Voice Tales

Inspiration

As a parent, bedtime stories are one of my favorite ways to connect with my daughter. But when I’m traveling or working late, she misses hearing my voice. I wanted to create something that could bridge that gap — so even when I’m not physically there, she can still fall asleep to the comfort of my voice, with a magical new story every night.

What it does

Voice Tales creates personalized bedtime stories in a parent’s voice.

• Parents set up a simple child profile (name, age, interests)
  
• Record a short guided voice session
  
• AI generates a new story — narrated back in the parent’s cloned voice
  
• Kids can enjoy these stories through a simple playback experience
  

This makes bedtime feel personal and magical even when a parent is away.

How we built it

The app is built with Kotlin Multiplatform, making it run across Android and iOS.

• Story generation: powered by large language models (LLMs)
  
• Voice cloning & playback: integrated with ElevenLabs
  
• Illustrations: generated with Stability AI for child-friendly visuals
  
• App architecture: designed for a smooth onboarding-to-playback loop, with careful handling of audio recordings and story storage
  

Challenges we ran into

• UI/UX design: As a developer, creating a kid-friendly yet simple interface was difficult. I had to iterate a lot to make the flow smooth and demo-ready.
  
• Timeboxing features: Ruthlessly prioritizing what to include in MVP versus what to defer was a constant challenge.
  

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a working end-to-end MVP in a short time: signup → story generation → voice playback
  
• Achieved the emotional goal — my daughter now has a new bedtime story in my voice (or her mother’s voice) every night
  
• Created something deeply personal, yet with potential to help many families
  

What's next for WonderTales

Short-term (Phase 2):

• Support multiple child profiles & family sharing
  
• Improve story generation variety and personalization
  
• Add offline playback and richer library features
  

Long-term vision:

• Integration with Alexa and smart devices
  
• Support for famous/favorite stories retold in the parent’s voice
  
• Enhanced visuals and illustrations alongside audio
  

Built With

• compose
• elevenlabs
• firebase
• kotlin
• ktor
• openai
• postgresql
• revenuecat
• stability