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Yash

WordPress TTS plugin — Google Wavenet voices, MP3 caching, text highlighting and Audio Schema SEO

by Marcin Żmuda · github.com/marcinzmuda/yash-wordpress-text-to-speech-plugin

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Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/marcinzmuda/yash-wordpress-text-to-speech-plugin/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

Readme

Yash

Yash — WordPress Text-to-Speech Plugin

Reads your articles aloud using Google Wavenet. MP3 caching, text highlighting, listening stats and Audio Schema SEO — all in one plugin.

WordPress PHP License Version Google Cloud

What is Yash?

Yash adds a clean audio player to your WordPress posts that reads articles aloud using Google Cloud Text-to-Speech (Wavenet). Unlike off-the-shelf solutions (GSpeech, AtlasVoice) — your API key stays yours, your audio files stay on your server, and the code is fully open to modify.

User opens an article
        ↓
  Clicks Play
        ↓
WordPress sends text to Google Cloud TTS
        ↓
  Google returns an MP3 file
        ↓
Plugin saves MP3 to server (cache)
        ↓
Browser plays audio locally
        ↓
Next visit → MP3 served from cache, zero API cost

Features

Feature Description
🎙 Google Wavenet Natural-sounding voice, independent of the user's browser or OS
💾 MP3 Cache Audio generated once, stored on your server — no repeated API costs
🖊 Text Highlighting Active paragraph highlights and page scrolls to the current reading position
⏩ Seek Click anywhere on the progress bar to jump to that position
🔄 Speed Control Change playback speed from 0.75× to 2.0× directly in the player
📊 Statistics Plays, completions, listening time, unique listeners — stored in your own DB
🔍 SEO Schema Auto-generated JSON-LD: Article + AudioObject + Speakable
🎨 Adaptive Design Player inherits colors from the active WordPress theme
🌙 Dark Mode Automatic switching via prefers-color-scheme

Requirements

  • WordPress 6.0+
  • PHP 7.4+
  • Google Cloud account with Cloud Text-to-Speech API enabled
  • Google Cloud API key

Installation

Via WordPress admin

Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin → yash.zip → Install → Activate

Via FTP / SSH

unzip yash.zip -d /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/

Then activate through the Plugins screen in WordPress admin.

Configuration

Step 1 — Get a Google Cloud API Key

  1. Go to console.cloud.google.com
  2. Create a new project
  3. APIs & Services → Library → search for Cloud Text-to-Speech API → Enable
  4. APIs & Services → Credentials → + Create Credentials → API Key
  5. Copy the generated key

Security tip: restrict the key to Cloud Text-to-Speech API only and add your domain as an HTTP referrer.

Billing note: Google requires a credit card on file, but you won't be charged until you exceed the free tier.

Step 2 — Plugin settings

WordPress → Settings → Yash → paste API key → choose voice → Save

Available Voices (Polish)

Voice Gender Notes
pl-PL-Wavenet-A Female ⭐ Recommended
pl-PL-Wavenet-B Male ✓
pl-PL-Wavenet-C Male ✓
pl-PL-Wavenet-D Female ✓
pl-PL-Wavenet-E Female ✓
pl-PL-Standard-A Female Lower quality, higher free limit

Neural2 voices are not available for Polish. Wavenet is the highest quality option.

Google Cloud TTS Pricing

Voice type Free tier Est. articles*
Wavenet 1,000,000 chars/month ~200 articles
Standard 4,000,000 chars/month ~800 articles

* Based on an average article length of ~5,000 characters.

Audio is cached — replaying an article does not consume API quota.

SEO

Once audio is generated, Yash automatically injects structured data into <head>:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Article title",
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Author Name" },
  "audio": {
    "@type": "AudioObject",
    "contentUrl": "https://yourdomain.com/.../post-1-chunk-0.mp3",
    "encodingFormat": "audio/mpeg",
    "duration": "PT4M30S"
  },
  "speakable": {
    "@type": "SpeakableSpecification",
    "cssSelector": ["h1", "article p:first-of-type"]
  }
}

This makes the post eligible for an audio rich result in Google Search. Validate with Rich Results Test.

Project Structure

yash/
├── yash.php                  # Main plugin file, hook registration
├── js/
│   └── tts.js                # Player: fetch audio, seek, highlighting, stats
├── css/
│   ├── style.css             # Player styles (adaptive to theme)
│   └── admin.css             # Admin panel styles
├── includes/
│   ├── class-cache.php       # MP3 file management on disk
│   └── class-stats.php       # DB table, write and read listening stats
└── assets/
    └── logo.png              # Plugin logo

Statistics Dashboard

The plugin logs every event to a custom database table:

Event Trigger
play User starts playback
complete User listens to the full article
pause User pauses or leaves the page

Dashboard: Settings → Yash → Statistics tab

Available views: 7 / 30 / 90 days, daily chart, top articles by plays, completion rate, average listening time.

License

Yash is free software released under the GPL v2 license or later, in line with the WordPress ecosystem standard.

Author

Marcin Żmuda marcinzmuda.pl · marcin.zmuda@embasy.pl

Read the full README on GitHub →