LuceVoce

Get the natural voices (Kokoro)

Why the natural Kokoro voices are worth the one-time download, how big it is on each device, which languages they read and where to start it.

Windows
Yes
Mac
Yes
iPad
Yes
iPhone
Yes
Show steps for

The natural voices, called Kokoro, sound like a person reading to you: they breathe, pause where a reader would pause, and rise and fall with the sentence. They are not inside the app when you install it. They come as one download, the first time you ask for them, and then work offline for good.

Know why there is a download

LuceVoce can read with two very different kinds of voices:

  • The natural voices (Kokoro): 54 voices that sound like a person reading. They need the download.
  • Your device's own voices, the ones that come with Windows, macOS, iOS and iPadOS: clear, and they speak many languages, but they sound like a machine reading.

The natural voices would make the app about three times larger for everyone, even for people who only use their device's own voices. So LuceVoce lets you choose.

The download is:

  • about 410 MB on the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad;
  • about 340 MB on Windows.

On the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad, the same download also brings what the natural voices need to run on the Neural Engine, the part of the chip built for this kind of work. That makes them several times faster and much gentler on the battery.

Languages and voices

Kokoro has 54 voices in:

  • English, with American and British voices
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Italian
  • Portuguese
  • Hindi
  • Japanese
  • Chinese

For other languages, LuceVoce uses a Piper voice or your device's own voices. See Choose a voice.

Download the natural voices

You can start the download in three places. They all do the same thing.

  • In the welcome guide, the first time you open LuceVoce, on the Download the natural voices step.
  • In the voice picker of a book: while they are missing, the list starts with a box that says The natural voices are not downloaded yet, with a Download button.
  • In Settings: open Settings > Voice. Under Natural voices (Kokoro), choose Download.

While it downloads, LuceVoce shows the progress in MB, and you can choose Cancel. You can start reading right away: until the download is finished, your device's own voices read for you, and the natural voices take over as soon as they arrive.

When the download is done, Settings > Voice says Kokoro voices are installed, and the voices appear in the voice list with the KOKORO label.

On the iPhone and the iPad the download carries on even if you switch to another app. If LuceVoce was closed meanwhile, it picks the download up the next time you open it.

On a Mac, iPhone or iPad that already has the natural voices without the Neural Engine part, Settings > Voice offers that part alone, as a smaller download.

If the download stops

If the download is interrupted, LuceVoce shows The download stopped with the reason. Choose Try again to start it again.

Good to know

  • You download the natural voices once per device. After that they need no internet connection.
  • The download is a file being fetched: nothing about you or your books is sent.
  • Until the download is done, natural voices show needs the Kokoro download in the voice list.
  • If the voice sounds robotic, the natural voices are not downloaded yet.
  • To change how a voice pronounces a word, add a rule in Settings > Pronunciation. See Fix how a word is pronounced.

Related

  • Choose a voiceHow to pick the voice for a book, listen before you choose, set a voice for each language, and have passages in another language read by their own voice.
  • Piper voices and voices you addHow to download the Piper voices LuceVoce offers for French, Italian and Spanish, and add a Piper voice of your own from a file, with its licence shown.
  • Install LuceVoce and set it upWhat LuceVoce needs on Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, how to install it or use the portable copy, and what the welcome guide asks the first time.
  • Fix common problemsWhat to do when the voice sounds robotic, a language has no voice, a book won't open, a scanned PDF is silent or your place doesn't reach another device.

Last updated 13 November 2026