Getting started

Getting started

Install (sideload)

storyvox is sideload-only today. Tagged releases attach a signed debug APK to the GitHub release. Every push to main also produces a debug APK as a CI artifact.

1. Download the latest storyvox-X.Y.Z.apk from Releases.
2. Open it on your Android device (Android 8.0+; targetSdk = 35).
3. Allow "Install from unknown sources" if prompted.
4. From v0.4.15 onward the signing keystore is committed to the repo, so debug-to-debug and release-to-release upgrades land cleanly. Pre-v0.4.15 builds used per-machine debug keystores — upgrading from those needs a one-time uninstall first.

First launch

storyvox opens on the Playing tab. From there:

• Library — your saved fictions. The Resume button uses smart-resume — it respects your last paused/playing intent, so it won't auto-play at you when you opened the app to read.
• Follows — synced from Royal Road if you sign in
• Browse — six backends: Royal Road, GitHub, RSS, EPUB, Outline, Memory Palace
• Settings — see Settings reference

Tap a fiction to open the detail screen. Hit "Listen" or pick a chapter to start playback. The first chapter triggers a one-time voice-model download (Piper "amy" by default, ~30 MB).

Picking a voice

Settings → Voice & Playback → "Voice library." You'll see three engine groups:

• Piper — compact (~14–30 MB), one-speaker-per-model, fast on every device. 45 voices.
• Kokoro — multi-speaker (~330 MB total), more expressive, heavier. 53 speakers.
• Azure HD (optional, BYOK) — studio-grade cloud voices via Azure Cognitive Services. No local download. 20 voices including the new Dragon HD generative tier. Costs you Microsoft's published rate; storyvox doesn't bill you.

Tap a voice to install it (or, for Azure, to select after key + region setup — see Settings reference). Star the ones you like to surface them in the picker. The ★ Starred section floats at the top.

For the full list, see the Voice catalog reference.

Sleep timer

Now-Playing → moon icon. Pick a duration (15/30/45/60 min) or "End of chapter". The fade tail is 10 seconds — during the fade, shake the phone (three sharp shakes) to re-arm for another 15 minutes (#150). Toggle this off in Settings → Reading if your commute is bumpy.

Sign-ins (optional)

• Royal Road — Settings → Account → Royal Road → Sign in. Webview-based; once captured, your follow list syncs into the app.
• GitHub — Settings → Account → GitHub → Sign in. OAuth Device Flow; lifts the anon 60 req/hr cap to 5,000 and unlocks "My Repos", "Starred", and "Gists" in Browse. Toggle "Enable private repos" if you want private repos as fiction sources.
• Memory Palace — Settings → Memory Palace → host + API key. Test the connection before committing.
• Outline — Settings → Library & Sync → Outline → server URL + API token from your Outline user settings.
• Azure — Settings → Voice & Playback → Azure → key + region. Hit Test connection before picking an Azure voice from the library.

Adding sources

• EPUB folder — Settings → Library & Sync → EPUB → pick a folder via the Storage Access Framework. Storyvox parses each .epub's .opf manifest into chapters.
• RSS feed — Browse → RSS tab → paste a feed URL, or pick from the curated suggested-feeds list (managed in storyvox-feeds).

AI chat

The chat icon on the reader opens a per-fiction chat. Pick a provider in Settings → AI; storyvox supports Claude direct, Anthropic Teams (OAuth), OpenAI, Vertex, Bedrock, Foundry, and Ollama. Grounding controls let you feed the AI the current sentence, the chapter, or the entire book so far.

Long-press a word in the reader to ask "Who is X?" — useful for character/place lookups deep into a long serial.