Webpages narrated for you and sent to your Podcast app

Signup/Login

  1. Download Tuxpin from the Appstore, and open it.

    tuxpin startpage ios
  2. Click "Start Here"

  3. Enter your email address to have a login code sent to you.

    login page ios

Adding Podcast Feed

The first thing you need to do, after signin, is add your personal Tuxpin podcast feed to your Podcast app so that you can listen to Tuxpin’s narrations as a podcast feed.

Note
You can also listen to narrations directly in Tuxpin, but this is just intended for listening to samples of your narrations. For the best listening experience, you should use your Podcast app, as they are optimized for listening to audio.
Choosing a Podcast App

If you haven’t used a podcast app before, do not fear. There are many good, free, apps available. Some popular ones include Pocketcasts, Podcast Addict, and Downcast.

The first time you log into Tuxpin, it will prompt you to set up your your podcast app as shown below:

setup podcast card
Tip
If this is not your first login, and you don’t see this message, you can always access the "Setup Podcast" form via the app’s side menu. It will be labelled "Set up Podcast App"

This will display a list of some of the more popular podcast apps.

podcast setup form android

Alternatively, you can press the button corresponding to your preferred podcast app. If you don’t see your preferred app in the list, then scroll to the bottom of the form where you will find a link that can be copied and pasted into your podcast app to add the feed manually:

manual podcast feed link
Note
You may need to refer to your podcast app’s documentation to find out how to add Podcast feeds manually/via URL.

After clicking the appropriate button, it should open your podcast app and prompt you to add the feed. In Podcast Addict, this prompt looks like:

podcast addict add feed android
Tip
Podcast Addict has a checkbox for "Private feed" that would be appropriate to check in this dialog, but other apps may not have this field.

Complete the "Add podcast" process (exact instructions vary depending on your podcast app). E.g. In Podcast Addict, you can simply press the Add button.

You should now see "Tuxpin" listed in your "Library", and the "Welcome to Tuxpin" message should appear near the top of your "Listen Now" tab.

podcast addict tuxpin feed
Figure 1. Tuxpin personal podcast as it appears in Podcast Addict app.

Narrating Webpages

There are two workflows for narrating webpages in Tuxpin:

  1. Directly from your web browser or social media app, by sharing a page to Tuxpin.

  2. Pasting a URL into the "Narrate" field in the Tuxpin app.

Sharing Webpages to Tuxpin

Wath a one minute video showing you how to share webpages to Tuxpin then listen to their narration in your podcast app.

The easiest way to narrate webpages is directly from your web browser or social media app. Suppose you are reading a webpage and decide that you would rather listen to it in your podcast app. Simply press the "Share" button in your app, and select Tuxpin from the list of apps that can be shared.

The location of the "Share" button may vary from app to app. In Chrome, you can access the "Share" button from the app menu in the upper right:

chrome android menu with share selected

Pressing "Share" will cause the "Share" sheet to pop up from the bottom as shown here:

android share sheet 1

If you’re lucky, Tuxpin will already be among the apps listed as targets that you can share to. In the above screenshot you can see "News Feed", "Gmail", "Bluetooth", etc…​ in this list, but no Tuxpin. Scroll this list until you get to the end of it, an you’ll see a "More…​" butto.

android share dialog more

Press this button, to see a full list of app share targets. Tuxpin will be listed among these:

android share targets

Press the Tuxpin icon.

This will open Tuxpin and start processing the narration.

After a few seconds you should see either a "Success" message, and you’ll notice that your Tuxpin playlist now lists the webpage you just shared first in your playlist. Similarly, if you open your Podcasts app, and navigate to the "Tuxpin" podcast in your library, you should see this webpage ready to listen to.

Note
You will likely need to "Refresh" the Tuxpin podcast feed in order to see this new narration. Generally podcast apps will have a "Pull-down-to-refresh" option to initiate a refresh.
Important
It may take up to 30 seconds before the narration is complete. If you try to listen to it before that, it may fail.
Tip

Next narration (from Chrome) will require fewer steps because the Chrome menu "remembers" that last app you shared to, and provides a direct share link in the app menu.

android chrome share menu short tuxpin link

Just press the "Tuxpin" icon on the right and it will initiate the narration directly.

Pasting URLs into Tuxpin

An alternative approach for narrating webpages is to paste the URL directly into the Tuxpin app’s "Narrate" field:

narrate field

After copying a URL to the clipboard, you can press the paste icon button in the right side of the narration field.

Then press the "Narrate" button.

Tuxpin will then begin processing the webpage. After a few seconds it sill display a dialog as follows:

processing dialog ios

This means that Tuxpin was able to access the web page, and the narration process has begun. Usually narrations take under 10 seconds, and they will almost never take longer than 30 seconds to complete.

Click "OK", and you’ll be returned to your playlist, with the page you just narrated listed at the top.

playlist after add
Note
Although the article is listed in your playlist, the narration may still be in process. You may have to wait up to 30 seconds before you can listen to it.

Now, if you open your Podcasts app, and navigate to the "Tuxpin" podcast in your library, you should see this webpage ready to listen to.

Note
You will likely need to "Refresh" the Tuxpin podcast feed in order to see this new narration. Generally podcast apps will have a "Pull-down-to-refresh" option to initiate a refresh.
Important
It may take up to 30 seconds before the narration is complete. If you try to listen to it before that, it may fail.

Upgrading to Premium

Free Tuxpin accounts include 5 credits per month, which is enough to have approximately 5 news articles per month. Webpages with more content may require more than 1 credit to narrate. If you find this limit to be insufficient for your needs, you upgrade to Tuxpin Premium to obtain 500 credits per month.

To upgrade, you can press the "Get Tuxpin Premium" link that appears below the "Narrate" field:

get tuxpin premium button

This will open your "Account" page, which includes information about your current subscription level, and the number of credits you have remaining.

tuxpin account page upgrade

Press the "Upgrade to Premium" button, to upgrade to premium. This will prompt you to confirm the in-app purchase through the app store. After you have approved the purchase, you will be returned the "Account" page, and the message should now say:

"You have used 0 of your 500 narration credits this month".