This add-on claims to have "offline" voices which are "never sent to the internet".

However if you block access to the servers it contacts using a firewall:

1) You can see tons of access sent to "support.readaloud.app" and "chart.googleapis.com"

2) The text to speech stops working entirely. It won't read at all and says "Phone not connected". You can't even use the example offline test voice in configurations panel.

How is this even remotely offline if it can't work when not connected to the internet and their servers in particular?

Bro, 2024 with AI and all we got this google roboto voices? fr?

The version in Edge is fantastic, so I figured this one would be as well. No. Just Microsoft Sam quality voices.

The extension reads random parts of the lesson I want it to read, repeats words, and plays many paragraphs at a time. This is the worst read aloud extension I have ever tried using.

STEPS TO MAKE IT SOUND LESS ROBOTIC ----
1) right click extension icon and open options
2)change voice to GoogleTranslate English (scroll all the way to the bottom of the dropdown menu)
3)you'll be prompted to sign in; simply make a free account
4)you'll also be prompted to grant permissions for the call to google translate
5)enjoy

A little more robotic than possible but a lot faster than having to manually copy and paste text into a website which is all I want in an add-on like this. Also allows for speed change which is a plus.

Works well, but sadly only when I'm connected to WiFi. When I'm using cellphone data, it doesn't read anything. I wish they would fix this problem. Then I would give it 5 stars and recommend it to everyone I know!

***Edit:***
I contacted their tech support and they told me to change the settings from auto voice to English, and now it works! Highly recommended! Changing my rating to 5 stars!

Danke. Einfach nur Danke

Özellikle gözleriniz okurken rahatsız oluyor ve yoruluyorsa tek alternatifiniz gibi duruyor.
Keşke seslendirmesi daha doğal olsaydı ama bu da işinizi görüyor.

If I could get this tts app for offline use on Linux, I'd be over the moon :o))
Dunno why but today it only plays robotic voices :o(

Great app for getting through articles when you don't feel like reading or have something to do while doing so. For some reason, the voice in the Firefox version sounds way off from the Chrome one. I like the Chrome one more. The settings are the same, I don't know why it's like that. But overall, good app.