Speechify Text To Speech Audio Negative Reviews

Speechify Text to Speech Audio App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024

Speechify Text to Speech Audio app received 117 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using Speechify Text to Speech Audio? Can you share your negative thoughts about speechify text to speech audio?

Speechify Text to Speech Audio for Negative User Reviews

✓ Makes scary demon sounds in the middle of readingSomething is wrong with this app and occasionally while reading it starts hissing and snarling and it sounds genuinely terrifying. Tried to click the App Support link instead of leaving a review here but when you click that link in the App Store it takes you to a “Page Not Found” error..Jones456789Version: 2.28.6

✓ SO glitchy!I’m happy that I attempted to make use of the 3 day free trial. I’ve been TRYING to use it for 20 minutes, and not one thing that I’ve tried to do with it has worked. It won’t even go to the requested page in the thumbnails on the web app. It took 4 attempts to get the “account setup” audio to play all the way through without glitching. I can’t believe anyone would pay $199+tax per year for this absolute piece of garbage. The concept is great, and I could truly see the benefit of it IF IT WORKED! Though, still, $199 per year for anyone, let alone a student, is way too much (even if the app worked)..I wouldn’t waste my moneyVersion: 2.27.6

✓ Word limitation is absolutely absurdSo while I do agree the app is an amazing idea and the AI voices are really really good, however the premium subscription for the app is a rip off. Honestly they say you get 160k words a month which apparently translates to two novels. I work as a doctor and I have exams coming up and I commute a considerable amount so I thought it would be brilliant to have someone read my notes out to me. Within an extremely short period of time, I had used 10k words and HD words were removed. In my opinion 160k words won’t last that long and you’re back to using google translate voice over. Honestly if they ask for he subscription the words should be unlimited. I know a lot of people have asked for this but speechify doesn’t care and comes out with some bs response. Anyway would be the best app and I’ll be the first to purchase premium once they eliminate the word limitation. They either have to step up or some one is going to come out with a similar if not better idea and AI with no word limits. Ball is in your park speechify..SharkzincVersion: 2.3.9

✓ ExtraordinaryIm dyslexic and have ADHD and when i tell you this app has changed my life I MEAN IT!!! I have been struggling with all my uni work and assigned readings and have been finding it impossible to read, this app has truly changed everything! Im now able to read and listen along and can finally start getting through my work. The way it highlights texts as it reads is honestly superb. I couldn't think of a more recommendable app. I wish they had a few other voices *without premium*, as they are a lot easier to understand and many of us cant afford premium! Honestly an incredible app. Thank you to whoever made this, genuinely changed my life!!!.AlishaaawanVersion: 2.22.3

✓ I can actually study, but the word limitations are absurd and the premium price is too highSo, I’ve always had trouble reading, this is for multiple reasons with one of them being medical. Because I’m at college, I need to study and read a lot of different sources at a time. This app seemed perfect at first! That was until I found out about the word limitations; I would understand if I had used it to read like 10-20 pages of one of my text books, but just to try it I got a small document that said it would take 5 minutes to speak through, “Awesome” I had though at the time as it would normally take me 10-20 minutes. That is, until it got to the halfway mark, and it just stopped, it kept on telling me to go Premium so I checked to see how much... almost £12 a month is an unbelievable amount of money for a broke college student, it might not seem like a lot to other people but it mounts up to about almost £144 a year which is a lot for me, yes, it might say that it has unlimited amount of listening and other things but that is still a lot of money that at least I don’t have to spare..SinsBloodkit27Version: 2.4.3

✓ TerribleWas in a rush to memorize a script for a presentation and the introduction to this app alone took 5 minutes, and the introduction consisted of features you have to pay for??? Their subscription is wayyy over priced for just being a text to speech app. How is this app over 100 a year or 16 a month, i can fford any streaming service for less than that. This app seems to be amazing but wastes your time teaching you these features you cant even use unless you drop a whole bag on it. How is speeding up text a premium feature? Also beware that the voices they have available for free penetrate your ears. They’re just the regular google translate monotone robot voices..DowninthedoggoVersion: 2.28.3

✓ Needs a lot of workI would like this app if it was free, with all the “premium” features included. Without the premium features, the app is basically unusable. I was using it mainly to read imported PDF’s and the playback is extremely buggy, constantly stopping, or sometimes the text loads completely wrong (half the sentences are missing). On the browser version it’s impossible to get it to read the whole document without stopping or glitching. The automatic scroll doesn’t work properly on there either. The “premium” voices are just ok, but this app might be worth it if they spent more time fixing the problems and less time adding Gwyneth Paltrow to the voice library. The setup is also tedious and unskippable (it also freezes when introducing the different voices). Also, the 1-year commitment is too much. I definitely wouldn’t want to sign up for a year after experiencing this buggy mess for 3 days. Do not pay for this app..Shanelh96Version: 2.17.9

✓ This app does not workI have ADHD and was so excited about this app as a I have gone back to Uni in my 50s and hoped it would help with all the reading I have to do.I Spent about 30mins signing up to free trial then couldn’t get signed back in for some reason, finally got in loaded a PDF I chose Gwyneth’s voice as it sounded the most normal it was ok for a couple of sentences then started rambling in an alien language and then back to English and the text wasn’t making sense either then realised the text hadn’t uploaded correctly sentences were jumbled and letters missing from words, also midway through Gwyneth disappeared and a computerised voice took over spent an hour trying to work out what was going on! I could have read the PDF twice over myself.. for over $200 a year subscription it’s not good. I was so hopeful that it would help me, so disappointed 😔 the struggle continues.ThisappDroveMeInsaneVersion: 2.19.7

✓ It’s not worth this kind of moneyI truly wonder if they are charging this much for this app strictly because they think students will spend their loan money on something like this, only to have it be crappy and not be able to get their money back. I’m on day 2 of the free trial and I found that I need to sit in front of my computer and follow along with the reading because if I get up and move away from the screen whatever the app is supposed to be reading will continue on another page and the speech doesn’t continue, it goes to whatever pictures or boxes are on my textbook page that it was reading and starts reading those in basically gibberish because it tries reading the actual pictures: maps and what not. I was sitting here, waiting for the desktop app to open my history book and I got up and went to the door to look outside and the narration started. But when I got closer to the sound, I heard that it was literally just gibberish so I took a video to send to the developers. I couldn’t see where the narrator was supposedly narrating from and couldn’t find it but I heard it saying letters over and over and over again and like erroring out. This is probably happening 50% of the time I try using this program. Considering they want $140 for this, I’m canceling my free trial early in case it charges me before I expect to be charged. Good luck..Firecat72Version: 2.18.5

