Amazon Polly is a service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that converts text into lifelike speech. It is a Text-to-Speech (TTS) service that enables developers to add speech capabilities to their applications.

With Amazon Polly, you can generate speech from plain text or SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language), which allows for more advanced control over speech synthesis. Polly supports a wide range of languages and offers various voices with different styles and accents.

Here are some key features and use cases of Amazon Polly:

1. Natural-sounding voices: Amazon Polly provides a selection of voices that sound natural and human-like, including both male and female voices. The voices are designed to express emotions and can adapt to different contexts.

2. Customization options: Polly allows you to customize the speech output by controlling aspects such as pronunciation, intonation, and volume. You can modify the speech using SSML tags or by adjusting parameters in the API requests.

3. Multilingual support: Amazon Polly supports a broad range of languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and many more. You can choose the voice and language that best suits your application’s requirements.

4. Integration with applications: Polly can be integrated into various applications, including chatbots, voice-enabled devices, e-learning platforms, accessibility solutions, and more. It enables users to listen to content instead of reading it, enhancing user experiences.

5. Real-time streaming: Polly supports real-time streaming of synthesized speech, allowing you to process and play speech audio as it becomes available. This feature is useful for applications that require immediate speech feedback or live interactions.

6. Batch processing: Polly offers a batch synthesis API, enabling you to convert large amounts of text into speech in a single request. This is useful when you have a high volume of content to be synthesized.

To use Amazon Polly, you need to have an AWS account and access to the AWS Management Console or the AWS API. You can interact with Polly through the AWS SDKs, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or by making HTTP requests to the Polly API endpoints.

Pricing for Amazon Polly is based on the number of characters converted into speech and the selected voice. AWS provides a free tier that offers a limited amount of speech synthesis per month, allowing you to try out the service at no cost.