Most reminder apps post a silent notification. SpeakAlert plays the reminder out loud, so you
hear it even when the phone is in your pocket or across the room.
Features
- Reminders that talk. Record your voice, type text for text-to-speech, or pick any audio
file. Speech uses the reminder's own language (a Hindi reminder is spoken in Hindi).
- Flexible repeats. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom intervals (every 30 minutes,
every 3 days). Repeats can end never, on a date, or after a number of times.
- Reminds until done. An optional follow-up check re-alerts until you mark the reminder Done.
Full-screen lock-screen alerts have Done, Silence and Snooze buttons.
- Reliable delivery. Exact alarms, rescheduling after reboot, a missed-reminder inbox,
tone-only mode, optional Do Not Disturb bypass, and battery-optimisation guidance for
restrictive phones. Reminders can optionally be delivered as alarm clocks, which phones'
battery savers do not hold back.
- Private playback. Play reminders through the earpiece or Bluetooth headphones.
- Widgets and Wear OS. A quick-add widget, an upcoming-reminders widget, and alerts on
Wear OS watches.
- Backup and restore. Exports every reminder, voice recordings included.
- 12 languages. English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Vietnamese,
Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Greek and Malayalam, with right-to-left layout support.
- Fully offline. No account, no analytics, no network calls for reminders. Data stays on
the device.
Building
Requirements:
- Android Studio (Ladybug or newer) or the Android SDK command-line tools
- JDK 17
- Android SDK 36
git clone https://github.com/ghostgramlabs/SpeakAlert.git
cd SpeakAlert
./gradlew assembleDebug # Windows: gradlew.bat assembleDebug
The debug APK lands in app/build/outputs/apk/debug/. Install it on a device or emulator
running Android 8.0 (API 26) or later:
./gradlew installDebug
Debug builds need no configuration. Only release builds need a signing key (see
Release signing).
Running tests
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest
Unit tests live in app/src/test and run on the JVM. Exact-alarm and notification behaviour
also needs testing on real devices; docs/REMINDER_RELIABILITY_TEST_PLAN.md
lists the manual checks.
Release signing
Release builds read their signing key from local.properties, which git ignores:
speakalert.storeFile=your-release-key.jks
speakalert.storePassword=...
speakalert.keyAlias=...
speakalert.keyPassword=...
storeFile is resolved relative to the app/ directory. Never commit a keystore or its
passwords.
Project structure
The app is a single Gradle module written in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose, Room, DataStore,
AlarmManager, WorkManager and Media3, following an MVVM layout.
app/src/main/java/com/ghostgramlabs/speakalert/
├── alarm/ Exact-alarm scheduling, alarm receivers, boot rescheduling
├── audio/ Voice recording, processing, playback
├── data/ Room database, DAOs, repositories, backup/restore
├── domain/ Domain models and recurrence logic
├── service/ Foreground playback service and text-to-speech
├── ui/ Compose screens: home, add/edit, details, alert, settings
├── widget/ Home-screen widgets
└── util/ Shared helpers
docs/ Website served at ghostgramlabs.com/SpeakAlert (GitHub Pages)
store/ Play Store listing, screenshots and icons
tools/ Python scripts that generate the icon, screenshots and promo video
Translations are in app/src/main/res/values-*/strings.xml.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|
RECORD_AUDIO | Record voice reminders |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS | Show reminder alerts (Android 13+) |
SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM, USE_EXACT_ALARM | Fire reminders at the exact minute |
USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT | Full-screen alert on the lock screen |
FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK | Keep playback running while a reminder speaks |
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED | Reschedule reminders after a restart |
ACCESS_NOTIFICATION_POLICY | Optional Do Not Disturb bypass |
REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS | Ask to be exempted from battery limits that delay alarms |
BLUETOOTH_CONNECT | Route private playback to Bluetooth headphones |
WAKE_LOCK, VIBRATE | Wake the device and vibrate on alerts |
Documentation
Contributing
Bug reports, translations and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.
To report a security problem, follow SECURITY.md instead of opening a public issue.
Everyone taking part is expected to follow the code of conduct.
License
SpeakAlert is released under the Apache License 2.0. You may use, modify and
redistribute it, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice and the
NOTICE file, which credits GhostGram Labs.
The SpeakAlert name and icon are not covered by the license. If you publish a fork, give it its
own name, icon and application ID.
Made by GhostGram Labs.
