FakeDono Help

Overview

FakeDono is a free TTS soundboard tool for streamers. It generates realistic-sounding fake donation alerts using Amazon Polly, ElevenLabs, or your browser's built-in speech engine. You control the donor name, amount, currency, and message — then play it into your stream.

The web app runs entirely in your browser at fakedono.wtf — no download required. All your settings are synced to your account and available on any device.

First Use

Tiers & Limits

Free is permanent and never expires. Premium is £1/month and unlocks much higher limits.

Playing a Donation

Donation mode

The default. Pick an amount, optionally enter a donor name and message, then press Play Donation. The generated text sounds like: "Kai Cenat donated 5 Pounds. What is your most embarrassing moment?"

Bits mode

Toggle Bits at the top to switch to Twitch Bits mode. The amount chips change to your configured bit amounts and the TTS text changes to: "IShowSpeed cheered 1000 Bits. Let's gooo!"

Pausing and stopping

While a donation is playing, the Play button changes to Pause. Click it once to pause, again to resume, or click Stop to end playback immediately. You can also press your configured hotkey again to stop mid-play.

Quick prompts

The chip buttons under the message box are your quick prompts — click one to fill in the message instantly. Click the same chip again to clear it. Add, edit, or remove prompts in Settings → Prompts.

Character counter

The counter below the message box shows how many characters you've typed in the message field vs your per-message limit.

The monthly usage bar at the top shows your overall allowance used so far. It only goes up when you type something into the message box and press Play. Playing a donation with no message costs zero characters.

Voice Providers

AWS Polly (default)

High-quality neural voices powered by Amazon Web Services. These use your monthly character allowance. Brian (UK Male) is the default — this is the voice used by real Twitch donation alerts, which makes fakes sound authentic. Other options include Emma, Amy, Joanna, Matthew, Russell, and more.

Free (Browser)

Uses your browser's built-in speech synthesis engine. These voices are completely free and unlimited — they don't count against your monthly allowance at all. Quality varies by operating system: Windows voices are generally decent, Chrome on Android has high-quality options. Switch to this if you've hit your monthly limit.

ElevenLabs (your own key)

Ultra-realistic AI voices. You need your own ElevenLabs API key — sign up for free at elevenlabs.io (free tier includes 10,000 characters/month). Enter your key in Settings → Audio → ElevenLabs. The key is stored only in your browser — it is never sent to FakeDono's servers. ElevenLabs plays are also unlimited from FakeDono's side, since ElevenLabs manage their own quota separately.

Names & Prompts

Donor names

Open Settings → Names. Type a name in the input and press Add or Enter. Names appear as chips — click the ✕ on any chip to remove it. If the name field is blank when you play a donation, FakeDono picks a random name from your list automatically.

Clicking a name chip on the main screen fills the name field with that name — click the same chip again to clear it and go back to random mode.

Quick prompts

Open Settings → Prompts. Each prompt has a Label (the chip text you see) and a Message (the text that fills in). Add up to 5 prompts on Free or 1,000 on Premium. Click a prompt chip on the main screen to fill the message box — click again to clear.

Custom Amounts

Open Settings → Amounts. You'll see two separate lists: one for donation amounts (£/$ values) and one for bit amounts.

To add a value: type it into the input box and click Add or press Enter. Amounts are sorted numerically automatically.

To remove a value: click the ✕ on the chip.

The counter next to each heading shows how many you've added vs your tier's limit. Free accounts can have 5 amounts; Premium can have 1,500.

Audio Settings

Volume

The Volume slider controls how loud the TTS plays through your browser. At 100% it plays at full browser volume — your operating system volume and browser tab volume affect the final output on top of this.

Bass Boost (Giga Bass)

Enables a bass-heavy audio effect that makes donations sound more dramatic. When Bass Boost is active the Volume slider is locked — to adjust the base volume, turn Bass Boost off first, move the slider, then turn it back on. If the audio is clipping or distorting with Bass Boost on, lower the volume first.

Playback speed

Controls how fast the TTS voice speaks. 1.0× is normal speed. Values above 1.0 sound faster and higher-pitched; values below 1.0 sound slower and lower-pitched. This applies to all voice providers including Browser TTS.

Donation sound effect

A short chime that plays before the TTS voice. You can turn it off with the toggle, or replace it with your own sound file using the Choose… button. Accepted formats: MP3, WAV, OGG.

