Read aloud

Kevra can read any book with text (EPUB or FB2) aloud to you, highlighting on screen the sentence it's reading.

Plus plan: read-aloud with your phone's voice is part of Plus. The high-quality neural voice is part of Pro. You need a Kevra account.

Start listening

1. Open the book and tap the center of the page to see the menu.
2. Tap Listen (the headphones icon).
3. The voice starts on the page you're on.

If you also have the audiobook of that book, Kevra asks How do you want to listen?: Read it to me or Continue in the audiobook (with the narrator's voice, from that same page). See Audiobooks.

The controls

A small player appears at the bottom:

• Play / pause.
• The arrows to go back to the previous sentence or skip to the next one.
• The speed (1× by default; also 1.25×, 1.5×, 2× and 0.75×): tap the number to change it.
• The moon for the sleep timer: Off, 5, 15, 30 or 60 min, or End of chapter.
• With the natural voice chosen, the download button opens Prepare to listen (see below).
• The ✕ to close it.

You can lock your phone: the voice keeps going, the book turns its own pages and your position is saved just as if you were reading. The controls are on your lock screen.

Choose the voice

Go to Settings → Reading → Reading voice. Under Voice engine there are two options:

• System voice: the voices that come with your phone. Works offline and uses little battery. Tap ▶ to hear each voice and pick the one you like.
• High quality (neural voice): more natural, in Spanish and English. You choose the Voice language and, for Spanish, one of several voices.

The neural voice on your phone, offline

Some Spanish voices (the ones with a download button, like Sharvard, the default) can be downloaded to your phone: about 60–80 MB, once. From then on they read offline, without using data and without waiting between sentences. If you don't download it, the voice comes from our servers and needs a connection.

To remove it and free the space, tap the downloaded voice's icon and Remove from phone.

Pro plan: the neural voice is part of Pro.

For better system voices:

• iPhone: download the “Enhanced” or “Premium” voices in iOS Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices. They'll then show up in Kevra.
• Android: install extra voices in Android Settings → System → Languages → Text-to-speech output.

Natural voice, chapter by chapter

Pro plan: the natural voice is part of Pro, with 3 hours of new audio a month.

The natural voice sounds almost like a person reading. It takes a lot of work to prepare, so it isn't instant: it's prepared one chapter at a time, on our computer. Until a chapter is ready, the usual voice reads it.

Choosing it

Go to Settings → Reading → Reading voice → Natural voice, turn on Use the natural voice and pick the voice: Sharvard · Woman or Sharvard · Man. Below it you see what's left this month, for example “2 h 40 min left this month”. Without the Pro plan the section is shown, switched off, with Pro only.

Model (testing): we're testing two models for the natural voice, Qwen and Chatterbox, and you can choose which one prepares your chapters (Qwen by default). They sound different: try both and keep the one you like best. Each model is a separate recording: a chapter prepared with one doesn't count for the other, and preparing it with the other uses your quota again (unless another reader already prepared it with that model). Whatever you've already prepared or downloaded with each one stays; when you switch models, the reader looks for the chapter with the new model. Chatterbox takes a little longer to prepare each chapter.

Preparing a chapter

1. Start listening to the book as usual (Listen).
2. Above the player you'll see Prepare this chapter with the natural voice, with how long it lasts and how much of your quota it uses. Tap Prepare.
3. While it's being prepared (Preparing this chapter with the natural voice…) the usual voice keeps reading. If the computer that prepares it is switched off, it tells you: it'll carry on as soon as it's back.
4. When it's ready, we let you know in the app's notifications (“You can now listen to…”). If you're still listening to that chapter, the natural voice takes over at the next sentence; if not, tap the notification and the book opens at that chapter, with the natural voice.

With the natural voice the current sentence is highlighted as usual, and the player's arrows jump from sentence to sentence. At the end of the chapter it goes on to the next one if it's ready; if not, the usual voice carries on and Prepare the next chapter appears.

If another reader already prepared that same chapter, you'll see Listen to this chapter with the natural voice — Already prepared by another reader: free: tap Listen and it plays right away, using up nothing.

What it uses up: only what is prepared new. When you request it, an estimate based on the chapter's length is deducted and, once it's done, it's adjusted to the real length. If it can't be prepared (This chapter couldn't be prepared), you get it back and can tap Retry. If you run out, the row says No natural voice left this month and when it renews: your allowance renews on the 1st of each month.

Prepare to listen (before a trip, say)

If you know you'll be listening offline — in the car, on a plane — prepare several chapters at once:

1. Open Prepare to listen: with the player's download button, from the natural voice row (the list icon), or from the library (press and hold the book → Prepare to listen).
2. You'll see the book's chapters, scrolled to the one you're on (marked Now). Each one shows where it stands: how long it lasts and how much of your quota it uses, Already prepared: free, Preparing…, Ready: it'll download on Wi‑Fi or Downloaded: you can listen offline. At the top you pick the voice (Sharvard · Woman or Man) and, while the test lasts, the model (Qwen or Chatterbox).
3. The chapter you're on and the next one come ticked; tick or untick whichever you want. At the bottom you see the total (Uses 40 min of your quota · 2 h 40 min left); if it's not enough, it says so.
4. Tap Prepare N chapters.

In the library, books that already have chapters ready with your natural voice show a badge on the cover with a voice icon and the number of chapters (in list view, “Natural voice: 12 chapters”). In the book's details you'll see Natural voice: 12 chapters ready: tap it to open Prepare to listen. Chapters another reader prepared from the same book count too, and they're free for you.

While the app is open, Kevra keeps an eye on them and downloads them on its own as soon as they're ready (also when the notification arrives). Chapters prepared this way stay on your phone until you listen to them, and then they play offline, airplane mode included. Once listened to, they move to the normal cache.

With Download on Wi‑Fi only (in Reading voice → Natural voice, on by default) they wait for Wi‑Fi to download. If you're listening and the chapter is ready but there's no Wi‑Fi, the row says Ready: it'll download on Wi‑Fi and you can tap Download now.

Other chapters you listen to are also kept on your phone (up to about 300 MB; the oldest go first), so replaying them doesn't use data. On our side, anything nobody listens to for 6 months is deleted; if you request it again, it's prepared again.

Common questions

It says “This book has no text to read aloud.” This happens with comics, image-only books and PDFs: there's no text to read.

Can I highlight while listening? While the voice is playing, long-press doesn't select text. Pause first.

On Android, the volume buttons turn pages. While the voice is playing they go back to controlling the volume.