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NOW PLAYING // the_age_of_not_reading.md // narrator.calm // 04:12 / 12:38
THE WEB,
READ ALOUD.
IN VOICES WORTH HEARING
Paste any URL. Pick a voice. Get an MP3 or a private podcast feed of the article. Forty-two voices. Six languages. Built for the reading list you never actually read.
Pick a voice.
Not a robot.
Each voice is tuned for a kind of piece. A dense essay wants the Scholar. A Wired feature wants the Anchor. A Sunday newsletter wants Your Friend. Hear a sample before you commit.
The Narrator
Calm. Measured. For long reads.
News Anchor
Crisp. Declarative. Tight pacing.
Your Friend
Warm. Casual. Like a podcast.
Documentary UK
British. Unhurried. A bit dry.
The Scholar
Thoughtful. Deliberate. Academic.
Late Night
Lower register. Slower. For 2am.
Three steps.
Then a walk.
Paste the URL
Drop any article, essay, newsletter, or blog post. Paywalled ones too, if you have access. We fetch clean text, leave the ads.
Pick a voice
Forty-two voices across six languages. Not the robotic kind. Warm, present, unhurried. Pick the one that fits your walk.
Listen anywhere
MP3, native app, private podcast feed. Airpods, car stereo, kitchen speaker. Your reading list finally gets read.
We read too little.
We bookmark too much.
Your reading list is a graveyard. Ours was too. Three hundred tabs, each one a promise to your future self that never came. We built this because we wanted to hear the pieces we meant to read, on the walk, in the car, while cooking.
There is a version of you that actually finishes the essay. That version has headphones on.
— the hear.the.web team, cambridge, ma
People who stopped bookmarking.
“I stopped bookmarking articles I knew I'd never read. Now I hear five a week on my commute. The backlog is down to zero.”
“As someone with low vision this is the first screen-reader replacement that I actually want to listen to. The voices have weight.”
“I run a reading list I never opened. Plugged it into heartheweb and now my dog walks are three long essays deep. Battery is the only limit.”
Questions, answered short.
Which voices are available?
Forty-two voices as of this build. Six styles: narrator, news anchor, friend, British documentary, scholar, late-night. Each tuned for a different kind of piece.
What about paywalled content?
If your browser can read it, the extension can send it to us. We never store credentials. We never cache the text. Audio gets rendered, you listen, we forget.
Does it handle long articles?
Yes. A 12,000-word essay takes about eight minutes to render. We chunk, stitch, and normalize audio so transitions never stutter.
Is there a podcast feed?
Pro and Studio tiers get a private RSS feed. Plug it into Overcast, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts. Your reading list becomes a show.
Can you read in my language?
Six source languages today: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese. Twenty more are in the roadmap for this year.
Who is this for?
Commuters, runners, drivers, parents with their hands full. Blind and low-vision readers. Anyone whose reading list outgrew the time they have.
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ready_to_listen ?
Stop bookmarking.
Start hearing.
Free tier. No card. Three articles a day, on the house.
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