@Voice Aloud Reader
Free Android App - Now with PDF support!
Current version number: 18.2.0
@Voice Aloud Reader reads aloud the text displayed in an Android app, e.g. web pages, news articles, long emails, sms, PDF files and more.
IMPORTANT: You need Text-To-Speech engine and voices installed on your device to use this app. If you don't have it yet, pickup from Play Store Acapela, Ivona or SVOX TTS package. You may use more than one if you want.
Downloads and Manual:
See also:
* Click "Share", "Send by Email" button or menu item in any app to send text
you read to @Voice Aloud Reader for aloud reading over speakers or headset.
* If "Share" is not available, copy text in other apps and paste it into @Voice
for aloud reading.
* Open text, PDF, DOC, EPUB/MOBI/FB2 or HTML files from Android file system for reading aloud.
* Save articles opened in @Voice to files for later listening. Construct
listening lists of many articles for uninterrupted listening one after the
other. Order the list as needed, e.g. more important articles first.
* Record spoken articles to sound files - WAV
(uncompressed) or OGG (compressed) formats supported.
* Easily add saved Pocket articles to @Voice reading list - in Read List screen,
press Menu - Add articles from Pocket.
* Easily control speech generator volume, pitch and rate of speech.
* Pause/resume speech as needed with wired or Bluetooth headset buttons, plus
click Next/Previous buttons to jump by sentence, long-click to switch to the
next/previous article on a list.
* Can automatically recognize the language of an article and use appropriate TTS
voice, if available, or set your preferred voices manually with "Select
language" menu item.
* Options for additional pause between paragraph, start talking as soon as a new
article is loaded or wait for a button press, start/stop talking when wired
headset plug is inserted/removed.
* Optional sleep timer to stop speech after a given timeout.
ABOUT PERMISSIONS:
The full Internet access is needed because the “Share” function from web
browsers and any news reading apps I tried, sends us only the URL address
(http://something...). They do not send the full text of articles, so @Voice has
to download the article from the Internet to be able to read it aloud or save
for later reading. Only by using Copy text function in one app, and pasting it
in @Voice, or by saving the full text in one app to storage and opening a file
in @Voice, you could avoid Internet connection, but this is not very convenient.
PLEASE send me your suggestions for improvements and bug reports welcome - send them to the email address listed on "Contact" page. Thanks and have fun! And a BIG THANK YOU! to Ilia Prokator for sending me the idea for this app.
Greg at Hyperionics
* Fix: wired.com web site did not allow login from
"Reload from browser..." command. May fix other sites using DOM Storage API too.
* The "Open" screen in "Browse by file type" mode now shows the full file name,
does not truncate it to fit into one line.
* Stability and performance improvements
* Added support for .mhtml (or .mht) file format, which
is used by Chrome browser on Android when you press the Download page button on
its menu
* More improvements to PDF text extraction, trying to avoid unnecessary letters
separation in some documents.
* Epub books now open about 2x faster
* Fixed @Voice home screen widget, now it works directly
after a reboot too, and opens @Voice app screen if you tap the title in it.
* Improved content filtering for some web site, e.g. reddit.com
* Correct PDF text extraction, from some files characters were extracted in
wrong order
* Other stability and performance improvements
* Improved text extraction for PDF files written in
Right-to-Left scripts (Arabic, Hebrew...)
* Fixed text selection for Right-to-Left scripts
* Work-around implemented for a crash on many Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop
devices (caused by a bug in Google appcompat libraries)
* Fix: incorrect sentence splitting in ebook files, when an abbreviation with a
space was encountered, e.g. "et al." or German "z. B." and similar.
* Fix: under the Open button, in “Browse by file type” mode, it was impossible
to add a folder to scan that was located on an external SD card.
* Added "Read aloud" item to the toolbar that pops up when you select text in
any app on Android (it's usually accessible after pressing the 3 vertical dots
button). Sends selected text to @Voice app and reads it aloud at once. The
option (and button in @Voice notification) to instantly read copied text no
longer works on Android 10, this seems like a good alternative.
