Run&Read: Ultimate Text to Speech Player - Transforms EPUB, PDF, or any plain text into an audiobook.
Run&Read is a free, user-friendly app that converts your texts into engaging audio using Apple's and Android's powerful built-in text-to-speech engines. Perfect for students, professionals, and book lovers who want to read on the go! Better voices - soon!
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💡 What should an experienced software engineer do after failing a LeetCode job interview for a large company where he could have worked on an audiobook app if accepted?
Well, should probably go "back to school”, and, re-learn Depth First Search, revisit tree traversal algorithms, and solve every problem on LeetCode and HackerRank - so that next time, you can recognize the pattern and solve a similar problem in 20 minutes!
Or… you could build and publish your own audiobook app!
🚀 Meet Run & Read – your ultimate text-to-speech player that transforms EPUB, PDF books, or any plain text into an audiobook using built-in Apple and Google TTS engines, as well as high-quality open-source TTS models from Hugging Face or online services like Deepgram.
It’s free to download and use - give it a try!
For a long time, I had the idea of a simple reading app - basically, a useful interface for the built-in Android and iOS TTS engines, that would give users full and easy control over their listening experience. I knew there were plenty of similar apps, but most were either too complex or too expensive. The sheer amount of competition held me back for a long time. But, ironically, failing a job interview gave me the push I needed. Now, Run & Read is available to users, and it works exactly as I imagined - except it could benefit from better voices. I'm working to add more natural open-source voices or integrate a tool that converts any text, eBook, or PDF into audio using online TTS SDKs like Zyphra, Deepgram, and ElevenLabs, or local open-source tools running on a personal computer or cloud, such as Zonos and Audio-MLX. The audio will be played in the app just as it works now.
I personally use it every time I run on a treadmill or a trail, and even when I cook or drive. I’ve bought too many paper and electronic books that I wanted to read but never had time to sit down with - now, finally, I can read while literally running or running chores!
Download, try it out, and let me know your thoughts!
🍏 App Store
🤖 Google Play
🐙 Github Text To Speech Experiments <- Full pipeline and instructions on how to produce high-quality AI TTS-narrated audiobooks at home.
🚀 Follow me on LinkedIn and Medium!