iOS 8, Text-to-Speech, Premium, and Profiles:

We just launched Instapaper 6 for iOS and Instapaper 4 for Android. It’s a huge update several months in the making, and we’re extremely proud of the result.

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Text-to-Speech

One of our users’ most common feature requests has been for a text-to-speech function, and we’re happy to announce that we now have text-to-speech support in both our iOS and Android apps! Text-to-speech is accessible directly from the share sheet in Instapaper and you can control the playback right on your lock screen.

Text-to-speech is a free feature but if you have an Instapaper Premium membership, you can create playlists of articles to be read aloud back to you! A text-to-speech playlist may be especially useful for people who like to listen to interesting things as they drive, bike, run, or work out.

(Via Instapaper Blog)

A few weeks ago I was reading an article in Instapaper on my way home from work. I had to stop my reading as I reached the point on my commute home where I transfer from train to bus and I knew I’d get home faster if I just walked the rest of the way. It’s difficult to walk and read at the same time but then a thought hit me: why couldn’t I use the accessibility features of iOS to have the built-in text-to-speech function read my article for me? It worked, but it wasn’t elegant – I had to select the text of the entire article, tap and hold to bring up the context menu, and select text-to-speech. I had to do that a few times while I worked out a natural-sounding speed for the speech, and if I made a mis-tap I had to reselect the entire text of the article and try again. By the time I had things worked out the way I wanted I was already home.

I can see this feature definitely helping me make my way through my longer reads so I’m looking forward to giving it a try.