What it does
Read aloud selected text on a web page by clicking an icon that appears on selection
Keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+U to start/stop reading selected text
Right-click context menu playback of selected text
Web Reader for VOICEVOX was built by ningengakushu to solve a specific, small problem: reading Japanese text on web pages without copying it into a separate app. VOICEVOX already existed as a high-quality, free, locally running speech engine with a range of distinct character voices. The missing piece was a browser integration that felt native rather than bolted on. The extension fills that gap.
Version 1.2.1 adds automatic text cleanup before synthesis. URLs embedded in article text, unnecessary line breaks from copy-pasted content, and stray formatting characters are stripped out before the string reaches the VOICEVOX engine. The result is more natural-sounding playback, especially on pages that mix prose with inline links. The interrupt behavior, where selecting new text immediately cancels the current audio and starts the next, was added after early users reported that waiting for a long passage to finish before correcting a selection was the single biggest friction point.
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