Features
Text to Speech
Have any text on your screen read aloud using neural voices at up to 4x speed.
Have any text on your screen read aloud using high-quality neural voices, entirely on-device.
How to Use
- Select any text in any application
- Press the Control key (or your configured hotkey)
- Listen as Dial8 reads the selected text aloud
- Press again to pause/resume, or press Escape to stop
A floating HUD appears showing the text with word-by-word highlighting as it's read, along with playback controls, remaining time, and progress.
TTS Engines
Dial8 includes two neural TTS engines, both running locally:
Piper TTS (Default)
Neural TTS based on the VITS architecture. Available voices:
| Voice | Quality | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Amy | Medium | American English female (bundled with app) |
| Ryan | High | American English male (downloadable) |
Kokoro TTS
Alternative neural TTS engine with ultra-quality voices:
| Voice | Description |
|---|---|
| Bella | American English female |
| Adam | American English male |
| Emma | British English female |
| George | British English male |
Reading Modes
- Read mode — Reads text exactly as written
- Summarize mode — Uses Apple Intelligence to summarize the text before reading it aloud (requires macOS 26.0+)
Speed Control
Adjust playback speed from 0.5x to 4x:
| Preset | Speed |
|---|---|
| Slow | 0.75x |
| Normal | 1.0x |
| Fast | 1.25x |
| Faster | 1.5x |
| Fastest | 2.0x |
| Very Fast | 3.0x |
| Extreme | 4.0x |
Speed can be changed while audio is playing — it regenerates at the new speed seamlessly.
Playback Controls
The floating TTS HUD provides:
- Play/Pause toggle
- Skip forward/backward (10 seconds)
- Stop
- Word-by-word highlighting
- Remaining time display
All TTS processing happens on-device. No text is sent to external services.