Speechable

Description

Speechable transforms your WordPress content into natural-sounding audio using AI-powered text-to-speech technology. Speechable uses Piper TTS, an open-source neural text-to-speech engine that runs in your browser.

Third-Party Service

This plugin uses the following third-party services for text-to-speech functionality:

Piper TTS Web Library

• Service Provider: Mintplex Labs
• Library CDN: jsDelivr (https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@mintplex-labs/piper-tts-web)
• ONNX Runtime CDN: Cloudflare (https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/onnxruntime-web)
• WASM Phonemizer CDN: jsDelivr (https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@diffusionstudio/piper-wasm)
• Voice Models: Downloaded from Hugging Face
• Terms of Service: MIT License

Whisper (Word Timestamps)

• Service Provider: Hugging Face Transformers.js
• Library CDN: jsDelivr (https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@huggingface/transformers)
• Model: Xenova/whisper-tiny.en (~75MB, downloaded on first use)
• Purpose: Provides accurate word-level timestamps for synchronized highlighting
• Terms of Service: Apache 2.0 License

What data is transmitted:

• The TTS library and ONNX runtime are loaded from CDN when generating audio
• Voice model files are downloaded from Hugging Face when first using a voice
• Whisper model is downloaded for word timestamp extraction (first use only)
• Your content text is processed locally in your browser and is NOT sent to any external server
• Once downloaded, all resources are cached locally in your browser

Why external resources are required:

The text-to-speech engine requires machine learning runtime (ONNX) and voice models that are too large to bundle with the plugin. These are loaded on-demand from CDN services, similar to how Google Fonts or other web services work. This is a service-based approach that keeps the plugin lightweight while providing high-quality AI voices.

Key Features

• AI-Powered Voices – Natural-sounding speech using Piper TTS neural network models
• Accurate Word Highlighting – Whisper-powered word timestamps for precise synchronization
• 12 Languages – English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean
• Customizable Player – Match your theme with custom colors and styling
• Download Audio – Let visitors download audio files for offline listening
• Voice Presets – Quick effects like Radio, Stadium, Cave, Chipmunk, Robot, and more
• Free – No premium version, no limits, no hidden costs

How It Works

1. Install and activate the plugin
2. Go to Settings → Speechable to configure your preferences
3. Edit any post and click «Generate Audio» in the sidebar
4. The audio player automatically appears on your published posts

Voice Presets

Transform your audio with one-click presets:

• Default – Natural voice
• Radio – Broadcast quality
• Stadium – Echo effect
• Cave – Deep reverb
• Chipmunk – High-pitched fun
• Deep – Low bass voice
• Robot – Mechanical tone
• Telephone – Phone quality
• Megaphone – Announcement style
• Giant – Booming voice
• Fairy – Magical high voice
• Narrator – Audiobook style

Perfect For

• Bloggers – Give readers an audio option
• News Sites – Accessibility for all visitors
• Educational Content – Help students learn
• Accessibility – Support visually impaired users
• Podcasters – Quick audio versions of written content

Privacy

Your content is processed locally in the browser. Text is not sent to external servers. Voice models are downloaded once and cached locally.

Usage

Getting Started

1. After activation, go to Settings → Speechable to configure your default options
2. Select your preferred language and voice
3. Choose which post types should have audio (posts, pages, etc.)
4. Customize the player colors to match your theme

Generating Audio for a Post

Method 1: Block Editor (Single Post)

1. Edit any post or page in the WordPress block editor
2. Look for the «Speechable» panel in the right sidebar (under Document settings)
3. Select your preferred voice and quality settings
4. Click «Generate Audio» and wait for processing
5. Once complete, you can preview the audio before publishing
6. Publish or update your post – the audio player will appear automatically

Method 2: Posts List (Quick Access)

1. Go to Posts → All Posts
2. Hover over any post to see the «Audio» button in the row actions
3. Click it to open the audio generation modal
4. Configure settings and click «Generate»
5. The audio will be saved to that post

Configuring Settings

Voice Settings

• Language – Choose from 12 supported languages
• Voice – Select a voice for the chosen language (preview available)
• Quality – Low (faster), Medium (balanced), or High (best sync accuracy)
• Whisper Model – Controls word timestamp accuracy (Tiny is fastest, Small is more accurate)

Voice Presets

Click any preset to quickly apply pitch and reverb effects:

• Default, Warm, Bright, Radio, Narrator, Podcast, Deep, Soft, Room, Hall, Telephone, Vintage

Display Settings

• Post Types – Enable audio for posts, pages, or custom post types
• Player Position – Show player before or after content
• Word Highlighting – Enable/disable word-by-word highlighting during playback
• Auto-scroll – Automatically scroll to keep highlighted word visible

Player Appearance

• Customize background, text, button, progress bar, and highlight colors
• Adjust border radius for rounded or square corners
• Live preview shows your changes instantly

Managing Audio

• Regenerate – Click «Regenerate» in the editor panel to create new audio with different settings
• Delete – Remove audio from a post using the «Delete» button
• Download – Visitors can download the audio file using the player’s download button

Tips for Best Results

1. Use High quality for important content where word sync matters
2. Preview voices in Settings before generating to find the best match
3. Shorter posts generate faster – consider breaking very long content into parts
4. First generation takes longer as voice models are downloaded and cached
5. Word highlighting works best with standard theme content areas

Credits

Core Technologies

• Piper TTS – rhasspy/piper by Mike Hansen
  Fast, local neural text-to-speech system (MIT License)

• Piper TTS Web – Mintplex-Labs/piper-tts-web v1.0.4
  Browser-compatible Piper TTS implementation (MIT License)

• OpenAI Whisper – openai/whisper
  Robust speech recognition for word-level timestamps (MIT License)

• Transformers.js – huggingface/transformers.js v3.4.1
  Run Whisper models in the browser by Xenova (Apache 2.0 License)

• ONNX Runtime Web – microsoft/onnxruntime
  Machine learning inference engine (MIT License)

• Piper WASM Phonemizer – diffusionstudio/piper-wasm
  WebAssembly phonemizer for text processing (MIT License)

Voice Models

• Piper Voices – diffusionstudio/piper-voices
  High-quality neural voice models hosted on Hugging Face

• Whisper Models – Xenova on Hugging Face
  Optimized Whisper models for browser inference (whisper-tiny.en, whisper-small)

Infrastructure

• jsDelivr CDN – Fast, reliable CDN for npm packages
• Cloudflare CDN – ONNX Runtime delivery
• Hugging Face – Model hosting and distribution

Design

• Lucide Icons – lucide.dev (ISC License)
  Beautiful, consistent icon set

Development

• Developer: Tanish Mittal
• Plugin Architecture: WordPress standards-compliant
• Browser Compatibility: Modern ES6+ with Web Workers