✓ A big let downProbably the worst app I have ever used. It’s buggy and continually crashes. It randomly switches me from one voice to another. It can’t read pdfs that are behind any form of login - so that rules out pretty much every university portal. The safari plug in is extremely frustrating in that it won’t play from the point where text is tapped - unlike the app. Many voices are extremely monotonous and boring. Many voices read citation years as their numerical value rather than year, so 1978 will say one thousand nine hundred and seventy eight rather than nineteen seventy eight. The app does not properly import tables and does not impact imagery at all - so while it may read text, it will skip important diagrams and not even show them. All this for £135 a year? No chance!! It’s amateurish and I am extremely shocked it’s so highly rated..Krazykizza10Version: 2.22.3

✓ Hate the updateBring back the feature where you could convert writing on a piece of paper to words. For example : before, you could take a picture of writing on a paper, and the app used to convert it into digital words for you to copy and paste. But now, you can only listen to it. You removed a good feature for no reason. That’s why majority of your reviews are negative.Hushsbsbsjaks duaiajushdVersion: 2.27.9

✓ Shoves “try premium for free” down your throatI’m trying to use this app to help my reading speed and be able to multi task but every few minutes I listen to the audio it suddenly stops and puts up an ad advertising “try premium for free” speechify premium subscription plan. This happens consistently as I’m trying to listen to the audio and I have to manually close the ad in order to resume the reading. I should not have to deal with my audio CONSTANTLY STOPPING just to have this app slap me in the face with “TRY PREMIUM FOR FREE, TRY PREMIUM FOR FREE, TRY PREMIUM FOR FREE, TRY PREMIUM FOR FREE!!!!!” Over and over and over and over again. It severely increases the time it takes me to get through a reading because I have to keep resuming the audio every time. For an app that preaches to help “save time reading” it does a horrible job when it constantly stops you. Having that “free premium subscription” trial shoved down my throat does not come off as a well meaning app. It feels more like someone stopping you on the street and yelling at you to give them your money. It makes using this app more of a hassle than a time saver. If any of my friends asked me about speechify and if they should try the app for free I would tell them they should look for something else as this app will constantly badger them for paying for a subscription. Horrible app. STOP HAVING THE PREMIUM TRIAL AD STOP THE AUDIO. It’s beyond annoying.Didix 101Version: 2.19.0

✓ HD Word Limit For SubscribersEverything about this app is fantastic and is wonderful at supporting a dyslexic trying to get through a masters. I can read significantly faster with speechify reading along with me and do so with content not supported by an audiobook. However, the limit on HD voices is bizarre and hobbles the app making it significantly less effective for me as a dyslexic. It’s much much harder to concentrate on the monotone SD voices. Why ask customers to pay a large amount on subscription to not make HD voices unlimited. It’s not as if there’s a way of buying more either. You can’t make all these bold claims about how it helps people with cognition difficulties if one of the key features that supports dyslexics read effectively is limited in this way. I just don’t understand the logic behind it. Why? Also it’d be nice if there was a student subscription discount and discount for people with access issues to deal with inequality..DisasteroVersion: 2.4.4

✓ DisappointingI tried the free version of this app based on all the positive reviews, but was incredibly underwhelmed. I tried to import from the "Books" app by sharing the file as instructions suggest to no avail, and eventually resorted to copy/pasting individual pages until suddenly it told me I'd reached my 200wd limit for the day??? They definitely just want you to buy the full version and it's not intended as a truly accessible resource. I'll keep searching..BrydhsonVersion: 2.1.5

✓ Premium Subscription does not work and is not worth the moneyThe subscription is very expensive and basic functions do not work. Some of the problems I’ve experienced on both the web app and phone app are - the app does not allow me to use the premium voices and increase my reading voice speech - the viewing panel that should be showing the text is blank or seems to be corrupted - the highlighter that is meant to follow the words being read highlights randomly or highlights everything or skips words/paragraphs. - the voice who reads the text skips words and paragraphs and sometime jumps around. - the customer service do not know how to fix any of these problems and are very slow to respond to you. - the subscription cannot be bought on a weekly or monthly basis. It’s annual subscriptions only. Problems specific to the web app: - the viewing panel cannot resize automatically when the window is resized. The viewing panel cannot continue to function normally until you refresh the page - the highlighter does not function at all if the window is resized. Problems specific to the phone app: - it’s barely usable. Speechify sounds like a great idea but it’s still a beta model and needs much improvement to be worth the money..ZhuoJun653Version: 2.23.5

✓ No clarity around which voices are HD voices and which are not HD voicesI have owned this app since it came out. I find it deeply frustrating that you have updated it to remove the majority of its original functionality. What I paid for in the past is now subscription only. How do I restore the previous version so that I can continue to enjoy my original purchase? I am not convinced by the HD voices but it’s hard to tell which ones are which because the App allows you to choose HD voices from the menu then spits you back to a default voice. At which point the built-in text to speech function of my iPhone is better! I don’t want to try I already paid for once. I certainly don’t want to have to subscribe. I could understand a one off upgrade fee to cover the new functionality but turning it into a crappy free app when I already bought it is a poor business model..FunnymachineVersion: 1.9.32

✓ Great Concept, Poor ExecutionWhen Speechify works as intended, it is a great app that is a complete game changer for me as someone with ADHD. Unfortunately, both the web app and IOS app are very glitchy which makes using Speechify a very frustrating experience. Sometimes the app and web app are down all day. The IOS app always crashes when you scan documents, and there’s no way to save as you go along. I’ve wasted hours scanning things only to lose everything at the end! The web app player sometimes adds strange filler words and sounds to documents which can be really annoying. Autoscroll often stops working and particularly on the IOS app, it’s common for a document to just stop playing for no real reason ? As much as I think the concept is great, I just can’t recommend the service. The customer service is appalling and the annual subscription is extremely expensive. I would recommend looking at alternatives..OdutoVersion: 2.28.6