* Added status bar to Edit speech screen, showing the number of active and total
items.
* Removed ability to swipe off @Voice notification - it was causing problems
on some devices. Use the X button at notification right to remove it if
necessary
* Reading list improvement - you may change the order of articles with finger
swiping, holding the icon at right of each list item
* Stability and performance improvements
* @Voice notification can now be swiped out or closed with CLEAR ALL button,
if the app is not reading aloud.
* Open button in the default "Browse by file type" mode now scans whole storage
for files to open, on the first use and once per week, also has a "Scan whole
storage" button on top to repeat the search for files anytime.
* Fix problem with "Speak text copied to clipboard" function not working on some
devices.
* Other important stability and performance improvements.
* When another app is playing a very short sound (shorter than 500 ms),
@Voice will not pause speech.
* Fix PDF text import - for some files lines of text appeared in wrong order,
when more than one cropping areas were defined in manual crop.
* Other small stability and performance improvements.
* @Voice now reacts to the Export chat function in WhatsApp, you may open a
chat for reading aloud.
* Implementing a work-around for a bug in Android WebView control/Google Chrome
browser, which crashes the app for about 2% of users. Google Chrome team says
they are working on fixing this, but no progress for several weeks. Maybe this
work-around will work...
* Fix: sentence highlight on double-tap or long press, or instant translate on
tap, did not work in split screen mode, when @Voice was at right
* Stability and performance improvements
* Tap or long press any image to examine it closely, zoom and pan it if
necessary
* Under Edit speech list screen, long press the add or insert buttons to
add/insert a copy of the currently selected item (to edit and modify it easily)
* Stability and performance improvements
* Sync with Pocket can be now sent to background, continue listening or using
other apps while articles download
* Edit speech tag improvements - add/remove tags for all selected items, export
enabled only (e.g. after selecting by tags)
* Improved language detection for some web sites
* Stability and performance improvements
* Fixes to Edit speech list search and screen layout when defining new speech replacements, adding tags on small screens.
* Avoiding white flash when deleting articles from the reading list, and for other operations that need to run in the background, but are very fast to execute.
* Using a new version 3 of Google CLD library for language detection - hopefully will be more accurate and crash less...
* Improvements for text extraction from quora.com and other sites
* New option under Speech settings - Pauses tab, to pause after each article for
specified time or indefinitely
* New option to hide disabled items on Edit speech menu.
* Premium license only: speech replacements under Edit speech now can have tags,
one may enable/disable items by tags.
* Better text filtering for CNN and some other sites
* Android Q Beta 3 compatible
* Highlight spoken words option moved to Speech settings - START tab, and is now
turned off by default. It affects negatively performance and battery, don't turn
on unless necessary
* Important stability improvements
* Fix for reading aloud Scientific American articles
* Better handling of ebook files with very long HTML content inside
* Stability and performance improvements
*Custom content filters may be now easily installed from email attachments,
local files or web links
* Stability and performance improvements
* New option under Edit Speech screen to insert new replacement at the
current position
* Stability and performance improvements, Android Q Beta 2 compatible.
* First release compatible with Android Q beta
* The "Repeat" button at the bottom, if enabled, has now an extra option to stop
reading at the end of current article (do not continue to the next article on
the reading list)
* Trying to fix TalkBack saying repeatedly "Service @Voice" on some phones. If
you experienced this problem before, please tell me if this update fixes it for
you.
* Stability and performance improvements
* Long-press a word, then press Play button - app starts reading from that
word, not start of the sentence.
* For TTS engines that can highlight the word read aloud (currently only Google
TTS under Android 8 or higher), pause reading - resume, reads from the last read
word, not start of the sentence.
