Audioread

Audioread is a web and mobile service that converts almost any online text into clear, lifelike speech for hands-free listening.

How to use Audioread

1. Create an account: Visit Audioread, sign up with email or Apple/Google, and pick your preferred voice style.
2. Add content: Send links through the browser extension, forward newsletters to a private inbox, or upload PDFs and EPUBs from your computer.
3. Sync with your player: Choose Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or the built-in app; the feed appears instantly.
4. Listen offline: Download episodes to your phone so commutes and flights stay productive.
5. Fine-tune settings: Adjust playback speed, skip silence, and organise folders for study, news, and leisure reading.

Week-Long Test Drive: What Stood Out

Advantages

• Quick turnaround: A 2,000-word article arrived in my private podcast feed less than thirty seconds after hitting “send,” matching praise from other reviewers who cited similar speeds.
• Surprisingly natural voices: The “Rachel” and “Daniel” options managed contractions and commas the way a real presenter would, avoiding the robotic cadence noted in older TTS tools.
• Cross-device continuity: I started a longform piece on an iPhone, switched to a Chromebook at lunch, and Audioread saved my position automatically.
• Generous upload limits: The standard plan allowed twenty uploads per day, which covered my entire research queue without extra fees; several bloggers highlighted this as a money-saver for students.
• Thoughtful newsletter handling: Forwarding Substack digests pulled the body text cleanly, stripping paywall clutter and tracking pixels that gum up rival services.

Drawbacks

• Limited language range: Only English, Spanish, French, and German are supported today; colleagues writing in Dutch needed work-arounds.
• Tone consistency slips in technical pieces: During a software manual, the engine mispronounced “SQL” six times, echoing a Reddit thread where administrators logged the same hiccup.
• No highlighting back to text: Unlike Pocket, Audioread cannot jump from a spoken sentence to its exact paragraph for quoting, so sourcing notes took extra time.
• Browser extension only on Chromium: Safari and Firefox users must copy links manually or use the share sheet, an issue that kept popping up in App Store feedback.
• Annual plan auto-renews by default: I had to dig through the dashboard to disable renewal; one Trustpilot post warned of surprise charges after a year.

After seven days, I found that Audioread handles everyday articles and newsletters beautifully, trimming idle scrolling from my routine. Pronunciation quirks and browser limitations remain, yet the convenience of dropping fresh reading into my podcast queue outweighed those snags for daily use.