Start with a book that offers Read Now in My Books, then choose Kobo’s own Read Aloud or CastReader. On a phone, connect the Kobo shelf separately in the CastReader app.
CastReader adapts Kobo’s web reader chapter text for read-aloud with highlighting. Website and layout changes can affect extraction.
The reader supports automatic page turns. Check a page of text and highlights first; resolve any provider access or loading prompt before continuing.
CastReader supports 28 languages. Available voices and features vary by language and client; check the current voice picker.
Use the player’s speed controls to choose a pace for study, revision or leisure reading.
CastReader on iOS and Android can connect a Kobo account, sync the shelf and open the original reader. This is a separate mobile workflow.
Only accessible book content can be read. A shelf entry, loan record or audiobook purchase does not guarantee web e-book access.
Install CastReader in Chrome or Edge. The extension does not run inside Kobo’s native apps or e-readers.
Sign in to Kobo.com, open My Account → My Books and select Read Now for an eligible e-book.
Wait for the chapter at readnow.kobo.com, start CastReader and check the spoken text and highlight. Voice access and limits depend on your client and plan.
Kobo Web Reader now offers its own Read Aloud in reading settings. Kobo lists availability in the EU and publisher-enabled titles elsewhere. Check the menu for your book and the <a href="https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/35996348493207-Kobo-Web-Reader-Accessibility-Additional-Features">official accessibility instructions</a>.
Web reading, e-reader hardware and audiobook playback are different surfaces. First check that your book has Read Now in My Books. A title appearing on a Kobo device does not establish that the browser extension can open it.
On a computer, CastReader supports accessible Kobo web chapters with narration, highlighting and continuous reading. It does not unlock purchases, loans or region restrictions, and it does not convert audiobook playback into an e-book.
On a phone, connect your Kobo account directly in CastReader and sync the shelf. See the <a href="/integrations#source-kobo">Kobo connection steps, Android support and access limits</a>. Installing the desktop extension does not connect the phone automatically.
Kobo Web Reader has Read Aloud. Kobo lists availability in the EU and publisher-enabled titles elsewhere. Check the book’s reading settings.
This guide covers the desktop browser extension and CastReader mobile app. Neither installs inside a Kobo e-reader; audiobook playback is also different from e-book text to speech.
Sign in at Kobo.com, open My Account → My Books and choose Read Now for your book. After the chapter loads, start CastReader in Chrome or Edge.
The browser extension does not run inside Kobo Desktop. First check whether the book opens in Kobo Web Reader.
Connect Kobo in CastReader’s Reading sources, complete official sign-in, sync the detected shelf and open a book. See the connection workflow.
No. An OverDrive or Libby loan does not guarantee Read Now access in Kobo Web Reader. Check the actual title and web entitlement.
An audiobook plays a supplied audio recording. This workflow converts accessible e-book text into speech; the entitlement and player are different.
No. CastReader processes accessible content in the original reader; it does not decrypt, unlock or export protected book files.
CastReader supports 28 languages. Voices and features vary by language and client; check the current voice picker.
No. The mobile app has its own Kobo shelf connection and opens the original reader. This does not promise shared progress between devices.
Kobo book access and CastReader voice plans are separate. Check your current client and pricing for available voices, free limits and Pro features.
Check the account, title and region. Not every entry supports web reading; resyncing the shelf does not grant access that the provider does not supply.
CastReader is available on iPad and Android tablets, with layouts adapted for a larger reading screen.
Hard numbers — not vibes — from authoritative sources
$2.22 billion
US audiobook sales in 2024, up 13% year-over-year (Publishers Weekly / Audio Publishers Association)
Source →51%
of US adults have listened to an audiobook in 2025 — roughly 134 million people (APA Consumer Survey 2025)
Source →2.2 billion
people globally with near- or far-vision impairment (WHO Fact Sheet, 2024). TTS is the primary access path for digital reading content.