✓ I love it but there are issues!It pains me to give this app only 3 stars, because I love it so much. I’ve listened to 9.3 millions words (that is 698 listening hours) using speechify over the last 8 months. However, I’ve had significant issues with my premium subscription that can’t be overlooked. I got the year-long premium subscription about 8 months ago. With that subscription, I’m supposed to get 150k words of the premium HD voices every month. I love the HD voices, they sound amazing. So what’s my issue? My HD words don’t automatically renew every month. The first time I noticed it, I was able to contact customer service and they were able to manually renew my HD words. But that really shouldn’t be necessary! I shouldn’t have to contact customer service every month just to get what I paid for! I have found a non-HD voice that I like pretty well and sounds reasonably natural (I use British Female). So ultimately I’m not so bothered by this issue to stop using the app. But there’s clearly a major issue with their subscription system. Update: newest update is terrible! Now there are audio ads. I’ve gotten 4 ads in the last 10 minutes! That’s about every 2.5 minutes which is pretty much an unbearably annoying frequency of ads! Going to go listen to an audiobook instead..Huda'Version: 2.23.0

✓ No hate for the creator but...The text recognition needs a lot of work, I imported a book of which all of the pages are formatted into 2 columns, the app registers each new line as a new sentence, and for words that continue on the following line, the app registers those as two separate words. When there's actually a new sentence the app would often fail to register that a new sentence has started, but instead continues to read the passage at a constant pace from before the new sentence has started, making comprehension difficult. If you plan on listening to this app while you're doing other activities, you can forget about that, you'll have to be reading your text while you're listening to understand. This isn't an issue with me not paying for the premium service, this is an error at the very fundamental level of the software. The app provides voice options such as Arnold Schwarzenegger & Gwyneth Paltrow, which are some fun features, but they're offset by the subpar text recognition. The app also mispronounces simples words like "creativity" as creativi-tie. The skip forward/backwards button doesn't work properly. The app does not provide the option to import book from the files app, instead the document must be uploaded into a cloud storage platform to be accessed from the app. This app needs a lot of work, do not pay for this unless you don't mind being ripped off..RsnblVersion: 2.11.1

✓ Unbelievably overpriced$40/month, $180/year..MatthxVersion: 2.1.5

✓ Use if the appGreat tool to use I retain more when I can visually see the words and listen to the audio of the the same words I retain information so much better. I would really find it so much better when I scan I don’t have to edit what I scan. Sometimes the sentences are not the same as what is scanned. I have a question to ask when I go to scan pages do I need to keep the camera still till it has scanned the page..MaracullousVersion: 2.18.7

✓ Best but not perfect option on iOSI like the AI enhanced voices and that it can play through the book without being interrupted at the end of the chapters like iOS readout function does. So far no crashes on iOS while playing. The auto skip function is also handy although it makes mistakes too. The greatest issue I have is its frequent interruption by Google maps navigation instructions while driving and it often needs to be manually started again afterwards. In the city with frequent turn instructions this make the app unusable. Another issue is the premium voices require good internet connection. if you want to listen while driving in the countryside or hiking, cycling, it’s down to offline voices only, which is something many other apps can do already anyway. So far I’m on the fence whether to renew subscription or not. It’s up to your usage scenarios..Spetsnaz26Version: 2.27.7

✓ Buggy, distracting, waste of timeI am a nurse practitioner student and I downloaded the app and paid for a subscription to help me be more efficient with my multiple reading assignments each week. I saw that this app was supposed to help with such a thing so I tried it. Unfortunately, in order to help with etextbook readings you have to scan the individual pages into the app, which is incredibly time consuming especially if you are studying medicine or nursing. The time it takes to scan multiple pages of a etextbook (or a regular textbook) I could have just sat down and read it like I normally do. I wanted to give the app a try anyway, so I scanned/took screenshots of three pages of my etextbook. When the program started to read it to me it switched voices AND languages (from English to Spanish) FIVE times on ONE page. How incredibly distracting! Not to mention that the website is buggy as well. I couldn’t get the payment dashboard to load to cancel my subscription. Thankfully, I used PayPal to subscribe and was able to cancel through them. I didn’t need the free trial to decide if the app was right for me. I downloaded the app, signed up for the trial, gave it a try, then quickly canceled my subscription and deleted the app, all within one hour. That’s an hour I could have spent actually reading the material or helping a patient. Save yourself the time and frustration. Skip this app..NickyAnaisRossoSVersion: 2.18.3

✓ Not greatI got this app from positive reviews on social media. Looked great it’s free but the voice is hard to understand and gets all the words wrong it’s so much faster to read without the app in my head. Don’t recommend..Nicky89$7Version: 2.5.0

✓ Clickbait freemium garbageThe app would be great and encouraging for struggling readers if Speechify was transparent about their freemium model from the beginning of the app’s experience. I scanned an entire book and a few paragraphs into reading it at 1.6x speed, it slowed to a snails pace and went to some robotic voice. What a crock. Really takes the wind out of your sails to find that it’s 180$ a year when this is supposed to be a tool to help struggling readers. What a shame. This app has the potential to change lives through the way you read but has essentially made itself inaccessible, or at least completely useless, to a large portion of the population who might use it. Shameful..TcaspersenVersion: 2.17.1

✓ Flashy ads, crappy product. Pretty big rip off.UPDATE: March 2022– I can’t emphasize enough — don’t waste your money on this app. They still haven’t figured out basic things like “Mr.” or “Dr.” is not the end of a sentence. They need to spend less money on ads and actually bring their product up to speed with basic technology. It’s better than nothing— but not by much! ORIGINAL REVIEW This app seems like it was rushed to launch with the technology and features not ready for prime time. I want to like this so much. And if you’re driving and need to hear an article, it’s better than nothing. But the best voices sound extremely computer generated. And the better sounding voices (there’s one that sounds a lot like David Attenborough) just don’t work well. Pauses where there shouldn’t be pauses. Mispronunciation of extremely common words. (It calls Fauci “fau-sy…like how do you not update your software to recognize insanely common proper names?) And again, I cannot overstate how impossible it is to comprehend an article when the AI reader puts random pauses in places where there are no grammatical pauses. If you need something to read you an article in a punchcard fine. But it’s not worth the money just yet. They need to work out the technology before justifying this kind of price. Maybe use some of the money you’re paying for slick advertisements and use it to develop this product more. Because right now, you’re overselling it..DanGalloVersion: 2.19.3

