Why I built HearYourDocs
I'm Scout, and I built HearYourDocs after getting frustrated with the state of free text-to-speech tools.
The trigger was mundane: I had a stack of long documents — reports, contracts, personal paperwork — that I wanted to listen to instead of read. Every free TTS tool I tried either cut me off after a couple thousand characters, sounded like a 2005 GPS unit, or wanted the document uploaded to their server before it would read a single word back to me. For anything even mildly personal, that last part was a dealbreaker.
So I built the tool I actually wanted: one that reads documents of any length, sounds like an actual voice instead of a robot, and never asks for the document in the first place — because it never leaves your browser. No account, because there was no reason to require one. No character limit, because the whole point was to handle real, long documents.
What "built right" means here
A few things I cared about getting right from the start, in order:
Privacy first — nothing you convert should ever leave your device, full stop, not "unless you upgrade" or "unless you're on the free tier."
No arbitrary limits — a 40-page report should be handled the same way as a single paragraph.
A voice that's actually pleasant to listen to — the whole point is to use this regularly, not just as a last resort.
HearYourDocs is a solo project. I maintain it, write the FAQ pages, and read every piece of feedback that comes through the contact page. If something's broken or missing, that's the fastest way to reach me.