READEL
UPDATES
What's new and what changed.
Vol. 2.0 · 13 Apr 2026
Latest issueOkay, big one. Readel 2.0.
I've been wanting to do this for a while. I scrapped the old Readel app and built a new one. It should be faster, more reliable, and have better audio quality. My motivation was the idea of interacting with the tool — pressing Alt and hovering to read is something that felt missing when using the old Readel.
It's free now.
No more character limits, no more sign-in. Just install and use it. I wrote a bit about why on the how is it free page if you're curious. Basically, I enjoy it and think it's cool. And hope you do too.
And finally.
The popup is just voice, speed, and volume now. That's all you need. As always, if something breaks or you have an idea, I'm easy to reach. Use the feedback link on the home page.
Vol. 1.4.4 · 08 May 2024
ArchiveBig update time, PHEW.
Hello, everyone. Big update time. When I say this was a long process, I mean it. A lot of effort went into 1.4.4. From re-writing the whole project to cloud service mishaps, I hope you like the new update.
The elephant in the room. Readel is no longer free.
Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room — Readel now has in-app purchases. For context, Readel was selected to be part of the ElevenLabs grant program, which provided a free key service. However, you all exceeded the limit of the grant, which meant I had to come up with something. I spent a long time thinking about how to implement a paid version and I wanted to do it the right way.
Each user gets 10,000 characters per day by default. If you wish to raise the daily limit, you can purchase more characters. When you buy more characters, they add to the daily limit. For example, if you buy 30,000 characters, your new limit will be 40,000 daily characters (30,000 + the default 10,000).
You will still get access to all voices and quality settings for free.
Playback speed.
The highly requested feature is here. You can now control the playback speed of the audio. FYI, this was the source of re-writing the program. You wouldn't believe it, but it was quite complicated.
Pause / Resume.
Quality-of-life improvement and requested feature. You can now pause and resume audio without losing your spot. The audio will start to play from where you left off, instead of restarting the playback.
NEW Reset button.
A new button has been added to reset the audio playback to the beginning.
Fresh paint.
Readel has a subtle new look. I like this look better than the old one. Please, let me know what you think.
And finally.
Enjoy the extension. Remember, I'm easy to contact. If you need any help or have any questions, feedback or errors, you can send me an email or use one of the forms on the home page.
Vol. 1.4.2 · 31 Mar 2024
ArchiveReadel is now FREE.
Readel was successfully picked to be part of ElevenLabs' grant program and now has access to better resources and free credits. This means I can remove the cost of Readel for the time being.
Skip to the next track.
You can now skip to the next sentence. Personally, my favourite feature in this update.
More UI updates.
I've made some improvements to Readel's UI again. The button is now in the middle-right of the screen to stop it from getting in the way. Please let me know what you think of the change.
Vol. 1.4.1 · 15 Mar 2024
ArchivePurchase Credits.
You are now able to purchase credits for Readel. This is where your feedback is important. Please be candid on what you think about the prices or payment model. I want to pick one you are all happy with. Let me know via the feedback link.
New UI updates.
Readel's got some new paint. I have updated the UI, added some new buttons (such as Purchase credits & Updates) and removed ones I didn't think added any value.
Voices, Voices, Voices.
4 new voices have arrived in Readel. (Chris, Anna, James, Zeus.) All voices are free and I will continue to add more as updates come.
Pick where you start listening.
When you highlight text to listen, Readel will continue reading the rest of the page from where you selected.
New volume slider.
Control the audio volume by hovering over the Readel play button, then clicking the volume button. Note: currently the volume slider position is wrong. This will be fixed in the next patch.
Where the play button shows.
I have changed the way the play button pops up on websites. There is a new criteria the button needs to meet: the page needs at least 300 characters, and for some websites like OpenAI's ChatGPT and YouTube it has been disabled as I don't have an implementation for these yet. However, you are still able to use the highlight-read feature.
Improved account handling.
Previously, there was no way to tell if you were signed in to Readel — which doesn't help, as the whole program fails if you aren't signed in. I have added a new method. If the first method (sign-in on install) fails, you will also be notified if you aren't signed in and prompted to do so. Note: you can view your email via Readel's extension popup.