VOCODEX Browser Extension — C043

Vocodex reads web pages aloud, highlighting the sentence and the word being said as the voice goes, so you can follow along.

It is the browser extension of Vocodex, an open-source, self-hosted text-to-speech app. It needs a Vocodex server to work: run your own with Docker Compose (instructions on GitHub) and enter its address in the Server field of the extension window.

Features
- Reads the article of the page, skipping menus and clutter when it can
- Highlights the current sentence and word in sync with the voice
- Click any sentence to skip to it
- Pick the voice and the speed
- Play / pause, forward and backward
- Auto scroll that follows the voice (can be turned off)

Privacy
The extension is off on every page until you switch it on from its window. It has no access to the sites you visit until then. When you switch it on, the text of the page is sent only to the Vocodex server you entered, to turn it into speech. Nothing is sent to the developer, and there is no tracking or analytics. Your settings are kept in your browser.

Known limits
- Text inside iframes and shadow DOM is not read
- The browser's built-in PDF viewer cannot be read: open the PDF in the Vocodex app instead

Source code and setup: https://github.com/c043/vocodex