* Fix for some FB2 files not opening, and TOC/Links not working in some
MOBI/AZW3 ebooks
* Security improvements for PDF files handling
* Improved content filtering for some web sites
* Better abbreviation handling
* The app now asks for Storage access only when the user tries to open a file
from outside of @Voice private directory, not on app startup
* Stability and performance improvements
* Better help in installing new Text-to-speech engines and voices.
* New bookmarking - arbitrary selection may be bookmarked now. Bookmarks can
be exported to a text file with the complete text of the bookmarked range, and
imported back if needed.
* New options in Speech settings: START tab - choose to start reading from top
of screen, if last read aloud position is behind, and HEADSET tab - ignore
Next/Previous (or FF/Rewind) buttons from headset when reading is paused. Should
help for problems with certain car stereos.
* Faster loading of ebook chapters
* Restored asking for Storage read/write permission at app start, if it was not granted yet. Previously asked when using Open file function, but some users would send files to @Voice from other apps without every using Open button, and were getting cryptic error message only.
* @Voice has now a "Reload" button on article pages that did not download.
* Reload is also found on "Reload or clear" menu (circular arrows) for any HTML
article
* If error articles were added to a reading list, you may now use "Reload error
articles" on the menu to try to reload them.
* Added "Reload all articles" to the reading list menu, to reload all HTML
articles. If only some need reloading, prepare first a smaller reading list with
them, then use this function.
* Modified handling of very long web pages and HTML files, trying to save
memory and prevent some out-of-memory crashes.
* Finally figured out what caused crashes on OnePlus One phone with Android
6.0.1, and a few other devices - Google's new App Bundle format for uploading
apps to Google Play. Reverting to the old APKs for now, which works fine.
* Fix: text search was not working correctly for long texts or ebooks
* Avoid excessive showing of voice selector screen
* Other fixes and performance improvements
* Divided extra-busy "Speech settings" screen into 4 tabs
* New options on Pauses tab of Speech settings - pause for the same duration as
it took to read aloud a sentence or paragraph, or percentage of it.
* Improved sorting of articles on reading lists and file names - numbers in
names are taken into account correctly, e.g. "Article2" will be now before
"Article11", not after it.
* Repeat button at bottom is hidden by default, enable it under Screen settings
* Bug fixes
* Added instant sentence translation option on single or double-tap, via
Google Translate app. Enable if needed under Settings menu. Works best in split
screen mode on Android 7 and higher.
* If absolutely necessary, you may long-press the round (>) button next to
speech speed slider to increase the upper speed limit the slider allows. What a
TTS engine will do with high-speed request is beyond my control.
* Better single letter abbreviation detection for Russian language.
* More messages shown with possible solutions, when correct TTS voice is
missing or has no voice data installed
* Fixed some file association to open from file browsers files of type .fb2,
.fb2.zip, .azw3 etc.
* Edit speech items can now be individually activated or deactivated with
check-boxes on the list. There are also options to activate/deactivate all on
the menu there, and delete all inactive if necessary.
* Fix for "end of part" info for ebooks and other long files to have the same
text background and color as the rest of the pages.
* Improved import from MOBI/AZW ebook formats
* Other bug fixes and performance improvements
* Fixed issues with some web pages constantly prompting for GDRP consent or
forgetting passwords
* Added "Clear password" function to Settings menu, to clear all saved passwords
and cookies if needed
* Other important bug fixes
* Added @Voice Network Library Plugin to download books from online book
catalogs published in OPDS format.
* When running under TalkBack, full screen ads are no longer shown to avoid user
confusion.
* Fix - working around a bug in newest Android WebView control, hanging or crashing the app under TalkBack.
* Added option to show extra buttons in the top toolbar, if there is space -
Settings, Paste and Bookmarks menu. Select what to show under Settings
* Copying text from @Voice app will not automatically read it aloud, if option
to read aloud copied text is turned on
* Important bug fixes and performance improvements
* Moved Setup function from the menu to gear icon in top toolbar for easier
access
* Added option to reset "Open by default" setting to Setup screen, and warning
user if a file of some type is opened by default, with option to reset. The
warning may be turned off.