ElevenLabs API key

Paste your ElevenLabs key (starts with sk_) and click Save. The key is stored in your browser's local storage only — it is never sent to FakeDono's servers. Click the eye icon to reveal the key if you need to check it.

Themes

Open Settings → Display. Premium accounts can choose from multiple colour themes: Twitch (purple, default), YouTube (red), Dark (neutral dark), and Aura (cyan/teal). Free accounts are locked to Twitch theme.

The Site Scale slider lets you make the entire interface larger or smaller. This is saved to your account and applies across all devices you sign in on.

Import & Export

Open Settings → Data to back up or restore your settings.

Export downloads a JSON file containing all your names, prompts, amounts, currency, and theme. Audio preferences (volume, speed) are excluded since they're device-specific.

Import loads a previously exported JSON file. Tier limits are enforced on import — if you're on Free and import a file with 50 names, only the first 10 are imported. You won't lose data by importing; the import replaces your current settings.

Billing & Premium

Upgrading to Premium

Click the ✨ Upgrade button or the tier badge in the sidebar. You'll be taken to a Stripe checkout page. Payments are processed securely by Stripe — FakeDono never sees or stores your card details.

After payment

Your tier upgrades automatically within 30 seconds of payment. The app signs you out and back in to apply the new limits. If it takes longer than 2 minutes, sign out and sign back in manually.

Cancelling

Go to Settings → Account → Manage Subscription. This opens the Stripe customer portal where you can cancel. Your Premium access continues until the end of the current billing period — you won't be charged again, and your data is preserved.

Refunds

Contact support within 7 days of a charge for a full refund. Include your account email.

Troubleshooting: Login Issues

I can't sign in — it says invalid credentials.

Passwords are case-sensitive. If you originally signed up with Google, you don't have a password set — use the Continue with Google button instead. To set a password on a Google account, use the Forgot Password flow.

I forgot my password.

On the sign-in screen, click Forgot password?, enter your email address, and check your inbox (including spam). The reset link expires after 1 hour.

Google login opens a browser tab but then nothing happens.

After completing the Google sign-in in your browser, return to the FakeDono tab — it should detect the session automatically within a few seconds and refresh. If it doesn't, refresh the page manually. Make sure the FakeDono tab wasn't closed.

The page is blank after logging in.

Usually a slow connection on first load. Wait 5 seconds and hard-refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R). If it persists, clear your browser's local storage for fakedono.wtf: DevTools (F12) → Application → Local Storage → right-click → Clear, then refresh.

I keep getting signed out unexpectedly.

This happens intentionally when your tier changes (e.g. after upgrading or cancelling). Sign back in and your new limits will be active. If it happens for no reason, your session token may have expired — this is normal after 7 days of inactivity.

I signed up but can't log in — "Email not confirmed".

Email confirmation is disabled on FakeDono — accounts are usable immediately. If you see this error, sign out completely, clear local storage, and try signing in again from scratch.

Troubleshooting: TTS Not Playing

Nothing plays when I press Play.

Check three things: (1) you've selected a donation amount — the chip must be highlighted in purple, (2) your browser tab isn't muted — right-click the tab and check, (3) your device volume isn't at zero. Also try clicking anywhere else on the page first — some browsers require a user interaction before allowing audio.

I hear the donation sound but not the TTS voice.

The ding and the voice are separate. If the ding plays but the voice doesn't, the TTS generation failed. Common causes: (1) your monthly character limit is reached (shown in the usage bar at the top), (2) a temporary network issue — wait a moment and try again, (3) if using ElevenLabs, your ElevenLabs quota may be exhausted.

"Monthly limit reached" error.

You've used all your message characters for this month. Remember — only the message text counts, not the name or amount. If you play donations without a message, or switch to the Free (Browser) voice tab, usage is zero. Upgrade to Premium for 150,000 characters/month. Your Free allowance resets on the 1st of next month.

"Server error 401" or "Not logged in".

Your session expired. Sign out using Settings → Account → Sign Out and sign back in. This refreshes your auth token.

ElevenLabs error / voice not generating.

Check your API key is entered correctly in Settings → Audio — ElevenLabs keys start with sk_. Also check you haven't hit your ElevenLabs free quota (10,000 chars/month on their free tier) at elevenlabs.io. FakeDono does not impose any limit on ElevenLabs usage.

Browser TTS voices aren't showing up.

Browser voices can take a moment to load after the page opens. Switch to the Free (Browser) tab in the voice selector, wait 2 seconds, then click the voice dropdown — it should populate. On Chrome, you may need to scroll down in the dropdown to see all installed voices.