✓ Too too much expensiveApp is good, the price doesn't make any sense..L rangerVersion: 2.28.1

✓ Go back to when you cared about your customers more than money:New review: I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS for a yearly plan. If it was for life, maybe it would be worth it. To not even change the rate to be faster than 1.1 without paying over a hundred bucks annually hurts my soul. I’m a student and it’s a travesty that they don’t have some type of educational discount or understanding. Rude and avaricious. Old review: I absolutely love this app. I’m very slow and ADD when I read, but reading along with the app’s voice helps so much. I feel like I can actually read long articles and understand them in a normal amount of time. It’s also great when I’m getting ready and unable to read traditionally, as it helps to give a refresher from whatever text to comprehend it better. For school, it has been great to submit my papers and find inconsistencies bc of how it sounds here compared with my own voice. I love the functionality, too. It’s so handy how you can submit text or pull straight from the internet, and the fact that it’s on the “share” menu on my phone is incredibly convenient. I accidentally purchased the free trial and then was charged the full year amount for the premium version of the app, and when I reached out to their customer service they were so understanding and gave me a refund right away. I do wish the premium wasn’t so expensive for the extra voices, but literally everything else about speechify has been more than useful thus far. Highly recommend!!.TopangaTangoVersion: 2.20.8

✓ Ok but not worth the premium price - stick with free version until improvements are madeI tried this app and found it useful for study and catching up on articles on the go so decided the premium features might offer an enhanced experience. I paid for the app which is over £120 for the year so not a cheap app by any means. I used it for about three weeks but continually had problems with it crashing, reverting back to the free version and asking me to upgrade. The voiceover continually pauses and switched to the free robotic voices and then randomly switches back. Losing the place I left off repeatedly. I contacted support several times and asked for fixes but nothing really came of it. After persevering for some time I concluded that the premium version simply isn’t up to scratch to warrant the high price placed on it and so requested a refund via Apple. These issues need to be fixed and it needs to work seamlessly in order to command the price tag being asked at the moment. For now, I’m sticking with the free version which is tolerable..Cadders51Version: 2.19.0

✓ Way too expensiveThere’s no option to pay on a monthly basis, only on a yearly basis which is ridiculous. Also you can do nothing, not even speed up the reading with the free version so this is basically a paid app to begin with. False advertisement is a crime btw..CrembrulemVersion: 2.28.2

✓ It costs $250.Advertising says, “in-app purchases”, but only after installing and giving lots of personal info do I learn that it costs $250. Every year. Very disappointing..No nickname!?xVersion: 2.29.2

✓ BadSit through slow set up then demands money.Croatoan191Version: 2.28.3

✓ Exploiting people for yearly subscriptionsThis review isn’t even about the apps capabilities, I installed for a one time use kind of thing and opted for the free subscription. I turned on the warning so I knew when the free subscription was running out and when I was alerted I cancelled. Next morning I woke up and the yearly subscription fee £150!!! Was taken out of my account. They don’t even deal with refunds themselves you have to go through apple and now I’m waiting on this to be refunded. Won’t be in my account for another 10 days. They pray on people who miss the deadline for the free subscription ending. The app itself isn’t even that good the voices are robotic and can’t tell where there is spaces so it all comes out in one big long word. You have to read along or you don’t know exactly what they are saying. Overall I wouldn’t even download this again- don’t trust them with your bank details I did cancel my subscription and they still took it out and didn’t even explain why.Jezzicakelly12334Version: 2.27.2

✓ Really awful application, so many good free alternativesIf you get this application, your audiobook will be stopped every 20 seconds with an ad pop up, asking you to buy the full version. If you do their free trial, after three days if you don’t forget they will charge you $250 nzd. Voices even on the premium version are bad, and the voices on the free version is somehow worse. You can find the premium voices on other apps that do the same thing as this one for free. Please don’t download this, scroll to the bottom of this and look at all the alternatives. I’m using ‘voicealoudreader’ and it’s a million times better than this garbage app..Ooooh soo manys cheesesVersion: 2.16.0

✓ Didn’t do what I needed it to doI was looking for a text to speech app that I could use with Overdrive. I wanted to be able to open an ebook in Overdrive and use the text to speech function. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible with this app..Qandy435Version: 2.3.9

✓ Almost… but not good enough YETMaybe it depends on what you’re listening to, but the tech is close, but not there yet. It’s like wanting a PS5 but getting a Sega Megadrive. It could probably handle reading straight text without citations, statistics or tables, but if you want to read scientific papers or lab reports then you’re out of luck. The tech means it just reads straight through - so that’s footers, appendices, and even a doi. Within a year or so, I have no doubt that the technology will be able to cover this, just not now, and certainly not for the mountain of cash they want for it. So close… but no cigar..TravelscribeVersion: 2.19.9

✓ By far the best text-to-speech app but premium only available in yearly subscriptionI've tried a bunch of text-to-speech apps and the premium version of this one is definitely my favourite. It's premium voices are by far the closest representation of someone actually reading to you. The free version is okay, but the cadence of the voice gets very clunky and robotic. It regularly pauses in places that are confusing (I.e, in the middle of a sentence, which makes the sentence sound awkward and impacts what the sentence sounds like it means versus what it actually means). I would have no issue with the free voices being clunky, if the premium subscription was more affordable. There is, admittedly, a contingent in the free version to get x number of words spoken in a premium voice: the more you listen the more premium words you "earn". But of course this means that you have to suffer through the clunky, robotic voices, which ends up being more of an exercise in deciphering than listening. The free trial period for premium is very short (3 days) and after that you can only get a premium annual subscription, which isn't cheap. As a uni student I don't have £150-ish to spend on an app no matter how useful I think it would be. There is so much reading to do at uni, I would gladly take some of it in the form of audio if it were more affordable. I think the developers of this app are missing a trick by not having the option to pay monthly..30)5oRVersion: 2.18.5

✓ Very frustrated with speechifyAbsolutely loved speechify initially, but I’ve had so many issues with their technology that I’m getting really frustrated, considering how expensive their subscription is. The chrome extension glitches, especially if I’m on Google Docs. The computer app does not work great either. When I search how to use certain functions, their website is full of so much unnecessary information trying to advertise speechify when all I want are some simple steps. Their website does not allow you to easily zoom into text (or modify the text at all from a pdf), and the phone app does not modify text anymore despite saying that this is a function of the app (when I initially downloaded it, this worked and was my favourite feature - but not the button to modify text disappeared). I am irritated to say the least. This app should cost a fraction of what it does with all these issues. The premium version is incredibly expensive and unaffordable, and I feel this way even having gotten it on a discount. Being neurodiverse, I especially need this app to function properly for my studies..Rebecca212121Version: 2.24.0

