Soomo Webtexts Have a Brand New Voice

Soomo webtexts aren’t like ordinary textbooks. They’re packed with interactive tools and features that students love. One of the most popular is Read to Me—our text-to-speech tool that allows users to listen to each page read out loud.

We’re always surprised by just how many students use our Read to Me feature (about 17 percent!) and how often they share love for the feature in our feedback surveys.

Now students have even more to love. We’re excited to announce that our webtexts have a new voice, and it’s better than ever.

Why Students Love the Read to Me Feature

Students appreciate the Read to Me feature for a variety of reasons. Some say that reading along while listening boosts their comprehension. Others are used to learning from audio materials and simply prefer listening.

When we ask students to name their favorite thing about their webtext in our surveys, Read to Me frequently comes up. Here are some recent comments:

• “My favorite thing is the Read to Me feature. It really helps to listen along as I read as well. With dyslexia, it’s also a handy thing when I am struggling on bad days.”
• “The read aloud feature! I use it every week, and it really helps me read everything.”
• “I love that the webtext has the auditory read back for the text. This helps immensely with ADHD and auditory processing.”
• “My favorite thing about the text would be the audio reading provided; it helped me understand the text better.”

While Read to Me is not intended for users who need assistive technologies (as our webtext content is already accessible to students using screenreader tools like NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver), it still benefits many students by offering an additional way to learn the webtext material.

Why Students Will Love the Updated Version Even More

We’ve been so happy to offer a feature that students love. But despite its popularity, we heard from some students that they wanted a different voice option for the tool—one that sounded less robotic and more natural.

The situation was clear. We offered a feature that students really cared about, but it wasn’t perfect for everyone. We wanted to make Read to Me even better for the many students who use it to engage with their readings.

You can listen to the difference between the old voice and the new voice in the video below. Also, notice how the new voice properly pronounces the acronym in the text!

A New and Improved Audio Experience

Our initial Read to Me tool was powered by third-party software, which meant that changing the voice to sound less robotic wasn’t a simple task. In order to improve this feature for students, we had to rebuild the tool from scratch.

Soomo’s tech team jumped in to create a brand new version of Read to Me. We knew that if we rebuilt the tool ourselves, we would not only be able to improve the voice, but also have more control and flexibility to respond to any future feedback from users.

With the release of our upgraded Read to Me tool, we can now offer students a more natural reading voice, new capabilities, and improved accessibility.

A More Natural Reading Voice

First, the upgraded version of Read to Me addresses students’ most common complaint—the reading voice. The new voice has a more natural tone and cadence, allowing students to pay attention to the content without unnecessary distractions. Listen to the difference below, where the new voice sounds smoother and doesn’t get stuck when reading out the title of the Supreme Court case.

Also, the new voice avoids awkward pauses or mispronunciations of words. The video below shows how the new voice can comprehend abbreviations and pronounce the words they stand for correctly.

Highlighting and Note-Taking Capability

In the previous version of Read to Me, students were unable to use the webtext’s highlighting and note-taking feature while the tool was in use. In the upgraded version, students can now easily highlight a passage or leave a note in the margin while the audio is playing.

This upgrade is not just important for the user experience but for comprehension of the text. In studying the comprehension of audio material versus written material, researchers have noted the “structural hurdle” of being unable to highlight audio material (Heid, 2018). When using a Soomo webtext, students can have the best of both worlds—listening to the material and highlighting and taking notes on passages as needed.

Ability to Turn Off Autoscroll

When Read to Me is enabled, the page on the user’s screen autoscrolls by default to keep the text in view for the user. Many users prefer this setting, but we saw an opportunity to provide a more accessible experience by allowing autoscroll to be turned off.

Moving content on a page can cause physical reactions, like nausea, for people with vestibular dysfunctions. It can also be distracting. By allowing the option to pause autoscroll, the new Read to Me feature is more accessible for users who prefer reduced motion. This aligns with WCAG 2.2 Technique C39, improving accessibility.

How Read to Me Works

On any page in a Soomo webtext, students can toggle on Read to Me in the Tools Menu. Once the tool is activated, students can make adjustments to the voice speed, text highlight, and autoscroll options.

The ability to adjust voice speed matches what users find on other audio listening platforms and aligns with user preferences—particularly for younger users. A poll by The Economist and YouGov found that 31 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 prefer to listen to audio at faster speeds (“What’s Your Preferred Playback Speed,” 2025).

You can learn more about how to use Read to Me in our Help Center article.

What’s Next for Read to Me

The Read to Me upgrade is just one example of how we’ve been using real student data to make changes that students—and instructors—will appreciate. The new Read to Me feature is now available to all users, but we’re not finished yet! We have further Read to Me updates underway, many of which stem directly from student feedback. These include:

• Providing more voice speeds.
• Making the Read to Me settings more accessible and intuitive for users.
• Adding Read to Me to our mobile app.

We’re so excited for everyone to hear the difference! You can try out Read to Me yourself on any webtext in our catalog! All you have to do is go to any title page from soomo.co/catalog and click “Request educator access” for a preview.

Sources

Markham Heid. “Are Audiobooks As Good For You As Reading? Here’s What Experts Say.” September 6, 2018. Time. https://time.com/5388681/audiobooks-reading-books/.

“What’s Your Preferred Playback Speed: 1x, 1.5x, or 2x?” August 13, 2025. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/culture/2025/08/13/whats-your-preferred-playback-speed-1x-15x-or-2x.