Listen to your newsletters, read aloud

Newsletters are some of the best writing in your inbox, and some of the longest. If they keep piling up unread, the fix may be to stop reading them and start listening. This page shows how to turn your newsletters into audio with Spokeninbox, a newsletter reader app built for listening, and covers the other ways to listen too.

Why listen to newsletters?

A good newsletter issue can take 10 or 15 minutes to read. Most people subscribe to several. That adds up to an hour or more of reading a week, and it has to happen while you are staring at a screen.

But you probably have plenty of time when your ears are free and your eyes are busy: walking, driving, cooking, doing the dishes, sitting on a train with your phone in your pocket. Listening moves your newsletters into that time. The writing is the same. You just stop needing to sit down for it.

If newsletters are only part of a bigger pile, our guide to dealing with too many emails may help as well.

How to turn newsletters into audio with Spokeninbox

Spokeninbox is an app for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and the web. It never logs in to your email. Instead, it gives you an address of your own, and you choose what to send there.

1. Get your address

Sign in with Apple, Google or email. The app gives you a private address like you@in.spokeninbox.com.

2. Send your newsletters to it

There are two ways, and you can mix them:

• Forward with a filter. Keep your subscriptions where they are and have your email provider forward certain senders automatically. This is the best option for newsletters you already get. See the Gmail steps below.
• Forward one issue by hand. Saw a long issue you want to hear later? Forward it to your Spokeninbox address like any other email.

3. Press Play

Tap a newsletter and press Play. The audio is made at that moment, not when the email arrives, and then it is saved on your phone. Lock your phone and keep listening, with play and pause on the lock screen. Stop halfway and the app remembers exactly where you were in that issue.

Forward newsletters with a Gmail filter

Gmail can forward only the emails that match a filter. You set this up on a computer, in Gmail on the web.

First, add your Spokeninbox address

• In Gmail, open Settings, then See all settings, then the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
• Click Add a forwarding address and enter your Spokeninbox address.
• Gmail sends a confirmation code to that address. It shows up in the Spokeninbox app. Copy it back into Gmail to verify.
• If you only want newsletters forwarded, leave automatic forwarding of all mail turned off. The filter does the work.

Then create the filter

• Click Show search options in the search box at the top of Gmail.
• In From, enter a newsletter's sending address. To cover several newsletters in one filter, separate the addresses with OR.
• Click Create filter, check Forward it, choose your Spokeninbox address, and click Create filter again.

The filter only applies to new emails. For issues already in your inbox, forward them by hand.

Outlook and iCloud Mail can do the same thing with a rule: pick the sender as the condition and forwarding as the action. The Spokeninbox app also walks you through the Gmail setup.

What clean narration means for newsletters

Newsletters are built to be looked at. Read aloud word for word, they are full of things nobody wants to hear: “View in browser,” share buttons, long tracking links, sponsor messages, social icons, and a legal footer with an unsubscribe link and a postal address.

Before Spokeninbox reads a newsletter, it strips all of that out:

• Sponsor blocks and ads are removed.
• Buttons and menus like “Read online” or “Share” are skipped.
• Tracking links and raw web addresses are not read out letter by letter.
• Legal footers with unsubscribe text and addresses are dropped.

What is left is the writing, read in a natural AI voice. It also reads English, Spanish and Russian newsletters, detecting the language of each issue and using a matching voice.

Works with Substack, beehiiv, Ghost and the rest

Spokeninbox does not connect to any newsletter platform. It doesn't need to. Substack, beehiiv, Ghost, Buttondown, Kit and nearly every other platform deliver issues as regular email, and anything that arrives as email can be forwarded to your address. The same goes for plain newsletters sent from a normal inbox, like a school or club update.

Listening to Substack newsletters

Substack issues work like any other newsletter: forward them with a filter or by hand. Paid posts you receive in full by email can be forwarded in full too. Substack's own app also has a listening feature, covered below.

Tips for a good listening queue

• Pick the newsletters you actually read. Forwarding every promo email turns your queue into another inbox. A filter for the handful of writers you like works better.
• Add senders one at a time. When a new issue arrives from a newsletter you want to hear, use Filter messages like these in Gmail's menu to make a filter for that sender in a few clicks.
• Start a long issue before you leave. Press Play at home, then lock your phone. You can pause and pick up later without losing your place.
• Know the limits. Attachments are not read, emails larger than 2 MB are turned away, and there is a daily fair-use limit.

Other ways to listen to newsletters

Spokeninbox is not the only option. Depending on what you read, one of these may be enough.

The Substack app

The Substack app for iPhone and Android can read posts aloud with text-to-speech. Open a post and tap the play icon at the top right, and it plays in the background like a podcast. According to Substack, it works on most publications but not all, only for posts written in English, and only in the app, not on the website. If you read mostly Substack, try this first.

The writer's own audio

Some writers record a voiceover of each issue, and some publish a podcast version of their newsletter. When that exists, it is usually the nicest way to listen, since you hear the author. Look for a play button at the top of the issue or a podcast link in the footer.

Speak Screen on iPhone, Select to Speak on Android

Your phone can read any open email aloud. On iPhone, turn on Speak Screen and swipe down with two fingers. On Android, use Select to Speak. Both read everything on screen, menus and footers included, and you have to start each issue by hand. Our guide to having your emails read aloud covers these tools in full.

Readwise Reader

Readwise Reader is a read-later app that gives you a custom email address for newsletters, much like Spokeninbox, and has a Listen button that reads documents aloud. It is a strong choice if you also want to highlight and take notes. It is a paid subscription after a free trial.

ElevenReader

ElevenReader, from ElevenLabs, is a reading app for iPhone, Android and the web that reads articles, PDFs and ebooks in AI voices. You bring in content by pasting a link or text, so it works for newsletters that have a web version, but it does not collect them from your email.

A newsletter reader app built for listening

Spokeninbox does one thing: it turns the email you send it into clean audio.

• Any newsletter that arrives as email, from any platform.
• No access to your mailbox. You forward what you want, and that is all it sees.
• Clean narration without sponsor blocks, buttons, footers or links.
• Lock-screen playback and your exact spot saved in every issue.
• English, Spanish and Russian, detected for each email.

Questions

Still stuck on setup? The support page has more help.