As I mentioned a little while ago when discussing the ElevenLabs API, reading with the voices you save on your account makes the best of this API. Another difference and valuable option that Tech Freedom doesn’t have with its ElevenLabs voices implementation is these three settings: Similarity, variability, and style exaggeration.
finally, ElevenLabs Reader is now available in Alpha, an answer to our prayers.
Table of Contents
What is ElevenLabs Reader?
ElevenLabs Reader is an app made by ElevenLabs specifically for reading purposes. It supports reading with curated voices available in a library, as well as with your own voices. By default, it includes some short story texts you can read within the app if you’re interested, but it also has the capability for importing your own files. I’m not sure what file types it supports, since I mostly handled .txt files.
How does ElevenLabs Reader work under the hood?
As you click “Play” on a text, the app begins generating 5000characters long files with the ElevenTurbo model, queuing them together. This is a quite clever approach, but unfortunately, languages other than English aren’t supported for the turbo model.
Character quota? How does it work?
As the app is in Alpha, it doesn’t currently consume any character quota. I’m not sure if this amazingness will be kept after the app gets out of the testing stages, or if it’ll just work for voices from their library, yet for now, let’s enjoy it while it lasts.
Can I manage voice settings within the reader app?
Unfortunately not yet. However, you can manage a voice’s settings from the ElevenLabs website. These configurations are saved to your account, so they will be used across anything that uses your account, including the API itself.
What about the app’s accessibility?
The app is mostly accessible, in regards to scrolling, page accessibility and focus. Yet, most of the buttons are unlabeled. I’ll do my best to guide you on how to use a few features, based on my findings so far:
- As you click the name of a voice in the voices tab, you get a popup with a few buttons. The first one to the right is preview voice button, the same button found right of it’s name in the list itself, the second one is use/delete, pressing it once adds it to your account, pressing it again removes it, the third one I’m not exactly sure what it does, while the last button dismisses the popup window.
- As you open the app, go left and you’ll see the 3tabs: Account, voices, and reads. Reads is the default tab the app starts on. After you hear reads, swipe once left again, you’ll find another of these unlabeled buttons. Press it, and you’ll be presented with importing options.
- In the player window. We’ll use the seekbar as the guiding point. The first button to the right is the pick voice button. The second is play. For the first time as you press this button, it’ll ask you for a voice, then it’ll remember it and use it as you click play, no matter the file you try generating with.
- The voice picker. As you click the button, you have the voices saved from the voice library of the reader app. To use the voices from your account, click on default. Clicking on this will expand the list, including both the voices from the library you saved, as well as any other voice from your account. You can use generated voices using the voice design, imported voices from the ElevenLabs library itself, which is different than this app’s small library, and also cloned voices.
Will this issue be solved?
I have personally informed the developers about this. We’ll just have to wait and see, hopefully they’ll listen. Alternatively, those who were allowed to test the app, you can send the same feedback.
What about battery consumption?
The app is, technically, just an MP3 player, so I don’t see anything that would use much battery, except for telemetry that’s enabled now, as the app is in testing stages. This telemetry may include automatic crash detection and similar tools. About internet connectivity, the app surely needs to be connected to the internet, as the MP3 file is stored in the temp folder, and is then deleted after it reaches it’s end.
Conclusion:
This is what some of us have been waiting for. The ElevenLabs app is an amazing start, honestly it has the potential to be the best reader app we can have. The accessibility suffers a bit for now with those unlabeled buttons. While for some of us it’s fine, not everyone loves to do mind mapping like I did. If we see that the app doesn’t come to light with accessibility, we can create custom labels for the app, then share them with the cloud. Let’s hope we won’t need to do that, honestly it would be a shame for them to leave this issue unsolved.
All in all, the ElevenLabs Reader app is one of the biggest releases on Android I’ve seen for the last 6-9months if not more. I truly believe in the potential of this app. With our help, we can make it better. Those who haven’t subscribed yet, please go and subscribe so you can test and send your feedback.
Comments