boxts

A floating text-to-speech overlay application that converts your typed text into speech.

Click to watch the demo on YouTube

How it works

• Press Alt+Enter anywhere on your system to open the text input overlay
• Type your text and press Enter
• The text is sent to a Python backend that converts it to speech using RealtimeTTS with Coqui TTS
• The window automatically hides after submission or when it loses focus

Features

• Global hotkey activation (Alt+Enter)
• Transparent, non-intrusive floating window
• Custom voice cloning support
• Auto-hide functionality
• System tray integration

Commands

All commands start with / and can be typed in the text input. Commands that require selection will show an item selector with arrow keys for navigation.

Window Positioning

• /center - Center window on current monitor
• /topleft - Move window to top-left corner
• /topright - Move window to top-right corner
• /bottomleft - Move window to bottom-left corner
• /bottomright - Move window to bottom-right corner
• /nextmonitor - Switch to next available monitor

Audio Configuration

• /outputdevice - Select audio output device
• /volume - Set TTS volume
• /listdevices - List available audio devices in console

Voice Management

• /start - Start TTS with voice selection
• /stop - Stop TTS and clean up resources
• /changevoice - Change to different voice
• /clonevoice - Clone voice from audio file (opens file dialog)

Application Settings

• /lostfocus - Configure window behavior when focus is lost (hide/show)
• /resetconfig - Reset all settings to defaults
• /restartserver - Restart the Python TTS backend
• /exit - Close the application

System Commands

• /ready - Send manual ready signal to backend

Built with Tauri v2, React TypeScript, and Python.