Now that smartphones and other types of mobile devices are essentially a ubiquitous part of our lives, one thing is for certain: the idea of enjoying content where you want, whenever you want, however you want is here to stay. When you convert blog to audio, you accomplish precisely that.
This means that you don't have to make sure you're in front of the radio or television at a specific time to enjoy that great new interview you were interested in. You can listen to it on your morning commute. You can listen to it at the gym. You can listen to it on your lunch break. The list goes on and on.
The same is true of most of the text-based content you see online, too. Have you ever wondered how to convert blog to audio so that you can enjoy it later on? What if you want to convert blog to audio so that you can listen to it while you wait for your work meeting to start?
Thankfully, the process of article to audio conversion is not nearly as difficult as some might think. It simply requires you to keep a few key things in mind.
How to convert articles to audio
There are a few ways to do this and it depends on which browser or device you primarily use. Also to consider; is this for personal use, groups, or API service for large enterprises? Let's walk through a few scenarios.
- Using a browser extension
- Using an smartphone app
- API. Provide this service to your users
Read: 7 reasons to convert your articles to audio.
How to convert articles to audio using a Chrome or Safari browser extension
The process is very similar across both browsers. We'll use Google Chrome as an example
- Navigate to the Google Chrome Store to find the extension you're looking for. You can use the App Store on an Apple device to accomplish the same thing.
- Search for "text to speech" in the "Search" bar. Note that you can also search for "TTS."
- Go through the list on screen and select the one you want. Speechify is highly rated with over 1 million downloads!
- In most situations, you can select "Install" in the Google App Store or "Get" in the App Store.
- Most apps should have standard audio controls such as the "Play", "Pause" controls.
- It's as simple as that. Install the app and press play to almost instantly have your text read aloud.
- With Speechify, you can change the voice, language, and even increase your listening speed up to 9x.
Read: What is text-to-speech or how does AI convert text into speech voices.
Sometimes these applications are standalone in nature, which is preferable. You can have the application load as soon as your computer boots up, and it will immediately start to read any content that you select, be it in a web browser, in an application like Microsoft Word or in a similar solution.
How to convert articles to audio using a smart phone application
The process is very similar between the App Store and Google Play.
- Open up Google Play store or the App Store on iOS
- Search for "Text-to-Speech" to find a list of apps. Speechify is the #1 rated app in this category.
- Install the app and complete the onboarding process
- That's it. You are ready to convert text to speech.
- Most smartphone TTS apps offer browser extensions as companion apps in included in your subscription.
- Speechify offers browser extensions as well. Make sure you install it on Chrome or Safari to enjoy articles in audio no matter the device
Of course, all of these applications will require you to go through a few core steps. You'll also need to make sure that you're selecting the right file to download. If you're on a Mac, you'll need the MacOS version. If you're on Windows, you'll need the Windows version.
Here's how you can easily convert articles to audio using an API
Most text-to-speech apps provide API services that are really easy to integrate into any website. Pricing for API generally requires some consultation. But the way the API works across any provider is pretty much industry-standard.
Adding TTS to your website opens up new consumption formats for users.
- Grab a few lines of Java script link from Speechify
- Paste it into your website
- The next step is to determine which parts of the site you want to be read aloud
- Let's say you want everything in the main column of your site read. Tweak the configuration in the JS to add the ID of the main column.
- There are a host of other settings for location of the play button, the color, etc. But as far as basic integration, that's it.
- As soon as you publish your changes, your users will be able to begin listening to all your articles.
Why choose Speechify
One significant benefit of Speechify takes the form of the high quality voices that it offers. Not only can you choose between male and female voices, but you can also select from different accents and more. It's a great way to create a more natural listening experience, and to avoid the hassle of listening to content read out loud in the "computer voice" that most of us are used to.
All of this ends up in a more natural-sounding experience, one that is more human-like - particularly when it comes to inflection. This also adds to your ability to not only understand more of what you read, but to retain more of it as well.
Along the same lines, most users love the superior user experience that Speechify offers when compared to alternative apps. You don't have to wade through menu after menu to get everything configured the way you like. Once the application is installed on your desktop, laptop or mobile device, you can have the text to speech capabilities up and running in a matter of minutes. At that point, you still have access to all the customization features that you want but when you get everything situated to your liking, it's rare that you would have to adjust anything from that point forward.
Speechify also includes a number of additional features that other applications do not. One of the most important of these is text highlighting, which will actually highlight text as the application reads it out loud so that you can follow along. Once again, this is a great way to retain more of the content that you're enjoying. It's also an opportunity to increase your reading speed and more if that is one of the goals that you're interested in.
Finally, Speechify gives you the ability to increase the speed at which text is read so that you can enjoy more content in a fraction of the time it would normally take. Of course, you can always listen to content like blog posts, white papers, PDFs and more at 1x speed for the most natural experience possible. But if you want to increase things to 5x speed to get done much faster, you can obviously do that too.
Frequently asked questions
Can you listen to articles?
Absolutely. You can easily listen to articles that you're viewing on your computer or mobile device, even when you're offline, by using a tool like Speechify. Though your device may have text to speech capabilities built right in, it's still recommended to use a third party solution like Speechify because it gives you a superior level of control, not to mention a better experience, regarding how you're listening to content on iOS or Android.
How can I get articles to read to me?
This is something that you can do in a few different ways depending on which device you're using. If you're on an Android phone, for example, all you have to do is load the article into your browser and say "Hey Google, read this page." The text to speech functionality will instantly kick in, reading the content out loud for you to enjoy. You can follow along, and your browser will even automatically scroll down the page so that you can see the highlighted text as the audio track continues on.
Is there an app to read articles?
There are a number of such apps that you can choose from to meet your needs. Google just recently announced a new version of its search app called "Go," which comes with the built-in ability to read nearly any website you encounter out loud automatically. Not only that, but it can also read content in dozens of languages and can perform instant translations as well. You can also employ an app like Speechify to accomplish much the same thing if you so choose.
