How to Set Up ReadLume for Hands-Free Web Novel Audio

If you follow a fast-moving serial on freewebnovel.com or novelfull.com, you know the problem. Chapters drop every day, sometimes twice, and your eyes can only take so much screen time before they start to fight back. This guide fixes that. ReadLume is a text-to-speech reader built for web-novel listeners, not a generic TTS tool with a new icon, and getting it configured takes under five minutes.

By the end, you'll have imported a novel by URL, chosen a voice, enabled auto-advance, and locked your phone while the chapters keep coming. Here's the whole flow.

1. Download the app and create your account

ReadLume is available now on Google Play for Android. Creating an account is quick: open the app, enter your email, confirm it, and you're in. The free tier gives you personal PDF and EPUB imports immediately. Web-novel URL import, auto-advance and the full hands-free feature set live on the paid plans, so check the pricing page for current tiers. Once you're signed in, head to the import screen; the rest of setup happens there.

2. Import your first chapter URL

ReadLume works with the platforms readers already use: freewebnovel.com and other free sites. The key detail is to copy the URL of the first chapter you want to start from, not the story's homepage. Importing at the chapter level lets ReadLume detect the chapter sequence and advance through the series on its own. Open the import screen, paste the URL, and tap Fetch. The app pulls the chapter text, strips ads and navigation clutter, and saves clean content to your library under the story title.

Which web novels work

One important limit to know: ReadLume works with free web novels only, the ones whose chapters are openly readable on the page. Content locked behind a paywall or a subscription, such as Wattpad or WebNovel's paid chapters, cannot be imported, because the text is not publicly accessible to fetch. Free sources work well, including freewebnovel.com, novelfull.com, fanmtl.com, readnovelmtl.com, asianovel.net, and novellive.com.

Prefer your own files? Upload EPUB and PDF directly instead. Both routes land in the same library, so imported web novels and personal files sit side by side. URL import is what makes this different from a generic file reader, no copy-pasting text, no downloading chapters one at a time.

3. Choose a voice and dial in the audio

ReadLume offers multiple natural voices. A neutral mid-range voice suits fast action serials where clarity matters; a warmer tone often works better for dialogue-heavy, character-driven stories. Tap Settings, open Voice, and preview a few, ideally against an actual paragraph from your novel rather than just the sample clip, since a voice that sounds fine in isolation can wear on you after three chapters.

Speed is the setting most people adjust first. New listeners tend to start at 1.0x and creep up as the voice becomes familiar; 1.25x to 1.5x is a common landing spot. Nudging the pitch a notch below default can reduce fatigue over long sessions without changing the voice's character. On Plus, Narrator Pro neural voices and word-level read-along add extra polish for longer sessions.

4. Enable auto-advance

When a chapter ends, ReadLume fetches the next one and starts playing automatically, no tapping, no returning to a browser, no hunting for your place. Look for an Auto-Advance or "continue to next chapter" toggle in Playback or Chapter settings. ReadLume queues the next chapter in the background during the final minutes of the current one, so there's no loading gap at the transition. You can also set a brief pause between chapters for a natural breath. If a story hasn't published its next chapter yet, ReadLume pauses and notifies you rather than stopping silently. For the full picture of how this works, see the app that reads the next chapter for you.

5. Go fully hands-free: background playback and lock-screen controls

Turn on Background Playback in the audio settings, and ReadLume keeps reading after you lock the phone, during a commute, at the gym, or any time your hands are busy. On Android, battery optimization can interrupt background apps, so make one change: open your phone's Battery settings, find ReadLume, and set it to Unrestricted (or exempt it from optimization). That one-time step keeps background playback reliable, though behavior varies a little by manufacturer. If audio still cuts out, our screen-off fix guide covers every setting.

• Play, pause, skip and rewind from the lock screen without unlocking
• Word-level highlighting keeps your place when the screen is on
• Progress syncs across devices on paid plans
• A one-time battery exemption keeps playback running with the screen off

You're set: what a session looks like from here

The whole flow is simple. Import a chapter URL, pick a voice and speed, turn on auto-advance and background playback, and lock your phone. ReadLume handles the rest, chapter after chapter, without you touching the screen again. That's what makes it different from dropping a file into a generic TTS app: URL import, chapter detection and hands-free playback working together as one system. The free tier covers personal PDF and EPUB files with no subscription; the hands-free web-novel workflow unlocks from $2.50/month with a 3-day free trial.