Piper TTS 2026 – What Changed & How to Use It Now
Piper TTS is still one of the fastest and most efficient open-source text-to-speech systems you can run locally even on small devices like a Raspberry Pi. But a lot has changed since my last videos in 2023.
In this video, I take a fresh look at Piper in 2026:
I also spoke with Mike Hansen, the creator of Piper, who shared insights about the current state of the project, its challenges, and where things are heading — including an early preview of Piper 2.
00:00 Intro
01:52 Moving code from Rhasspy to @OpenHomeFndn
02:23 Development and Roadmap
04:30 License change
05:05 Piper binary executeables vs. Python integration
05:50 Practical screenshare
06:27 Direct compare old repo vs. new repo
09:00 Using Piper on command line interface (CLI)
12:10 Using Piper as webserver process (no UI)
14:30 Using Piper in a Python Script
15:45 Using "old" MacOS binary (failed!)
16:50 Using "old" Linux binary (worked!)
18:30 Outro