diff --git a/settings.js b/settings.js
index c226658..b205206 100644
--- a/settings.js
+++ b/settings.js
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ export default
     "load_memory": false, // load memory from previous session
     "init_message": "Respond with hello world and your name", // sends to all on spawn
     "only_chat_with": [], // users that the bots listen to and send general messages to. if empty it will chat publicly
-    
+    "speak": false, // allows all bots to speak through system text-to-speech. tested on windows, should work on mac, on linux you may need to `apt install espeak`
     "language": "en", // translate to/from this language. Supports these language names: https://cloud.google.com/translate/docs/languages
     "show_bot_views": false, // show bot's view in browser at localhost:3000, 3001...
 
diff --git a/src/agent/agent.js b/src/agent/agent.js
index 853df3f..db4e591 100644
--- a/src/agent/agent.js
+++ b/src/agent/agent.js
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import { addViewer } from './viewer.js';
 import settings from '../../settings.js';
 import { serverProxy } from './agent_proxy.js';
 import { Task } from './tasks.js';
+import { say } from './speak.js';
 
 export class Agent {
     async start(profile_fp, load_mem=false, init_message=null, count_id=0, task_path=null, task_id=null) {
@@ -351,6 +352,9 @@ export class Agent {
             }
         }
         else {
+	    if (settings.speak) {
+            	say(message);
+	    }
             this.bot.chat(message);
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/agent/speak.js b/src/agent/speak.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af18298
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/agent/speak.js
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+import { exec } from 'child_process';
+
+let speakingQueue = [];
+let isSpeaking = false;
+
+export function say(textToSpeak) {
+  speakingQueue.push(textToSpeak);
+  if (!isSpeaking) {
+    processQueue();
+  }
+}
+
+function processQueue() {
+  if (speakingQueue.length === 0) {
+    isSpeaking = false;
+    return;
+  }
+
+  isSpeaking = true;
+  const textToSpeak = speakingQueue.shift();
+  const isWin = process.platform === "win32";
+  const isMac = process.platform === "darwin";
+
+  let command;
+
+  if (isWin) {
+    command = `powershell -Command "Add-Type –AssemblyName System.Speech; (New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer).Speak(\\"${textToSpeak}\\")"`;
+  } else if (isMac) {
+    command = `say "${textToSpeak}"`;
+  } else {
+    command = `espeak "${textToSpeak}"`;
+  }
+
+  exec(command, (error, stdout, stderr) => {
+    if (error) {
+      console.error(`Error: ${error.message}`);
+      console.error(`${error.stack}`);
+    } else if (stderr) {
+      console.error(`Error: ${stderr}`);
+    processQueue(); // Continue with the next message in the queue
+  });
+}