✓ Over priced!!!! Use iPhone ios speak 4 free ;0)Mar2019- I found this app amazing. However it’s far too over priced. Once you use the built in iPhone speak function you wonder what the song and dance about this app is. If it was much cheaper I would consider it. However I’m totally happy to use the iPhone free facility. In a year or two the iPhone’s own speak will surpass Speechify. Mar2020. - now using iOS 13 and hay the built in iPhone facility is super and free. I went into setting / accessibility/ spoken content/ changed speaking rate and also choose from here “voices” and choose English Enhanced Oliver. I then highlight any text on the phone and instead of selecting copy or paste... just select speak! That’s it! All free and now with this iOS 13 just as good as this paid for app. If the book is in pdf format and you can select any text then iPhone can read it out. It’s good enough for my son to use for his A level. I’m going to try it out on the kindle books. Whoopee Free!!!.FtcjtxkvdcVersion: 2.2.3

✓ Great app but a few quirks to iron outUPDATE: App no longer works after loading the latest update (Feb 2022). Very disappointed as loved this app but no support anywhere for free version. This is a great little free app and I’ve really enjoyed using it to listen to chapters from my kindle books whilst doing other projects. It is easy to take snapshots of pages of text and upload them very quickly. There are a few quirks to iron out. It does not allow for headings, but continues reading straight on, running them into the following sentence without pausing. It also sometimes had problems with intonation, soaring straight through a full-stop with the emphasis being placed on a word in the middle of the following sentence as if it ended there. The app also seems to have trouble reading dates and numbers, although not consistently. For example, it read ‘1400’ as ‘one four hundred’ yet it read other numbers correctly. It read ‘the mid 1970s’ as ‘mid negative nineteen seventy s’. So it can be a bit confusing at times but it mostly works well. I’m sure developers will release updates to iron out these issues. As a migraine sufferer who often has to avoid reading I really appreciate the idea behind this app. Thank you.ClaribunderVersion: 2.18.10

✓ Great app but expensive and glitchySome cool features and impressive fluency in natural speech production. The constant glitches are frustrating, though. Just spent an hour updating and still can't access the Premium features I'm paying over $100 for. As a linguist, I do find it rather impressive that it caters for different languages and that I have access to these functions. The major drawback is the price-tag and their reluctance to allow you to sign up on a monthly basis. The 'free 3-day trial' before charging you a full annual fee is frankly dishonest. Customer service is generally very responsive, though, and I'm impressed at how well the platform detects and reads PDFs. The note-taking function was veyr practical, though now it seems to have been removed (along with all of my notes!). The ability to use it across platforms between a laptop and a mobile is very practical; though again, documents and notes can be lost in the process. This app has made an enormous difference to my productivity and ability to balance doctoral research with work and life. It's far from perfect, though, and I'll be trying out free alternatives like Natural Reader once my subscription runs out..AlxxxusbeVersion: 2.25.0

✓ Jumbles text making it completely unworkableI read a lot of textbooks and got excited about this idea as I read other books using Audible mainly, but they never have audiobook versions of my textbooks. This app has quite a few voices to choose from and some don’t sound too computerised, so I got my hopes up further. Then I scanned a few pages and started to listen, it all went downhill from there. Some paragraphs were reasonable, though the app can’t handle when a work goes over two lines with a -, but other paragraphs had every line jumbled up so it was complete nonsense. It also seemed to insert words of gibberish, including % and random numbers between paragraphs. On my third page it skipped to page 5. When I went to review the scanned pages and make sure it wasn’t my mistake it then got the pages in the right order but page 3 was so jumbled again I gave up. So there you go, I got an entire two pages into my chapter before giving up completely. I wouldn’t even use this as a free app, let alone pay over $200AUD for it!.MarecoVersion: 2.19.3

✓ Game changer for me - maybeI’ve only just found it and given it a short try using photos of printed pages from a new course I started last week and I am very excited. I hope this will be a game changer for me. Regarding the app, there were occasional pronunciation errors or times when I needed to hear something again. I found that I could just tap the screen a few words or lines back and it would begin reading from there again. The intonation is very good and the speech is only slightly stilted. It is certainly smooth enough for me to be happy to listen to it for learning purposes. Maybe not for pleasure. EDIT: The next morning when I tried to use the app for study, a screen popped up after a while saying it has a limit of 500 words per day with the HD speech. It says HD speech costs them a lot. I can appreciate that bit but I’m not quite sure what happens then. I’ve also seen there is a subscription that they say are not taking money for at the moment. I’m a bit confused about that too. While it’s great when it’s working, after a couple of hours of fiddling I am actually getting quite frustrated. There is also speechify on google chrome but it stopped part way through sentences and I can’t make it read from word documents. I have contacted the developer and wait to get answers. It definitely shows promise..Lee's opinionVersion: 1.9.31

✓ It’s a great app but not for the priceYearly it’s $139, monthly it’s $11 something, which really isn’t so bad for someone who has the extra money to spend on things, but for someone who is a college student on a tight budget, this app is a bit difficult to pay for. I think the app has good potential for the people such as myself who do have learning disabilities. It’s a lot easier to be able to hear the text other than having to read it and then also remember it after that. I have ADD and Dyslexia and it’s extremely difficult for me to read and process things on my own. It takes me ages to fully read and understand a full chapter of a book, but I feel like this app has a lot of potential. I think the price should be set lower so that more people would be more interested in it. The reason why I found this app was because I saw an ad over it, when I saw it, I instantly wanted to try it. But as I found out the pricing on it, I was a little bit bummed out because they don’t even have a version of it for free. I’d enjoy if there was a free version where you couldn’t do as much like change the voice and whatnot. Honestly, it’s so difficult to find apps or programs to use for text reading. Maybe someday there will be an app that won’t be crazy expensive but works just as well..372736272839Version: 2.4.4

