I built a local macOS app that reads selected text aloud

#opensource #swift #showdev #sideprojects

I read a lot on my Mac: docs, GitHub issues, drafts, articles, papers.

Sometimes I do not want another tool. I just want to select text, press a shortcut, and listen.

So I built Sotto.

Sotto is a native macOS menu-bar app that reads selected text aloud locally using Kokoro through FluidAudio/CoreML.

No copy-paste into a website.
No cloud TTS by default.
No extra workflow.

How it works

Select text in any macOS app, press your shortcut(cmd + shift + R by default), and Sotto starts reading.

You can pause, speed up, slow down, or jump to the next/previous section from the menu bar.

It is not meant to replace screen readers. It is for people who read a lot and sometimes want to listen instead of stare at more text.

Selected text can be private: notes, emails, docs, drafts, issues.

Sotto keeps the default path local, so the text is read on your Mac instead of being sent to a cloud API.

Homebrew:


bash
brew install --cask shreysid/tap/sotto
sudo xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Sotto.app
open /Applications/Sotto.app