A project by Benson LuIn development

SpeechKing

Listen to text. Keep your place.

SpeechKing is a text-to-speech app for Mac that reads aloud and highlights each word as it’s spoken. Listen in a floating reader, or follow along inside Chrome.

See it in use

SpeechKing’s floating reader highlighting the spoken word in a short passage, with playback, voice, and speed controls. — A little reader that stays close.View full size

Made for: Apple Silicon Macs
Requires: macOS 14 or later
Speech processing: On your device

Listening, without losing the thread.

Text to speech is useful. Being able to find your place again is just as useful. SpeechKing brings the voice and the words together, so you can listen, follow along, and return to a sentence when you need to.

01 / Follow along

The words move with the voice.

The current sentence stays in view, and each word is highlighted as it is spoken. Pause to take something in, move between sentences, or change the listening speed.

The SpeechKing Mac app paused on the word “notes” in Flow mode. The active sentence is highlighted above the playback controls. — The main reader in Flow mode, using a sample passage.View full size

02 / Stay on the page

Keep browsing. Let the page speak.

Select a passage in Chrome and press Listen. SpeechKing reads it through the local Mac app while the words are highlighted right on the page. Pause, change the voice or speed, and move between sentences from the floating controls beside the article.

The Chrome extension is a development preview and requires the SpeechKing Mac app to be running.

SpeechKing reading a NASA news passage in Chrome, highlighting the current sentence and spoken word beside a blue floating playback rail. — Listening to a NASA article without leaving the page.View full size

A selected paragraph on a NASA article with SpeechKing’s Listen, speed, voice, and language controls directly below it. — Select a passage. Press Listen.View full size

Demo article: NASA — Hubble Spots a Storm of New Stars (opens in a new tab)

03 / Keep it close

A reader with a smaller footprint.

Bring up the floating panel when you want the reader nearby. Flow keeps the sentence visible. Combined pairs audio with a single-word display, while Silent lets you read at your own pace without audio.

SpeechKing’s compact Combined mode paused on the word “stopped”, with an unobstructed play button and listening speed controls. — Combined mode: the spoken word, one at a time.View full size

04 / On your device

Speech, generated on your Mac.

The engine and voice models download during setup. Once they’re ready, speech is generated locally. Paste a passage or open a text file to begin; reading selected text across apps also needs the relevant macOS permissions.

What’s next

Still building, still listening.

SpeechKing is still in development, with public release plans to come. In the meantime, I’d love to hear how you use reading and listening in your day.

Ask me about SpeechKing