* Other important bug fixes and performance improvements
More enhancements under "Page look" T+/- icon:
Better text extraction from HTML sources that have text inside <dt> and <dd> tags.
v. 4.7.4, 2014-03-17
* Performance improvements and bug fixes
v. 4.7.3, 2014-03-15
* New on Read List menu: "Delete articles not on lists."
v. 4.7.1, 2014-03-14
* New "Page Look" options on the menu - Day and Night themes, keep
original page colors or set custom color.
* New option under "Page Look" menu - Preserve styles, e.g. font shape & sizes
etc.
* Correctly shows tables
* Reload from browser option will now save selected options and saved passwords
for a give web site.
* More custom filters for specific sites (Orthobullets.com Orthopaedic Review
site, Hacker News), more custom filters in the future.
v. 4.6.0, 2014-03-04
* Fixing a problem with opening attachments from Gmail or similar
situations
* Fixing an occasional crash when trying to open a PDF file.
v. 4.4.3, 2014-01-28
* Now will open or add to list also PDF files from http links, and
better format TXT files from such links.
* Fixes for Share - Add to list sometimes not working as expected.
v. 4.4.2
* Using Share/Add to @Voice List will no longer interrupt reading of
current article
* Fixed highlight and voice getting out of sync sometimes
v. 4.4.1, 2014-01-28
* Using Share/Add to @Voice List will no longer interrupt reading of
current article
* Fixed highlight and voice getting out of sync sometimes
v. 4.4.0, 2014-01-24
* New settings, under "Text, Icons and Reading List" section: "For
plane text, separate lines by default" and "For HTML, load full content by
default".
* The same settings can be switched for individual articles or files under menu
- "Reload or clear...". Change the options there if you don't like the way a
plane text or HTML article is displayed.
* Bluetooth device feature is now optional, which will make the app available to
about 500 more devices on Google Play.
v. 4.3.1, 2014-01-16
* It is now possible to reload an article from a web browser, for
entering passwords etc. See menu - "Reload or clear" - "Load from browser"
* Fix crash on Android 2.x when pasting text.
v. 4.2.0, 2014-01-14
* Option to treat new-line characters as new paragraphs, when pasting
text
* Fix for an occasional trouble when switching TTS voices
v. 4.1.7
* Fix: sentence highlighting would stop if screen turned off, then on
again while the program is talking.
v. 4.1.6 Fixes:
* Small change to let FBReader TTS+ Plugin to use speech replacement
created in @Voice, or import them from TTS+ to @Voice (under Settings menu)
Version 4.1 - 2013.12.23
* Swipe gesters to show-hide control panel at the bottom,
reading list etc.
* Multiple reading lists
Version 4.0 - 2013-11.12
* Added "Edit speech" feature under Settings menu, to
change pronunciation of some words, delete unwanted fragments of sentences
(using RegEx) and more.
* Added "Clear contents" function to the menu, to clear the current text from
@Voice screen.
* If HTML page declares text encoding different from auto-detected, we let you
switch between the two from the menu, to display text correctly.
* Made the APK file to download smaller.
* Many smaller new features, improvements and bug fixes.
Version 3.4.0 - 2013-10.18
* Added "fast scroll" feature - a blue circular button on
right, that appears if you touch screen and move it up or down, then fades out
if not needed. Touch and slide up/down to scroll fast to any part of the
document.
* Fixed issue with PDF files sometimes losing position (bookmark)
* PDF files can be now added to reading list.
* Fixed issue with Dropbox leaving incomplete (damaged) files if connection was
broken while downloading.
Version 3.3.2 - 2013-10.12
* Showing progress bars under article titles in the
Reading List, to show how much was read.
* Fixing bug in extracting text from big PDF files
* Layout improvement for high resolution screens
* Bug fixes and performance improvements.
