Questions and answers
Everything here is true of Chippy as it is today. If something changes, this page changes with it.
What is Chippy?
A small app that lives in your Mac's menu bar. Select any text anywhere, tap the right Option key, and a real voice starts reading it to you, with each word lit as it is spoken. You never leave the window you were in.
What does it read?
Anything you can select: a draft you are writing, an email, a dense web page, what your coding agent just wrote. The selection goes to the voice exactly as it is. There is one setting that can change the words, and it is off.
Why the right Option key?
Because it is one key, it is under your thumb, and almost nothing else uses it. Tap it and Chippy speaks; there is no window to find first.
What happens after the voice stops?
Everything you have heard is kept in history, a folder on your Mac. Open it and play any of it again without generating it twice. Click a word to jump to it; the speed goes up to two times.
Does it work offline?
No. The text you select is sent over the internet to be spoken. Without a connection there is no voice.
What happens to the text I select?
It is sent to be spoken and it is not kept. What comes back, the audio and the timing of each word, is kept on your Mac in history, and nowhere else.
Which voices and languages does it have?
A set of voices to choose from in Settings, and the default is Carina. Today it speaks English.
Which Macs does it run on?
A Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 13 or later. It is not on Windows, iPhone or iPad.
What does it need permission for?
One permission, Accessibility. That is how Chippy reads the text you selected in another app. The first run asks for it and shows you where to grant it.
What does it cost?
There is a free tier, and the paid plans are on the pricing page. Nothing is on sale yet; when that changes, you hear it from the address you gave, once.
How do I get it?
Join the waitlist with your email address. There is no public build yet, so you get a confirmation now and one more email the moment there is a build. There is no newsletter.
Do I need a password?
No. Your email address is the whole account. When you need to sign in, you get a link that works once and then expires.
What do you keep about me?
Your address, when it went on the list, your sign-ins, your downloads, and the random id the app signs in with, which is how your account page shows your usage. Feedback you send carries only that id, so it cannot be found by your address. The privacy policy has all of it.
Can I delete my account?
Yes. Sign in, and at the foot of your account page there is Delete my account. One confirmation, one press, and your address and everything filed under it are gone at once. No email is sent about it.
Can I stop the emails?
Every email Chippy sends has a link at the bottom to stop them. A sign-in link you ask for yourself still comes, because you asked for it.
How do I tell you something is wrong?
In the app, open Feedback. It attaches the recording you were listening to, and one click sends it to me. Or reply to any email Chippy sends you.
Who makes this?
I am Z. I make and run Chippy alone; there is no company behind it. Why I made it is its own page, in my words.
Is there an age limit?
No. Chippy is for anyone who wants to hear what is on their screen, children included. Accounts are for people 13 and up, so if you are setting it up for a younger child, use your own address: the account is yours and the app is theirs. If you tell me an address on the list is a child's own, I delete it.
Join the waitlist to hear when you can install it.