I run a website that publishes around 1500-word articles every month on a very niche topic. I want to give my users the ability to listen to these articles instead of just reading them. I'm aware that there are several online text-to-speech tools available, but I'm unsure about the best way to implement this so that it's user-friendly. I want to avoid starting a podcast or requiring users to download an app, and I certainly do not want to create and embed audio files for every single article - although I understand that might be necessary. Has anyone successfully implemented text-to-speech on their site? Any recommended tools?
4 Answers
It's definitely possible to add a "listen" button to your site without needing any audio files or third-party services. I actually wrote an article on how I used the Web Speech API to do this. Here's the link to my guide: [Make Your Website Talk](https://magill.dev/post/make-your-website-talk-with-the-javascript-web-speech-api). It's a straightforward approach!
You can use the Web Speech API or a service like Google Cloud Text-to-Speech or ElevenLabs to generate audio on demand. Just cache the audio files to avoid generating the same one twice. A simple play button to stream the audio will make it seamless for users. ElevenLabs even has a free tier which might be enough if you aren't getting a ton of traffic, and their API is super easy to work with.
Thanks for sharing! I’ve been exploring similar options, and I’m leaning toward using one of the text-to-speech APIs. I found a neat price analysis for various services here: [Text-to-Speech Models](https://artificialanalysis.ai/text-to-speech/models). It really helps in making a decision!
You might want to consider client-side solutions. There are Chrome extensions like Speechify that users can install themselves. Just point your readers to one of these plugins, and it'll solve your issue without the need for extra development on your side.
Starting with native text-to-speech is a great idea, especially with some simple JavaScript. If you see good usage, you can always explore more advanced solutions like external libraries or AI.
Haha, I tried it on my Opera browser, and it sounded so weird! But on Chrome, it works great! Just a heads-up!