Can you have an ebook read to you?
· Graspium
Yes. Kindle, the tolino app, the Kobo app and every iPhone can read an ebook aloud with a computer voice, and any EPUB without DRM can be read to you by an AI voice in Graspium. What decides whether it works is less the device than the book: the publisher can switch read-aloud off, and a book with hard copy protection only opens in its own store's app.
Which device reads your ebook aloud
| Where you read | Read-aloud built in? | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Kindle e-reader | Yes, VoiceView, with Bluetooth headphones or a speaker | An accessibility screen reader, not an audiobook player (Amazon) |
| Kindle app | Yes, Assistive Reader, with the sentence highlighted as it is read | Only for books with Enhanced Typesetting (Amazon) |
| tolino app | Yes, "Read aloud" in the three dot menu | The voice is your phone's own (tolino FAQ) |
| tolino webreader | Yes, through the browser's voice | Only for titles where the publisher allows it |
| Kobo app for iOS and Android | Yes, Read Aloud | In the EU for every Kobo ebook, elsewhere for selected titles (Kobo) |
| Kobo e-reader | Only as a screen reader, with Bluetooth audio and a Bluetooth keyboard | An accessibility feature (Kobo) |
| iPhone or iPad, any app | Yes, Speak Screen | Reads whatever is on the screen (Apple) |
The built-in voices are the standard system voices of the device. They read every word, but they are made for reading out a screen, not for a whole novel.
How to have an EPUB read to you by an AI voice
If the book is an EPUB without hard DRM, which almost every German edition and every public domain book is, you can listen to it in Graspium with an AI voice:
- Sign in at graspium.com and bring the book in: upload the EPUB, connect your tolino account so your DRM-free tolino books come across, or pick a book from the public domain shelf.
- Open the book and tap the headphones button at the top.
- Listening starts at your reading position. Pause, skip 15 seconds back or forward, change the speed between 0.8x and 2x, or set a sleep timer for 15 or 30 minutes or the end of the chapter.
What the listen mode does:
- Sentence by sentence. The voice reads one sentence at a time, and the open reader marks the sentence being spoken, so you can read along.
- It picks up where you are. Narration moves your reading position forward page by page, so the next time you open the book, reading or listening, you are where the voice stopped.
- Lock screen and headphones. On a phone the player shows on the lock screen, with play, pause and the 15 second skip.
- Ask about what you just heard. "Ask about this passage" puts the sentence being spoken into the chat, and the answer only uses the book up to your page.
The honest limits
- 30 minutes of new audio a day. Every account, every plan. A sentence that was already generated once plays again without counting.
- The voice is synthetic. It is labelled "AI voice" in the player. It is not a narrated audiobook, and it can stumble over an unusual name.
- The first sentence takes a few seconds. Each new sentence is generated when you get to it; after the start the next sentences are ready ahead of time.
- Locked books stay locked. A book with Adobe DRM, a Kindle book or a library loan cannot be opened by Graspium, so it cannot be read aloud either. Which ebooks can Graspium read? has the details. Kobo books work today if Kobo lets you download them as a DRM-free EPUB; a Kobo connection is in the works.
Questions and answers
Is having an ebook read aloud free?
The read-aloud voices built into Kindle, the tolino app, the Kobo app and the iPhone cost nothing extra. In Graspium, listening is part of every account, free plan included, up to 30 minutes of new audio a day.
Why does my e-reader not read this book aloud?
Either the publisher switched read-aloud off for that title, or the book has hard copy protection that only its own store's app can open. A DRM-free EPUB of the same book can be read aloud by any app that opens it.
Can I listen to a book I bought on tolino?
Yes, if it has no hard DRM. Connect your tolino account in Graspium and the DRM-free books in your library come across with your reading position; open one and tap the headphones button.