The TTS plays but the character count doesn't update.

Character counts update in real time from the server response. If they're not updating, there may be a brief network issue. Refresh the page — the correct count will load from your account on the next sign-in.

Troubleshooting: Audio Issues

The volume slider goes above 100% — is that normal?

Yes — the slider goes up to 200% which applies a software gain boost. Your browser's audio engine will handle it cleanly up to a point, but very high values may cause clipping on some systems. If the audio sounds distorted, bring it back below 100%.

Bass Boost makes the audio distort.

Bass Boost internally applies a 250% gain with bass EQ. If it's clipping, the base volume is too high. Turn off Bass Boost, lower the Volume slider to around 50–70%, then re-enable Bass Boost. The Volume slider is locked while Bass Boost is active — this is intentional.

The donation sound is too loud / too quiet relative to the voice.

The donation sound uses the same Volume setting as the TTS. If you want them at different levels, you can replace the donation sound in Settings → Audio with a quieter or louder version of the file, or turn off the donation sound entirely and rely on the TTS alone.

Audio plays in the wrong output device.

The browser plays audio through whichever device Windows (or macOS) has set as the default playback device. To change this, go to your system sound settings and change the default output device, or right-click the volume icon in the taskbar → Open Sound Settings.

There's a delay between pressing Play and hearing audio.

AWS Polly requires a round-trip to the server to generate the audio file. On a fast connection this takes 0.5–1 second. If you're seeing longer delays, try switching to Browser TTS which plays instantly with no server round-trip. ElevenLabs also involves a server request and typically takes 1–2 seconds.

Troubleshooting: Premium Issues

I paid but I'm still on Free tier.

Wait up to 2 minutes — payment processing and the webhook that upgrades your account take a moment. After that, sign out and sign back in. If it's been more than 5 minutes, check your Stripe receipt to confirm payment went through, then sign out and sign back in.

Premium limits aren't applying after I signed back in.

Clear your browser's local storage for fakedono.wtf (DevTools → Application → Local Storage → Clear), then sign in again. The cache may be serving your old Free tier data.

I cancelled but lost access immediately.

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period, not immediately. If access was removed early, contact support with your account email.

Custom themes are still locked after upgrading.

Sign out and sign back in to pick up your new tier from the database. The app reads your tier on each login — a page refresh alone isn't enough.

I upgraded but my character limit still shows 1,500.

Sign out completely via Settings → Account → Sign Out, then sign back in. This forces a fresh fetch of your account data including the new limit (150,000 for Premium).

Troubleshooting: Settings & Data

My names/prompts disappeared.

Your settings are stored in your account and loaded on each login. If they appear missing, sign out and sign back in — this forces a fresh fetch from the database. If they're genuinely gone, contact support; data loss is extremely rare.

Settings aren't saving.

Settings are saved automatically 1–2 seconds after any change (debounced). A brief "Saved" toast appears when the save completes. If you don't see it, check your internet connection — settings save to the cloud and require a connection. Audio preferences (volume, speed) are saved to your browser locally and don't require a connection.

Import fails / my settings don't load from the JSON file.

Make sure the JSON file was exported from FakeDono — it needs to match the expected format. If you edited the file manually, any syntax error will cause the import to fail silently. Try re-exporting and importing without editing.

Site scale reset to 100%.

Site scale is cloud-saved. If it reset, it's likely because the settings failed to save (no connection at the time of the change). Adjust it again and make sure you have an internet connection when the change is made.

Troubleshooting: Browser Issues

FakeDono doesn't work in my browser.

FakeDono works best in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox on desktop. Safari on macOS works but browser TTS voice options are limited. Mobile browsers work for basic playback. Internet Explorer is not supported.

The page won't load / shows an error.

Try a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). If it still fails, check fakedono.wtf isn't blocked by a browser extension (particularly ad blockers or privacy shields). Try in a private/incognito window to rule out extensions.

Settings keep resetting every time I open the page.

Audio preferences (volume, speed, bass boost) are stored in your browser's local storage, which may be cleared if you use private/incognito mode or if your browser is set to clear site data on close. Sign in — cloud-saved settings (names, prompts, theme) will always be there regardless of browser storage.

The Play button is greyed out / disabled.

A donation is currently loading or playing. Wait for it to finish, or click Pause then Stop to cancel the current playback before starting a new one.