SpeakUpdates

Using built-in browser's Text2Speach engine to speak realtime updates of data

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Airtable block "SpeakUpdates"

Airtable block addon that allows users, by using Browser built-in Text-To-Speech engine, listen for updates in realtime. (Initial version only have RecordAdded/Removed events detection)

Inspiration

I was thinking about "Activity Feed" topic and "viewing all the changes being made to records in real-time" part. And I realized that a lot of users would like to listen spoken text of those events. Simple sound alarm is, well, too simple (besides, people nowadays don't pay attention to those sounds, since there are overload of them). Besides, TTS of events could help people with disabilities.

Inspired by airtable chime block - but with TTS. A lot of users wanted this functionality. No third-party services for voice used, so no messing with API-keys/generation-download-wait-time and stuff like that.

How I built it

it was crazy two weeks (I only read about contest about two weeks ago)

What it does

  • Speak realtime updates: as long as block is active!
  • Record added/removed: only those events. But you can use airtable views with filters to have some customizations
  • Fine-tuning: choose tables/views. Configure what fields to speak, alias for field names, type of Source to speak. More to come
  • Easy to use: not much in UI, just add trigger in settings

Challenges I ran into

no experience working with React. No experience with Airtable API. Didn't tested on MacOs at all, so probably Safari wouldn't work, or any browser on Mac.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Tested on Windows 10 Chrome/Firefox/Edge - all good. It does really working! I can hear content of incoming record added instantly!

What I learned

Airtable Rules!

What's next for Speak Updates

  • more events: Record update
  • MacOS: I hope to make it work there too (who knows, maybe it already working???)
  • speed: a lot of speed-up in UI is possible
  • nice UI: with dedicated UI widgets
  • internationalization: user could choose lang for different triggers
  • more templates: in resulting text to speak
  • sound alarm: probably user would like to have some "Ding" first, and then text
  • 3rd-party TTS services: who knows maybe it would be good?

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