Obvious/Help Center

Read to Me

Last updated April 6, 2026 · 2 min read

Read to Me turns any document into audio — you pick the voice, set the speed, and save your preferences for next time.

Start Read to Me

  1. Open the document you want to hear.

  2. Click the headphones icon in the document toolbar. A narrator intro plays immediately — you'll hear the voice introduce itself and name the document — while the full audio generates in the background.

  3. Playback controls appear at the bottom of the document.

Note: Documents over 100,000 characters aren't currently supported by Read to Me.

Choose a Voice

The voice catalog includes named voices across 10 languages. Each voice has a style — conversational, friendly, professional, calm, or newscast — that shapes how the reading sounds.

  1. Click Voice in the playback controls.

  2. Select a language from the dropdown.

  3. Browse the voices for that language. Click Preview next to any voice to hear a 5-second sample.

  4. Click the voice name to select it. Playback restarts with your new choice.

Tip: Voice styles aren't just cosmetic. A newscast voice reads crisper and faster than a conversational one. Preview a few before picking.

Adjust Speed

  1. Click Speed in the playback controls.

  2. Select a speed between 0.5x and 3.0x.

Supported Languages

Read to Me supports 10 languages: English (US), English (UK), Spanish, French, German, Portuguese (Brazilian), Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), and Hindi.

Save Your Preferences

Your voice, language, and speed choices can be saved as personal defaults. They're yours — not the workspace's — and follow you across all your Obvious projects.

  1. Configure the voice and speed you want to save.

  2. Click Save Preferences in the playback controls.

Your next Read to Me session starts with those settings automatically.

Working with the Agent

Read to Me is triggered from the document toolbar — it's a feature you start yourself. The agent can help you find and navigate to documents in your project, but it doesn't initiate playback on your behalf.

Troubleshooting

Read to Me doesn't start after I click it Your document may exceed the 100,000-character limit. Check the document length and split it if needed.

I see a rate limit error Read to Me supports 10 requests per minute per user. Wait a moment and try again.

If you're still running into trouble, contact help@obvious.ai.

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