Hear Sightline in a voice you chose.

Before you start.

Sightline 1.4.0 or newer

Open Sightline, then Settings, then About & updates. It shows your version. If it's older, tap Check for updates, or download the latest from the Sightline page.

An ElevenLabs account

You'll make one in step 1. ElevenLabs bills the speech to that account by the amount of text, so check their pricing page for what your plan includes. Sightline doesn't take a cut and isn't involved in the billing.

A few minutes

Mostly the first time. Once it's set up you never see it again.

1. Make an ElevenLabs account.

Go to elevenlabs.io and sign up. If you'd like to help Tech Standpoint, you can sign up through this referral link instead. That is a referral link: if you sign up through it, Tech Standpoint may earn a commission, at no cost to you. Sightline works exactly the same whichever way you sign up.

2. Optional: use your own voice.

If you only want one of ElevenLabs's ready-made voices, skip this step. To hear Sightline in your own voice:

1. In your ElevenLabs dashboard, choose Voices on the left, then the plus icon.
2. Pick Instant Voice Clone.
3. Upload, or record, about one to two minutes of clear speech. ElevenLabs asks for one speaker, no background noise or echo, and a steady tone and volume, and advises against going over three minutes.
4. Name the voice, confirm that you have the right to clone it, and save.

Only clone your own voice, or one you have clear permission to use. Not every ElevenLabs plan includes voice cloning, and ElevenLabs's documentation doesn't say which one does, so check their plans if the option isn't there.

3. Create an API key.

An API key is a long password that lets Sightline ask ElevenLabs for speech on your account.

1. Open ElevenLabs's API keys page: elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys. Their menus move around now and then, so if that link doesn't land on it, look for "API keys" in your account settings.
2. Create a new key and name it something like Sightline.
3. Copy the key. Treat it like a password, and paste it only into Sightline.

Two tips. ElevenLabs lets you set a credit limit on a key, which caps how much it can ever use; that's a good safety net. And leave the key's permissions on the default. If you restrict them, the key has to be allowed to read your voices and to make speech, or Sightline will show an error.

4. Switch it on in Sightline.

1. Open Sightline, tap the gear for Settings, and scroll to ElevenLabs voices (optional).
2. Paste your key into the key box. The eye icon lets you check what you pasted.
3. Tap Save & load voices. It tells you how many voices it found on your account. Your own cloned voices are listed first and marked "your voice".
4. Tap Voice and choose the one you want.
5. Turn on Use my ElevenLabs voice for replies.
6. Tap Test ElevenLabs voice. You should hear it through your glasses, or your phone if they aren't connected.

That's it. Ask a question and the answer comes back in your voice.

What to expect.

• Only the assistant's replies use it. Live Look and Translate keep the phone's voice, because they talk constantly and would use up your ElevenLabs credits in minutes.
• Longer answers cost more credits, since ElevenLabs charges by the amount of text. Short, spoken answers are the default in Sightline.
• It never leaves you in silence. If a sentence can't be fetched, the phone's voice reads it.
• What gets sent: only the text of each spoken reply, with your own key, goes to ElevenLabs. Your questions, photos and audio still go only to the AI provider you picked. See the privacy page.

If something goes wrong.

"ElevenLabs didn't accept that API key"

Copy the key again, with no spaces before or after it, and make sure it comes from the account you mean to use. If you're not sure, make a new key and paste that one.

"Out of credits" or "needs a paid plan"

ElevenLabs refused the request, usually because the account has used its credits for the month or the voice needs a paid plan. Sightline reads the answer in the phone's voice until you fix it or change the setting.

No voices show up

Tap Save & load voices again. If you limited what the key may do, it has to be allowed to read your voices as well as make speech. A brand-new account may only have ElevenLabs's stock voices until you add your own.

It still sounds like my phone

Check that "Use my ElevenLabs voice for replies" is on and that a voice is chosen. Live Look and Translate always use the phone's voice, on purpose. And if ElevenLabs can't be reached for a sentence, the phone's voice reads that sentence so you're never left in silence.

"Couldn't reach ElevenLabs"

The phone is offline, or ElevenLabs is having a problem. Try again in a minute; the phone's voice fills in meanwhile.

A pause before it starts talking

The audio has to be made first, so the first sentence takes a moment. After that each sentence is made while the last one plays.

Turning it off.

Switch off "Use my ElevenLabs voice for replies" to go back to the phone's voice right away. To remove everything, tap Remove next to the key, which deletes it from your phone, and then delete the key on ElevenLabs's API keys page too.

Sightline is made by Tech Standpoint and isn't affiliated with ElevenLabs or Meta. Back to Sightline ↗ · Privacy ↗ · Our disclosure ↗