Version 3.2.3 - 2013.09.28
* Improved search interface, e.g. ending search with
"Play" button starts playing from the currently found place.
* Better - sharper and flat - buttons in the bottom row
Version 3.2.1 - 2013.09.26
* Added Search function to the top bar of @Voice
* On Android 2.x implemented the same "Action Bar" and menu as on Android 4.x
* Bug fixes and performance improvements
Version 3.1.0 - 2013.09.24
* Sending PDF files from Adobe Reader through "Share"
function to @Voice now works.
* Pressing "Next" sentence when at the end, or "Previous" when at start, now
loads a next or previous article from the list, or provides spoken feedback.
Version 3.0.7 - 2013.09.17
* Fixed a mixup of Russian texts appearing in Bulgarian
translation
* Fixed a possible "null pointer" crash
Version 3.0.6 - 2013.09.16
* Fixed opening password-protected PDF files from Dropbox
app, file explorers etc.
* Better multitasking, sometimes was blocking on article loading.
Version 3.0.3 - 2013.09.11
* Fixed: could not open files from Dropbox app.
Version 3.0.2 - 2013.09.10
* Made possible opening PDF files by a press in Android
"Download" area and similar situations.
* Several bug fixes.
Version 3.0.0 - 2013.09.05
* Now extracts text from PDF files for reading aloud or
on screen. Select "Open" from menu and navigate to folder with any PDF files.
* Stability and speed improvements. Version 2.8.9.1 - 2013.08.21
Version 2.8.9 - 2013.08.10
Version 2.8 - 2013.08.01
Version 2.7 - 2013.07.01
* Loads very long text files in segments to avoid running
out of memory
* Fixes for some encoding errors
* Long press now also highlights the sentence to start speed from that point, in
addition to starting text selection. This makes possible selecting a sentence to
start reading from when TalkBack is enabled.
* Performance improvements, including armeabi-v7a native code
* Several bug fixes
Version 2.6.1 - 2013.06.21
* Correcting problem with listing all voices (countries
and speaker names were not displayed)
* Added character encoding recognition when loading text files. Should now
display correct characters even if text is not in UTF-8 format.
Version 2.5.0 - 2013.06.12
* Added "night" reading mode to the menu
* Many bug fixes and performance improvements.
Version 2.3.8 - 2013.05.28
* Several bug fixes and performance improvements
Version 2.3.4 - 2013.05.23
* For Android 4 (ICS) and higher, added a better lookup
of TTS engines, languages and voices.
* Many bug fixes and performance improvements
Version 2.2.3 - 2013
* Added option to read aloud at once text copied to
clipboard
* Redesigned Settings for more streamlined use
* Added notification to Android notification bar, with the title of currently
played article. On Android v.3 and higher it also has progress bar, buttons to
start/stop, skip sentences and turn on/off the option to speak clipboard aloud.
* Asking how to handle Stop button on its first use
Version 2.1.0 - 2013.04.27
* Dropbox login was broken if new Dropbox app installed. This release fixes the problem.
Version 2.0.9 - 201.04.22
* Bug fixes and performance improvements.
Version 2.0.7 - 2013.03.29
* More crashes and no-reponses fixed. Thank you for sending the bug reports!
Version 2.0.5 - 2013.03.27
* Several bug fixes again.
Version 2.0.3 - 2013.03.24
* Fixed crash when pressing Help button on some devices
* Fixed English pronunciation of words ending with ST and a dot.
* Paste button or menu item now appears even if you copy text as short as 1
character.
* Auto-start speech when headset connection option now also works when Bluetooth
headset is connected.
* Fixed an issue with reader not always remembering the text position after
return form another screen
* Fixed occasional crash in Dropbox sync
* Zoom controls added to enlarge text as needed. Can be
disabled under Settings.
