Listen to your textbooks: Memmo now reads your books aloud
Memmo can now read your textbooks aloud. Tap the speaker in the e-reader and a natural AI voice reads the book sentence by sentence, highlighting the sentence you are hearing. Figures and tables are described instead of skipped, and the same read-aloud works for summaries, notes, quizzes and flashcards – on the web and in the app. It comes at no extra cost.
Key takeaways
- You can listen to the textbooks you have bought right in the e-reader, on the web and in the app.
- The sentence being read is highlighted, so you can read and listen at the same time.
- Figures, tables and links are put into words – footnotes and references can be switched off.
- Read-aloud handles eleven languages and switches pronunciation when the text does.
- Summaries, notes, quizzes and flashcards can be read aloud too.
What is new?
From today, Memmo can read text aloud to you. That covers the textbooks in the e-reader, but also everything you create yourself: summaries, notes, quiz questions and flashcards. Tap the speaker icon and an AI voice reads the text with a natural tone.
We built it because a lot of studying does not happen at a desk. You are on the bus, walking to campus or doing the dishes. Some people read slowly, have dyslexia or get tired eyes after three hours in front of a screen. And many simply take a text in better when they both see and hear it.
How do I listen to a textbook in Memmo?
Open the book in the e-reader and tap the speaker icon. The player appears, but nothing starts until you press play. The player has buttons for:
- Play and pause
- Previous and next sentence, to hear something again or skip ahead
- Stop, which closes read-aloud
You can also select a piece of text and choose Listen in the menu to start right there, or pick a heading in the table of contents to start from it. Reading carries on across chapter boundaries, so you can let a whole chapter play while you follow along.
What happens to figures, tables and footnotes?
This is where ordinary text-to-speech usually falls apart. A textbook is not a novel – it is full of diagrams, tables, footnotes and citations. Read out as-is, you get either silence where the image sits or a long string of numbers and file names. Here is how Memmo handles them:
| Content | How it is read |
|---|---|
| Figures and images | The publisher's image description when there is one, otherwise a short AI description of what the image shows. File names and web addresses are never read out. |
| Tables | A short description of what the table shows, then row by row together with the column headings. |
| Links | As “link: ons.gov.uk” instead of the full address. |
| Footnotes and references | Read by default – they are part of what you are studying – but can be switched off in the read-aloud settings. |
| Copyright text | Skipped by default, can be switched on. |
| Footnote numbers in the text | Never read out. |
Which languages can Memmo read aloud?
Swedish, English, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish. The voice follows the book's language, and when the publisher has marked a passage as another language – an English quote in a Swedish book, for example – it switches pronunciation for that passage.
We put extra work into making Swedish sound Swedish. Speech synthesis tends to drift into Norwegian or Danish pronunciation on short sentences, because the languages share so many words. So the voice is always told which language it is reading.
Can I listen in the app with the screen locked?
Yes. When you listen to a book in the Memmo app, reading continues when you lock the screen, and you can hear it even with the phone on silent. Put the phone in your pocket and keep listening on the way home.
What else can I listen to?
Read-aloud is available in five places in Memmo:
- Textbooks in the e-reader – with the full player, figure descriptions and highlighting of the sentence being read.
- Summaries – the same player as in the e-reader.
- Notes – handy for going back over a lecture.
- Quizzes – a button on each question that reads the question aloud.
- Flashcards – reads the side of the card on show. Flip the card and reading stops, so you never hear the answer before you have had time to think.
Does listening actually help you study?
It depends on who you are. For students with reading difficulties the evidence is clear: a meta-analysis by Wood, Moxley, Tighe and Wagner (2018) in the Journal of Learning Disabilities found that text-to-speech and similar read-aloud tools improved reading comprehension, with a moderate effect. For fluent readers the picture is more mixed. Rogowsky, Calhoun and Tallal (2016) compared reading, listening and doing both at once, and found no difference in comprehension between the three.
Our takeaway: listening does not make you smarter on its own, but it lets you study in more situations, keep going for longer and get through text that would otherwise sit untouched. Listening is still passive learning. What makes knowledge stick is testing yourself afterwards, with active recall and spaced repetition. Listen to the chapter, then take a quiz on it.
What does it cost?
Read-aloud is included. For textbooks you need to have bought the book, just as you do to read it. Summaries, notes, quizzes and flashcards you have created can be listened to straight away.
What does not work yet?
Read-aloud works in e-books in EPUB format, which is just over 90 percent of the books on Memmo. Books that only exist as PDF cannot be read aloud yet – there is no speaker there. It is high on our list.
Frequently asked questions
Does read-aloud cost extra?
No, it is included. To listen to a textbook you need to have bought the book, just as you do to read it.
Is it a recorded audiobook?
No. The voice is generated by AI when you press play. That is why practically any e-book in EPUB format can be read aloud, not only the books that happen to have a recorded audiobook version.
Can I listen to books in PDF format?
Not yet. Read-aloud currently works in EPUB books, which make up just over 90 percent of the catalogue. PDF support is coming.
Does Memmo read out images and diagrams?
Yes. Figures are described with the publisher's caption when there is one, otherwise with a short AI description. Tables are read row by row together with their column headings.
Does read-aloud work with the screen locked?
Yes, in the Memmo app reading continues when the screen is locked and when the phone is on silent.
Which languages are supported?
Swedish, English, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish.
Want to try it? Find your textbook, open it in the e-reader and tap the speaker.