Show HN: A Chrome Extension That Reads Articles Out Loud

chromewebstore.google.com

3 points

8 months ago

I read a lot every day for work, so by the time I want to read articles online (especially here on Hacker News), I'm already too tired to stare at more text. I figured: why not listen to them instead?

I tried a bunch of apps, but quickly deleted each one. Either:

- Everything was locked behind a ~$30/month subscription (wasn't ready for that).

- Or the voices sounded robotic and painful to listen to.

Since I'm a software engineer, I decided to just build my own solution, a Chrome extension that reads articles out loud in a human-like voice. That's how Qariyo.com was born.

Some friends liked it too, so I thought: why not make it public? When I built it, I kept things simple: - Read the article out loud without breaking the flow, so it should work as a widget inside the page and not opening a new tab/page.

- Don't make me wait for the entire article to be converted before listening. I want to start as quickly as possible, without interruptions.

- No extra fluff (Snoop Dogg reading the article for you, etc. I don’t care). Just read the article out loud.

- And please, no subscriptions. I want to pay for what you use.

It's still an MVP, but it works well. If you want to try it, I'd love to hear your feedback!