HN Showcase
Back to browse
SuperUtter – A lightweight macOS TTS app (Kokoro local and ElevenLabs)

SuperUtter – A lightweight macOS TTS app (Kokoro local and ElevenLabs)

by jotaefea·Apr 8, 2026·2 points·0 comments
Visit ProjectView on HN

AI Analysis

●●SolidCozySlick

Kokoro CoreML TTS in menu bar, but macOS already has built-in TTS.

Strengths
  • •Fully local Kokoro inference, ~99MB download, works offline
  • •Native menu bar app with global hotkeys, no Dock icon
  • •API keys stored in macOS Keychain, text never leaves machine
Weaknesses
  • •macOS has built-in TTS, Speechify and others already serve this
  • •Workflow niche is narrow, long-form TTS handled by other tools
Category
Productivity
Target Audience

Mac users wanting quick text-to-speech for snippets

Similar To

Speechify · NaturalReader · macOS Speak Selection

Post Description

Hi HN,

I’ve been seeing a lot of great speech-to-text (STT) tools lately, but I found myself wanting the opposite: a dead-simple way to turn text into high-quality audio without leaving my workflow.

I built SuperUtter to be a non-obtrusive macOS utility for reading back short snippets of text.

Key features: * Local-first: It uses the Kokoro model to generate high-quality speech locally on your Mac. No latency, no cost, and works offline. * Cloud option: If you prefer ElevenLabs, you can plug in your API key.

Workflow-focused: Designed for short snippets—emails, code comments, or quick proofreading—rather than long-form articles.

Would love to hear your feedback!

Similar Projects