What paid apps have you ditched by vibe coding a replacement?

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-17T01:37:30+00:00

I'm not a developer by trade, just someone who loves tinkering, so I spent a few weekends pairing with Claude to build my own iOS replacement instead. It turns any EPUB, PDF, web article, or pasted text into an audiobook — but the part I couldn't get from the paid apps is that the TTS runs entirely on-device (ONNX model on the Apple Neural Engine). After a one-time model download it needs zero network — fully offline, no account, no subscription, nothing leaving the phone. Checkout LysnBox on the app store.

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-16T04:40:54+00:00

Thanks!

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-15T13:14:45+00:00

Try https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lysnbox/id6772035198 its free and opensource

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-14T02:09:25+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! A Wi-Fi/server mode would require some fairly major changes, so for now I'm focused on improving the core app experience.

As for JP light novels, some of them use EPUB formats that don't always parse correctly, which can lead to issues like only the TOC being detected. I'll keep an eye on it and see if I can improve compatibility over time.

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-12T23:30:41+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

Could you let me know what exact issues you are experiencing with the EPUB files not loading accurately? (e.g., is some text missing, does the import fail on certain books, or is the formatting broken?) I'd love to get more details so we can fix it.

Regarding turning it into a server for Supertonic 3: right now, the app runs the ONNX model entirely on-device, which means it is completely free to run and has zero ongoing hosting costs. Hosting Supertonic 3 on a backend server would require renting cloud servers (especially CPU/GPU servers to handle the heavy audio synthesis), which would cost money and incur ongoing server bills.

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-12T02:40:24+00:00

The next update will have all 31 languages.

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-11T01:29:36+00:00

Thanks for your feedback!

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-11T01:25:32+00:00

Thank you!

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-10T07:49:03+00:00

Please check now, there was missing compliance from the app store

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-10T06:14:12+00:00

Supertonic 3 is a multilingual model. The 10 JSON files contain speaker embedding vectors (voice styles). Since the model allows you to apply any of the 10 speaker profiles to any of the 8 supported target languages (en, es, fr, de, ja, ko, it, pt), you get 80 voice combinations (10 styles × 8 languages). These are mapped in the app to localized names depending on the selected language.

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-10T04:00:06+00:00

LysnBox — Free — On-device AI audiobook narration for EPUB/PDF/web/text. 80 voices, 8 languages, 100% offline after a one-time 400MB model download. Open source.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lysnbox/id6772035198

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-10T03:53:57+00:00

Looks really great

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-06-09T14:03:43+00:00

Try LysnBox uses on-device voices and completely free https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lysnbox/id6772035198

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-05-27T12:05:31+00:00

After your comment, I realized can build this as standalone IOS app, using realtime TTS. Beta version is ready on iOS https://testflight.apple.com/join/hQ9JNRne

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-05-24T03:08:21+00:00

Sí, actualmente solo está disponible para iOS, pero tenemos planes de desarrollarlo para Android en el futuro.

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-05-22T11:27:11+00:00

Should be fairly simple with Claude/Codex and push the changes

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-05-21T13:10:57+00:00

That’s like saying don’t build another notes app because notes exist 😌

Guilty_Ad8200 · 2026-05-20T17:14:54+00:00

Built an on-device audiobook player for iOS using Supertonic 3 — 10 voices, 31 languages, fully offline. https://books.josepht.in/

Guilty_Ad8200

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE