About Read‑Aloud

Last updated: December 2025

Read‑Aloud is an independent, hobby‑run project built to make text‑to‑speech simple: paste text, choose a voice and speed, and press Start. The goal is a distraction‑free tool you can open instantly—no accounts, no uploads, no complicated setup.

    One sentence summary: Read‑Aloud reads your text out loud in your browser using the voices already on your device.
  

What makes Read‑Aloud different

Privacy-first by design: your pasted text is spoken by your browser/OS speech engine, not uploaded to our servers.
Fast and lightweight: no login, no paywall, no “app install” required.
Built for real use-cases: studying, proofreading, accessibility support, and language practice.
Keyboard-friendly: we publish keyboard shortcuts and keep controls simple and clearly labeled.

How it works (Read‑Aloud specifics)

Voices come from your browser/OS. That means the voice list can differ on Chrome vs Safari vs Firefox—and it can differ by device.
If a voice sounds robotic: try another voice, or try a different browser. (Desktop Chrome/Edge are often the most reliable.)
Offline use: once the page loads, system voices often keep working without an internet connection. If your browser has no voices, the fallback offline voice may require an initial download first.
iPhone/iPad note: iOS can be strict about audio playback. If you hear nothing or the voice list is empty, check the troubleshooting steps on the Help page.

Deep dive: Browser compatibility & voice availability

Playback only: Read‑Aloud is built for in‑browser listening and does not provide downloadable audio files.

Privacy and data

Read‑Aloud is designed so that the text you paste stays on your device while speech is generated. For the full details (including any third‑party services such as analytics or ads, if enabled), see the Privacy Policy.

How this site stays online

Read‑Aloud is kept online through a combination of:

Optional support: a small donation link (“Buy me a coffee”).
Privacy-first operations: no accounts or upsells are required to use the tool.
Minimal, clearly labeled ads: ads may be shown to offset hosting costs and are kept lightweight.

If you’d like to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee. Sharing the tool with someone who needs it also helps a lot.

Who runs the site?

Hi! I’m Nick. I maintain the codebase, handle support email, and keep the site running. Read‑Aloud is a spare‑time project, so bug reports and specific feature requests are genuinely helpful.

Credits

Web Speech API — provided by browser vendors
meSpeak.js — open-source fallback voice engine
Background texture — public domain texture source

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