✓ Glitch ones and Bugs Make This Barely UseableWhile I have benefitted from this service when it actually works, not only is it ridiculously expensive (until you want to complain and are offered 50% off, then it’s just very expensive), but the bugs and glitchy-ness I’ve had to deal with recently have literally made the all I useable. I just have to read. Which has been difficult. So if you find an alternative… please please tell me so I can use it and then rewrite this review to be one star..Montywright9Version: 2.27.8

✓ Taking advantage of people with disabilitiesThe idea is great and could really help someone like me with dyslexia. However, the lack of open dyslexic font, the app crashing, and the highlighted words not at all staying with the voice, it’s just sort of a unhelpful app based in a great idea. I’m a good reader for the most part and I read offer, I just wanted something that could help me work on my speed or at least decrease my fatigue. Unfortunately this app is just not there. The price is another thing which feels like it’s trying to take advantage of those with a reading disability. Like I get they need to make money, but I feel that the price is insulting. The founder apparently has dyslexia and instead of helping us he is trying to profit from us. As a teacher, I really wanted a great way to help my students with improving their reading, but I could not with good conscious suggest an app that will charge them $140 every year! There are far too many people who price gouge people with disabilities and it’s the same for people with learning disabilities. It’s awful and it makes me sad that this is considered acceptable. The makers of this app should be ashamed for taking advantage of people who are just trying to find a way to make life easier for themselves and others. Subscriptions are not a ethical way to charge customers, and they know it. It’s just about money to them and people with a disability are easy targets..JillyT13Version: 2.20.1

✓ SpeechifyBull”tweet” I’m trying to use this app but I am getting a run around and too many prices with different free&expensive option I couldn’t try it out..Santa-CalgaryVersion: 2.1.3

✓ Nothing specialFirst impressions are pretty good. Premium is expensive and PDF importing and text to voice conversion is a bit hit and miss..JamesauxVersion: 2.4.9

✓ Many issues...So many issues... Multi-column PDFs (very common in academic papers) confuse the app, making it effectively useless. It results in an absolute word soup. The word highlighting feature is nice, but the onscreen text loses paragraph formatting and delineation of headers. In terms of finding your place or identifying sections... good luck! Combined with the above issue the app was speaking gibberish and it wasn't clear why. The web version of the app does not work in Safari at all. Uploaded PDFs result in a blank screen. The same PDFs are visible in the app. No ability to connect to Microsoft One Drive (where all my research is hosted). It's not like Office 365 has any users... Speed options have increments that are too large, for example 1.0 to 1.2 is about where most academic papers feel comfortable... but there's not enough graduation between them. 2x speed is borderline useless, but they give you options up to 4.5x speed! Who is designing this nonsense and have they ever spoken to a user? Very limited free trial (1,500 words) which was mostly spent trying to compare its transcription vs original documents to determine where it was going wrong. Yearly payment option only. No student discount.._D34K_Version: 2.19.3

✓ Works, but needs editing to work well!I often listen along while reading to provide multi sensory input to improve my reading comprehension and memory, but the long time while editing can be counterproductive at times. Most of the documents I need to read, such as academic papers and textbooks, have multiple columns, text boxes, charts, etc. per page. For this to work correctly on Speechify, I find I must go through each page to edit the columns and mark each text area. This isn’t too bad, but the editing feature can be finicky and hard to line up if you don’t have neat columns for the entire page. There is only one “template” for up to 4 columns, but this doesn’t always align well with whats on the page. Columns and text boxes are doable, but charts not so much yet (but those are usually for visual studying, anyway). Additionally, it will miss spaces frequently and so bunches several words together, causing speechify to spell out the block of text letter by letter instead of interpreting the words. For this reason I often have to edit the text while reading/listening, too, to add the spaces or correct the punctuation. I find this app helpful for my needs (I have ADHD and autism and am in grad school with tons of heavy duty reading), but it requires a bit too much extra work for the high cost of the app!.MadelinehaffVersion: 2.16.1

✓ Too many bugs to justify £135 a yearAs per advertised, I want to use this app for scanning books and turning them into audiobooks. But this app is clearly not designed for that, and seems to be more focused on just reading text that you paste in. Issues with scanning books: - It cannot handle text indentation. Sentences will get completely jumbled up. - It cannot detect and remove page numbers or text at the top and bottom of pages that doesn’t change (like chapter information) - It doesn’t understand words that are split over a new line and tries to pronounce them as 2 different words. It’s almost as if it just runs a very simple image to text program and then dumps the whole thing into a document. I can do that for free, I was hoping the app would be a bit more intelligent than that. There are also numerous bugs scattered throughout where stuff just doesn’t work like editing the title of a book is totally broken. There are so many errors. It just makes the app feel clunky and until this is addressed I cannot justify cancelling my audible subscription. Which is a shame because this is exactly what I need. I’d love to be able to read books that haven’t had an audio version created yet..DeadlinePusherVersion: 2.8.0

✓ Doesn’t work! Such poor serviceI really wanted and needed this to work but I’ve had nothing but problems- none of which have been resolved by the slow auto bot customer service. Books hang so I couldn’t switch to another. Then when listening to a book it kept jumping then starting again from the beginning, losing your place. Couldnt scan in one book which stayed ‘processing’ for days! The book I finally got to listen to and make notes/bookmarks on, disappeared so I lost ALL that work. I’ve contacted the support bot with sends out generic advice 2 days later or doesn’t at all! The latest response said they’ve fixed these issues and available on the latest update - which I tried but still not working. None of my questions have been answered. So disappointing… Not worth the money at all..DHO1285Version: 2.19.8

✓ I used to love this app!! Then was charged $160I was Speechify’s #1 fan!! But lately, the app has been glitching, and when I deleted & redownloaded it, I was charged $160 without warning. When I reached out to Speechify via email, they said I had to reach out to Apple. When I reached out to Apple, they said I was ineligible for a refund, potentially because Speechify had already received the funds. It looks like this has happened to other people too, and it’s a huge bummer because this app has so much potential & has been really helpful for me in the past. See below for my old ~glowing review~. *** Old Review: I’m in grad school & this app has made working through readings not just easier & faster, but has also allowed me to retain more information & understand my readings better. I usually play the readings on my phone using Speechify & then read along, which makes me feel like I have someone sitting there, reading my homework to me (which I guess, in a way, I do). As a Black person, I appreciate that Speechify has begun to include a diversity of voices to choose from (currently listening to Mr. President but fingers crossed for more) and as someone who has to read a lot of longer texts, I’m psyched about the new option to upload Kindle books. Thank you, Speechify! This app has been a game changer for me. *** Hopefully they get back on track! That was a whopper on my bank account though, so they might have me as a fan again, but maybe they’ll have you?.AytharpeVersion: 2.27.8

