Starting it
Open an article and select Listen. Playback begins from the top of the story. Stop returns the control to its resting state; the article stays where you were.
App manual
Reading, listening, and keeping articles
The Factlen apps carry the same reporting as this site, with three things a browser cannot do: narration that keeps playing when the screen is off, articles kept for reading without a connection, and text-to-speech that runs entirely on your device.
Listen reads an article aloud and continues when you lock the phone.
Opened and saved articles stay readable with no network.
Narration is generated on the device. The article text is not sent anywhere to be spoken.
Listen
Narration that survives a locked screen
Open any article and use the Listen control. Playback appears on the lock screen, on Bluetooth headphones, on Wear and in Android Auto, and continues while you use other apps.
While the screen is locked
Narration keeps going. Standard media controls — play, pause, skip — appear on the lock screen and on connected headphones, so a story can be finished while walking or driving without unlocking the phone.
Which voice you get
The app picks the best installed voice for the language automatically, preferring the neural quality tier, and re-checks whenever you install a new one. On iPhone, iPad and Mac these are added in Settings under Spoken Content; on Android in the system text-to-speech settings.
If Listen says it is unavailable
The device has no installed voice for the language. Adding one in the system settings is enough — the app notices it without being restarted.
Permissions and privacy
Common questions
Why does the Android app ask for the media playback foreground service permission?
Because Listen keeps speaking after you leave the app or lock the screen, and Android requires that permission for any audio that continues in the background. It is used for article narration and nothing else. Without it, narration would stop the moment the screen went dark — which is exactly what happens on the website.
Is the article sent to a server to be read aloud?
No. Narration uses the text-to-speech engine already on your device, so the article text is not uploaded and Listen works with no connection.
Does the app work offline?
Articles you have opened are kept on the device and stay readable without a connection, and saved articles are kept deliberately. Listen works offline too, because the voice runs locally.
Does the app track me?
No. The apps present no tracking permission request, never read the advertising identifier, and request only non-personalised advertising. Nothing is declared as used to track you.