenbelt]

Could this please be given more thought before the old way is deprecated? As a user I find this super confusing. From an Ankidroid user perspective: I just need to know how to make the new way work exactly as the old way used to work. I’m not interested in the full documentation for “Field replacements”, whatever that is.

To illustrate: I have now changed <tts service="android" voice="it_IT">{{Front}}</tts> to {{tts it_IT speed=0.8:Front}}{{Front}} (which I gather is how it should work) but I’m still being nagged to upgrade to the new format.

(Also, does the new text to speech ignore the speed setting of Android’s text to speech feature? I had to add the speed modifier to the template.)

[mikehardy]

@mfmeulenbelt a lot of thought is being given to it right now --> discussion here https://discord.com/channels/368267295601983490/820461336143069225/1208975266311970957

(for those that do not want to directly participate, discussion involves how to make document more explicit, how to link directly to it from the app when needed, videos showing it etc)

This is a big change but it is certainly the correct change ("Adopt ecosystem-standard TTS") vs the previous state ("Let's have our own ecosystem-incompatible TTS") so we will move forward but we don't intend to confuse everyone. Hopefully cleaned up before shipping 2.17 general release

[david-allison]

@mfmeulenbelt After making the change, to remove the warning you need to disable the legacy TTS at the bottom of Settings - Advanced

• Moving this setting to the bottom of the settings is unintuitive. It should be at the top if enabled, and at the bottom if disabled