✓ Good but expensiveThe app is really helpful and works extremely well, however for $20 a month it is not worth it..Sugglet101Version: 2.4.6

✓ Educate yourself about your customers pleaseI downloaded this app to listen to things that I don’t enjoy reading, but have to read, while I do housework, walk or enjoy crafting hobbies. I am a person with a profession. I have a lot of conflicting priorities to manage. I also have ADHD. I was finding the app very useful and was pleased to complete a customer feedback questionnaire. Until I got to the questions. The first question was about in what capacity I was using the app. There were many choices of profession to select, OR I could select “I have dyslexia/ADD”. Apparently the creators of this app don’t realise that a person with either of these conditions may also have a profession. Next up - why do I want to use this app? Is it so that I can listen while I do other things? So that I can get through documents more quickly than I read? Or is it because I have dyslexia/ADD? Not only am I incapable of having a profession, I also apparently have no purpose outside of my diagnosis. I am an easygoing person with a sense of humour. I do not seek to be offended. But you have offended me deeply. I am upset and disgusted. I would respectfully suggest that you educate yourselves about neurodiversity and start to treat your customers like human beings..Cllr BVersion: 2.3.4

✓ Promising app but disastrous updates hinder performanceThis is a really promising application but unfortunately the last several updates have damaged the functionality. Early versions of the app stored files on your phone and downloading them was lighting fast and when you opened your app later to finish reading your downloaded files they were instantly there for you to read. A few updates ago the application was changed so that files you download now sync with servers in an attempt to allow you to view your files across the Chrome app (this is what the devs explained to me when I pointed out the new updates’ problem), however this syncing requirement means when you open the app it takes absolutely ages for your files to load, sometimes over an hour. I have not cancelled my premium subscription yet because I know this app can function better, because it used to prior to the damaging updates. I communicated these concerns to the developers and I’m patiently awaiting the next update to see if this issue is addressed. But since these new updates I’ve had a really hard time using the app and I’ve been searching for a replacement that doesn’t have these issues. UPDATE: I have cancelled my subscription as the app experience continues to get worse. My saved files now mostly won’t sync and are thus not accessible usually for about 15 minutes after the app loads. This server sync delay is unacceptable in a subscription product.FoolishkdjdjdjVersion: 2.17.3

✓ The colour of headerThis app just offer the blue colour for header which make your eyes tired and sleepy. Warm colours would be more appropriate because they keep the reader more alert and help them for better memory..Arsham youtube chanel tvVersion: 2.27.9

✓ Great but glitchyThe product at its core is amazing. As someone studying law with adhd being able to take photos of text to read reduces time and day dreaming so much. I am much more productive! But honestly, I would have given this app 5 stars if it wasn’t so glitchy for something that costs so much. Considering the cost - the app freezes sometimes and you have to exit a couple of times to be able to read your documents, you can’t send scanned photos to your computer to read, the chrome extension is pretty bad at reading PDFs/generally isn’t as good as the mobile app, sometimes the app closes out so if you have an unsaved document you have to scan again which can be time consuming, sometimes the scanned document will double up text - all minor things as it is the best photo to speech reader I’ve used, but again, considering the high cost of the subscription, I would expect little annoyances to be smoothed out..Trinity;Version: 2.8.0

✓ Not workingI downloaded the app on my iphone 13 pro max ios 17.1.1. Upon opening, it doesn’t go past the first screen with the blue circle endlessly spinning..Rkris2286Version: 2.28.1

✓ Kept freezingCouldn’t get past the third intro page, which, by the way, there’s no way to fast forward through and they are excruciating. Re-download the app several times kept freezing at the same spot. Frustrating. Will look for another service...jyf.uyfytdkyrdkutf,yuf.iyf.yVersion: 2.27.6

✓ Disappointing, wastes more time than it savesI was hoping this app would make going back to study easy to fit in with work, family & life but I was more time trying to get the app to fluently play the whole text from my files, than had I just says & read the text. Definitely not worth the overpriced fee I paid by forgetting to get rid of it. Looking for a new app that will just get through the text without pausing & having to continually go back press play to try to get it to keep going!.Apsey7Version: 2.24.5

✓ Too buggy to be usable. DO NOT BUY! SCAM!!!The first epub I imported was a complete fail. For some reason the app left out the first letter in every paragraph. Useless. 

It’s super scummy to claim there is a free tier to the app then try to sell users on an over a thousand dollar lifetime licence, before the user has ever tried the software, by a startup that may not exist in another year. If it was worth the price the developers would not need to manipulate users into such purchase before trying the software. I suspect the positive reviews for tis app are fake. Apple should investigate..Matt from TorontoVersion: 2.22.3

✓ Lagging none stop, word limitEven after buying the highest paid account there is still a word limit, not worth a penny, none lagging and vioce glitches, worst reading app to date.Dustinlee1997Version: 2.18.6

✓ Not worth 1 star to meI canceled my free 3 day trial and the 2nd day. I went in the app to do so and it directed me to the website to proceed to cancel my subscription and because this happened to me 4 days ago with a different app and they refunded me because they did unrightfully charged me the year subscription. Unfortunately speechify did the same to me today and withdrew $160 as form of subscription yearly payment even after I honored the terms and conditions agreement that they would not charge me if I cancelled within the 3 days of the free trial. Witch I did and yet they couldn’t follow there own terms and conditions verification. Unprofessional and not even doing what they can to correct the problem other then saying sorry but apple support will need to assist me and sends me a link that’s I had completed before I reached out to them to inform them of what they wrongly did to me. I even did a survey following me canceling and confirming my cancellation of the free three day trial before trial is up answering the question they asked about why I was canceling and didn’t want to pay for the subscription charge after my free trial was up and I said it’s not reasonable or worth $160 for a year because the AI’s wouldn’t say the right words that where in the literature and books i chose them to read for me as well as couldn’t pernounce 40% of the words it was reading to even slurring words together. Poor quality performance in so many ways!.NessaM333Version: 2.27.2

