Read Aloud - X/Twitter Articles

A Chrome extension that reads Twitter/X articles aloud with natural voice using the Web Speech API.

Features

• Auto-detection: Automatically detects X Articles and long-form content
• Natural TTS: Uses high-quality system voices via Web Speech API
• Floating Player: Draggable player with play/pause, stop, and skip controls
• Voice Selection: Choose from available system voices
• Speed Control: Adjustable reading speed (0.5x - 1.5x)
• Transcript View: See what's being read with clickable paragraphs
• Dark Mode Support: Automatically adapts to system theme
• Keyboard Shortcut: Press Alt+R to toggle reading

Installation

From Source (Developer Mode)

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/groverception/read-aloud.git

2. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/

3. Enable "Developer mode" (toggle in top right)

4. Click "Load unpacked" and select the read-aloud folder

5. The extension icon will appear in your toolbar

Usage

1. Navigate to any X/Twitter article (long-form content, threads, or articles)
2. The Read Aloud player will automatically appear
3. Click Play to start reading
4. Use the controls to pause, skip paragraphs, or stop
5. Click on any paragraph in the transcript to jump to it

Project Structure

read-aloud/
├── manifest.json              # Extension manifest
├── src/
│   ├── background/
│   │   └── service-worker.js  # Background script for shortcuts & icon clicks
│   ├── content/
│   │   ├── articleParser.js   # Detects articles and extracts content
│   │   ├── content.js         # Main content script with player UI
│   │   └── content.css        # Player styles
│   └── utils/
│       └── tts.js             # Text-to-Speech wrapper module
└── icons/                     # Extension icons

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Development Guidelines

• Follow existing code style and patterns
• Test on both light and dark themes
• Ensure the extension works on various X article types
• Add comments for complex logic

Ideas for Contribution

• Add more voice options/settings
• Implement scroll and highlight feature for article paragraphs
• Add support for other languages
• Create options page for settings
• Add reading progress persistence
• Support for X Spaces transcripts

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Anuj Grover (@groverception)

Acknowledgments

• Built with Web Speech API (SpeechSynthesis)
• Designed for Twitter/X platform