LuceVoce

What stays on your device

LuceVoce has no account, no server of its own and no tracking. This page lists exactly when it goes online, what it sends, and what your sync folder holds.

Windows
Yes
Mac
Yes
iPad
Yes
iPhone
Yes
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LuceVoce has no account, no server of its own, no adverts and no tracking. It sends no usage data, statistics or crash reports anywhere. Reading aloud, translation, text recognition, the dictionary, and the speech recognition of voice notes and voice commands all happen on your device. The full privacy policy says it all in more detail.

What stays on your device

  • Your library, the book files and LuceVoce's copies of them.
  • Your reading places, highlights, notes, bookmarks, tags and ratings.
  • The voices. Speech is made on your device, including the natural voices, so the text of your books is never sent anywhere to be read aloud.
  • Translations, made on your device once the language is downloaded.
  • Text recognition of scanned PDF pages, which uses your device's own built-in recognition.
  • Word lookups in your dictionaries.
  • Your settings.
  • LuceVoce's own log files. They are there to find problems and are never sent anywhere.

When LuceVoce goes online

LuceVoce goes online only when you use one of these:

  • To download the natural voices, a Piper voice, a speech model for voice notes (Windows) or a translation language. The file comes from LuceVoce's own place on GitHub; nothing about you is sent.
  • To open, search or download free books. Once a week, Free books fetches Project Gutenberg's public catalogue so it can search it on your device. Your search words go to the free library you search. See Get free books and audiobooks.
  • To add a web page by its address or from the clipboard. The request goes to that website. See Save web articles and use the Reading List.
  • To look up a book's details, if you turned that on in Settings > Library. The title, the first author and the ISBN are sent. See Edit book details and covers.
  • To ask Wiktionary about a word, if you turned that on in Settings > Study. Just that word is sent. See Look up a word.
  • To search the web or find more books. Your own browser opens the search; LuceVoce sends nothing. See Search the web and find more books.
  • To sync with your other devices, if you turned that on. LuceVoce writes small files to your own cloud folder; its maker cannot read them.
  • To buy the unlock in a store edition. The Microsoft Store or the App Store handles the payment; LuceVoce never sees your payment details.

Each request carries your device's internet address, as any request does. LuceVoce adds nothing that identifies you or your device.

The voice engine inside LuceVoce has its own usage reporting, and LuceVoce switches it off.

A few links open a web page in your browser, and only when you click them, such as the links to the projects LuceVoce is built with, in Settings > About. On Windows, if a Microsoft component that LuceVoce needs is missing, LuceVoce offers to open Microsoft's download page for it.

Your sync folder

Sync is off until you turn it on. When it is on, LuceVoce doesn't talk to any server. It writes files into the folder you chose, and your cloud service (iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or another) moves them between your devices, under that service's own privacy terms.

The folder holds:

  • the name you gave each device;
  • for each book you read: its title, author and format, a fingerprint of its file, the chapter you reached and a few words of text around your place;
  • your highlights and notes, with the quoted text, and your bookmarks;
  • each book's tags, rating, folder and the status you set, and your smart shelves, unless you turn that off;
  • your theme, reading speed and voices, unless you turn that off;
  • with Share the books too on, copies of the books themselves, and with the other switches on, your audiobooks and the voices you added.

Keep the sync folder private. Anyone who can open it can read your notes, and with book sharing on, your books.

Good to know

  • The microphone is used only while you record a voice note or give a voice command. Voice notes are written down on your device, and only the words are kept, never the recording. Nothing you say is sent anywhere. See Record a voice note.
  • Voice commands are heard on your device, and nothing you say is kept. See Control reading with your voice.
  • Your device's own voices belong to Windows or Apple's systems. LuceVoce uses them on your device like any other app.
  • Dictionary packs you add stay on the device where you added them.
  • To take your data out of the cloud, turn off sync and delete the LuceVoce sync folder inside the folder you chose.
  • On Windows, the uninstaller asks whether to delete the library, the downloaded voices and the settings as well.

Related

  • 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.
  • Get free books and audiobooksHow to find and download free books and audiobooks from Project Gutenberg, LibriVox, Wikisource and more inside LuceVoce, and browse Gutenberg's catalogue.
  • Translate a word or a passageHow to translate a word in its sentence or a whole passage on your device in LuceVoce, which languages it covers and how big each language download is.
  • Look up a wordHow to see a word's definition, pronunciation, examples and synonyms while you read, save it to your notes, and add dictionaries for other languages.
  • Continue reading on another deviceHow to pause a book on one device and pick it up at the same sentence on another, through a folder in your own iCloud Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox.
  • 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