Source →78%
of audiobook listeners multitask while listening — commute, chores, exercise (Audiolibrix Great Audiobook Survey, 2024)
Source →27.2 minutes
average single-trip US commute in 2024, up from 26.8 (US Census ACS via Statista). That's nearly an hour each day of audio-only time.
Source →effect size 0.35
measured comprehension lift from TTS for reading-disabled students across 22 studies (Wood, Moxley, Tighe & Wagner, Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2018)
Source →15.5 million
US adults with ADHD per CDC 2024 — about half diagnosed in adulthood (CDC MMWR, October 2024)
Source →Every Chrome Web Store review below is verifiable at the link in each card. We don't hide negative feedback — we answer it within 24 hours.
“This is 1 of the best TTS and its smooth. If this is truly free i'll keep this 100%. Every other TTS says its free but has a secret. They interrupt or they just say better ai voices pay. But i like this voice. I've tried loads and this is 1 of the best ones that actually says free.”
“Works perfectly on vivaldi. One suggestion though. I wish it had a play button appear next to a paragraph when we hover over it. Just like in the case of speechify.”
“Extremely user friendly short keys. Placed forward backward and speed up down as Natural as it could be. Voices are great and smooth. I would recommend it over many hyped products.”
“At the very least it's better than many paid TTS models. Still not as good as ElevenReader or LAP, but maybe the best free model for TTS.”
“So glad I can finally switch voices! The default was fine but I found one I actually enjoy listening to for hours. Small thing, huge difference.”
“Best one i found, user friendly, and great voice over.”
“ChatGPT's long answers are finally listenable. Let it generate while I listen — doubles my productivity. Love the inline button next to each response.”
“I tried using this add-on to listen to an ebook on the O'Reilly learning platform, and it works smoothly. However, it always restarts from the first paragraph whenever I scroll or select a different paragraph. Please consider adding a bookmark or checkpoint feature so users can mark where the reading should begin.”
↪ Founder reply
Replied by CastReader founder Yan Xu within 48 hours: acknowledged the issue, shipped a bookmark feature in the following release. Reviewer's verbatim feedback drove the v1.2 roadmap.
“Need to highlight text and select it.”
“Hard to select text.”
↪ Founder reply
Replied by CastReader founder Yan Xu within 24 hours: apologized, asked which site/browser the issue occurred on, provided a workaround using the keyboard shortcut, and offered direct support at support@castreader.ai.
We re-test, re-write, and ship continuously. Every entry has a real date.
Rewrote landing pages with verbatim Chrome Web Store testimonials, real audiobook market data, and tested-12-extensions methodology. Every claim now has a sourceable link.
CastReader provides native apps for iPhone and Android; Android downloads are available directly from Google Play.
Wrote up the OCR pipeline: how CastReader handles Amazon's 184 random font alphabets and 361 unique glyphs per Kindle book. Shared in dev.to.
The phone app flow now has its own landing page for bookshelf sync, Read Aloud, synced highlighting, auto-scroll, background playback, and resume progress.
Ranked #10 in Daily, 99 upvotes, 4 community comments shaped the v1.2 roadmap.
Switched from older TTS engines to Kokoro neural voices. User reviews shifted from 'usable but robotic' to 'enjoy listening for hours' (verbatim from review by patrick chiang).
OCR success rate improved from 78% to 89% on English-language Kindle books. Multi-column page detection added for academic PDFs.
I built CastReader because I owned hundreds of Kindle books and couldn't listen to them on my morning runs without buying separate Audible copies. The technical problem — Amazon's Cloud Reader font encryption — turned out to be solvable with OCR. The product problem — making it actually pleasant across different devices and languages — took two years of iteration. We're a small team. I answer every Chrome Web Store review personally (see testimonials above — including the 3-star and 1-star ones). If something's broken or missing, email support@castreader.ai.
— Yan Xu, founder
Last reviewed: · CastReader Team — reviewed against 2025 testing data
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