* Now remembers the scroll position for each article
* Many bug fixes and performance improvements
* Bookmarks improved - now remembers exact position for all saved articles read, plus remembers how to load the contents (all or "essential")
* Auto-bookmarks the last read article, and restores it and the last read sentence when the app is stopped and re-started later. This also synchronizes through Dropbox, if you use this feature.
* Corrected a problem with ads sometimes showing even after buying and installing the "@Voice No Ads Upgrade". Sorry about that!
* Fixed another crash
* Fixed a rare crash on Android v.3 and higher
* Added French translation
* Added German translation
* Bug fixes and performance improvements
* Added Russian translation
* Small bug fixes.
* Option to move @Voice folder to another location, e.g.
external SD card, if needed.
* Dropbox sync now has option to be on demand (when you click the menu to sync
only) or continuous.
* Option to not exit the app when the on-screen STOP button is pressed, just
stop speech and reset position to the top of article.
* Faster start with slow data connection
* Auto-add to list articles added to our folder from outside @Voice app, e.g.
saved to Dropbox from desktop browser
* Added Polish translation
* Dropbox sync! Enable, then build your list on one device, e.g. a tablet, then listen on your phone. Or from your computer, use File/Save As - "HTML only" function in the browser, save to @Voice Dropbox folder, then listen on your phone.
* Several bug fixes, including a crash on some long articles from RADIO SVOBODA.
* Improved contents extraction from Twitter tweets.
* Updated video tutorials in Help
* Modified to prevent speech stopping on empty paragraphs with some speech engines (e.g. Loquendo)
* Android package name changed to com.hyperionics.avar -
will uninstall the older version upon first run, but preserve any saved articles
and reading lists.
* Performance improvements and bug fixes
* Ready for an optional purchase of No Ads Upgrade from Google Play Store
* Corrected issue with voice change when starting to read the next article from list.
* Better contents extraction, loads the main article only
and omits navigation etc. from Web pages.
* Optional menu to load the full contents of page, if necessary.
* Optional "share" icon to just add an article to list. Choose icons to show in
Settings.
* Added move and delete selected files buttons to reading list "add files"
panel.
* Swipe left/right to load next/prev article from list.
* Billing permission added for future premium/no-ads edition.
* Bug fixes and performance improvements.
Double click of headset next/previous buttons to advance articles from list did not work well, changed to LONG-PRESS (about 1 sec.) - much better.
Sound divider between articles from the list, speaks article number and total of articles.
Option to auto-add saved articles to reading list, on by default.
Fixed Open -> HTML file saved from any browser, now opens it in correct format for reading aloud.
Reading lists for uninterrupted listening of many previously saved articles
Headset Previous/Next button double-click jumps to the previous/next article on a list
Ability to select TTS voices by language, country and speaker name, e.g. "English (US, Heather)"
Many other improvements and bug fixes
Added paste, save and open commands
First non-beta release
Again faster text processing for speech
Downloading and processing progress bar was sometimes missing.
Much faster text loading and processing
Fixed speech stopping upon rotating phone or lock/unlock
More bug fixes.
Performance improvements and bug fixes
Language recognition is now very fast, made auto-select language the default selection.
Bug fixes and speed improvements.
Faster startup with auto-select language option enabled.
Many more bug fixes and smaller improvements.
Please email us your comments! Also don't forget to click the banner ad to send us a few cents as a reward for our hard work :)
Added automatic language recognition option, but it causes app to start slowly, so it's off by default.
Many more improvements and fixes, see yourself!
Now works on Android 2.2 (Froyo) and higher
You may use "Send by Email" button/menu in many news reading apps to get the text to @Voice
Some HTML style is used in reader window, e.g. headers are bigger, if text was downloaded from a web page.
Many smaller improvements and bug fixes.
Bug fixes, of course...
Cosmetic changes - removed title bar for more reading space, fixed "rate" link on "About" dialog.
Initial beta-test release. Please download and help us test and improve this app!