diff --git a/src/Audio/AudioOutput.cc b/src/Audio/AudioOutput.cc
index 4c892b5da416becdf47ffd09aa8bae77791b1d96..98e9498ee9666282440c7470113fe921e603904d 100644
--- a/src/Audio/AudioOutput.cc
+++ b/src/Audio/AudioOutput.cc
@@ -17,9 +17,17 @@
 #include "SettingsManager.h"
 
 AudioOutput::AudioOutput(QGCApplication* app, QGCToolbox* toolbox)
-    : QGCTool(app, toolbox)
-    , _tts(new QTextToSpeech(this))
+    : QGCTool   (app, toolbox)
+    , _tts      (nullptr)
 {
+    if (qgcApp()->runningUnitTests()) {
+        // Cloud based unit tests don't have speech capabilty. If you try to crank up
+        // speech engine it will pop a qWarning which prevents usage of QT_FATAL_WARNINGS
+        return;
+    }
+
+    _tts = new QTextToSpeech(this);
+
     //-- Force TTS engine to English as all incoming messages from the autopilot
     //   are in English and not localized.
 #ifdef Q_OS_LINUX
@@ -28,8 +36,13 @@ AudioOutput::AudioOutput(QGCApplication* app, QGCToolbox* toolbox)
     connect(_tts, &QTextToSpeech::stateChanged, this, &AudioOutput::_stateChanged);
 }
 
-bool AudioOutput::say(const QString& inText)
+void AudioOutput::say(const QString& inText)
 {
+    if (!_tts) {
+        qDebug() << "say" << inText;
+        return;
+    }
+
     bool muted = qgcApp()->toolbox()->settingsManager()->appSettings()->audioMuted()->rawValue().toBool();
     muted |= qgcApp()->runningUnitTests();
     if (!muted && !qgcApp()->runningUnitTests()) {
@@ -46,7 +59,6 @@ bool AudioOutput::say(const QString& inText)
             _tts->say(text);
         }
     }
-    return true;
 }
 
 void AudioOutput::_stateChanged(QTextToSpeech::State state)
diff --git a/src/Audio/AudioOutput.h b/src/Audio/AudioOutput.h
index b97d81f4e996581f518c3dae0083282e82f3c92d..e6da79c26a0bf49319f144acf2a2b7348d7baa2d 100644
--- a/src/Audio/AudioOutput.h
+++ b/src/Audio/AudioOutput.h
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ public:
     static QString  fixTextMessageForAudio  (const QString& string);
 
 public slots:
-    bool            say                     (const QString& text);
+    void            say                     (const QString& text);
 
 private slots:
     void            _stateChanged           (QTextToSpeech::State state);