✓ Well..So I get that things cost money to develop. It takes more time and effort than many people understand. But charging 189$ for a app a year is ridiculous. Not having a option for Month to month is just as silly. I feel if this app charges less people would be more inclined to purchase this app and just by mass this app would generate more money. I would have purchased it if it was 50$ a year and I bet many other people would do the same. But I won’t pay near 200 for this. So sale lost and I bet many other people would be in the same boat..Coolish11101Version: 2.1.2

✓ Very awesome, but unreliable.The good: The idea of this app is genius, and it has taken me from barely being able to read a page every 5 minutes to reading a page in less than a minute. As a student in biblical theology, with sometimes 15 books to read at one time, it has been a really cool and useful tool. The bad: although this seems to be a fairly well know app by now, it has an extravagant amount of glitches. No it’s not my internet or my phone. I’m a 20 y/o who knows how to use technology. The amount of glitching and uploading problems that this app has often time makes it more work than worth. By the time I have the pages scanned and I figure out all of the glitches, I could have been done reading it by myself. The costumer service has been nothing but nice… they just take days to respond. When you have a reading report due in 5 hours, and your reading app that makes it possible is pooping out, you don’t have days to wait for a response. If you are planning on using this to train yourself how to read better on casual for-fun reading, then it’s cool. But don’t expect it to be reliable enough for school grades that can determine the whole path of your life. At the pretty pricey premium, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to afford it if it’s not going to be something I can rely on..JdjsikahjkeodidVersion: 2.27.5

✓ Limited functionalityVery limited opportunities for its use. I can only use it on my IPad or for web sites on Chrome on a Mac I can’t use it on my work PC or have it read PDFs on my i Mac. So everything has to be copied into the Speechify iPad app to be able listen to them. The app is not able to distinguish text from separate columns on pages that have multiple columns such as magazines and newspapers and quite a few books. It just reads across the multiple columns as if its one text block, jumbling up all the sentences. The reading pattern is jerky and doesn’t correspond to real reading rhythms. The app can’t distinguish numbers in the form years, or of monetary sums..MZ64Version: 2.16.0

✓ Audio Book ListeningI want to start off saying I’ve only used this app to listen to two audio books, I have not used the other features and from what I hear it sounds like the other features work fine. But, I don’t think I can muscle through using this app for another audio book ever again, and to be fair I’m probably not the target audience of the app in the first place. -Frequent app crashes. Frequent. -When pausing an audio book and opening the app later, the app regularly jumps to another paragraph in the chapter or ahead a couple of chapters. Sometimes I’d pause it for fun and hit play right after to see how many words or sentences it decided to skip. -I found that if my iphone is in low power mode, the audio will completely stop playing after a couple minutes and I have go back into the app to hit the play button, which then almost always jumps the audio reading to another section (see issue before). -Tapping the forward or reverse buttons, in other audio book apps (I know this isn’t an “audio book app”) this allows the listener to jump ahead or behind a few seconds, not this app. Sometimes it feels like jumping to a paragraph behind or ahead. Maybe it takes you to the beginning of the sentence. Sometimes it will just jump an entire chapter of the book. Once it restarted the book entirely; that filled me with an emotion I thought I had experienced before but after this experience I realized I had never truly tapped into the full potential of this emotion..ElkeivoVersion: 2.26.3

✓ I prefer CaptiIf you found this too expensive consider Capti..800lzVersion: 2.2.7

✓ Actually wastes timeThis app is SO GLITCHY that it actally wastes more time than reading. COMPLETE WASTE of $200!!!!.AReynoldsonVersion: 2.19.9

✓ Didn't translate words properly from pics and is basically uselessDidn't translate words properly from pics and is basically useless.HughjacokVersion: 2.11.1

✓ Ok but way too pricey, slow and no browserThe reading is great, the controls for speed are fantastic and “premium voices” are really great but this app wants £120 per year!!!! It’s ok but totally not worth that! I like to read web novels or online articles and you can paste a link from a webpage and it will retrieve the text but this takes a long time to process and it doesn’t have its own browser so you have to swap between apps making it really time consuming. Charge me for the voice and I’ll pay a fiver but the rest is all a joke especially as it runs on the google text to speech so not a great deal of work went into this, it feels to me like the only real work was finding out more ways to monetise it! Disappointing..TheSchmoKVersion: 2.11.1

✓ Not worth the priceThe concept of this application is great if only it worked properly. So many bugs. Commonly the screen going white and all the words disappearing while it continues to read or goes blank while editing and all your edits get lost. The phone app and destop app dont seem to crossover unless you delete your app from your phone and re-download it. It is a process though since they make you go through the entire welcome tutorial before giving you a chance to sign in. I think this app might work better for pleasure use or soley reading directly from the internet (however finding online university sites with modules are not compatible). Customer service has been fine, not much for the servicers can do with a buggy app! I would not reccomend this app if you are planning on scanning textbooks in and using for school as more frustration than its worth. Continuing to use only because I already paid the $200. *working on 2021 macbook air and iphone11, all software up to date..Rlgr12Version: 2.20.6

✓ Not very usefulThe tutorial/walk-through gives the impression that the app is like AI enhanced, and that the reading is very smooth. But all the free voices for reading are very robotic, and you can only use the good voices one in the walk-through. It takes up room on your phone that you honestly just don’t need, if you want the same affect but for free and not taking up storage on your phone. Go on your settings and press speak screen/speak content. This only goes from my knowledge for iOS devices. Just a waste of storage and a very misleading..🤨🧐🧐🧐Version: 2.28.2

✓ Great but issuesBeen using speechify for a while, and while it is a great app it has afew issue which push me away from it. The timer is wrong, which while annoying isn’t my main concern. What is a serious issue is that sometimes the app with glitch and when there is a punctuation mark it will pause for 1-2 seconds before carrying on, making it very difficult to read. Additionally, after adding a clear document to speechify sometimes it will cut off half the words on one page, making it impossible to listen to. I find speechify really helpful, but unless these issues are resolved it’s going to be very difficult to enjoy using the app.KamranR20Version: 2.19.5

✓ It’s goodIt’s ok and I use it frequently when I have no wifi but recently when I am in my account on safari it keeps opening new tabs that I can’t interact with other than closing it how do I stop it?.Zwolf000Version: 2.19.1

✓ Great when working correctlyThis application has fantastic voices that sound significantly better than many other similar applications. However, articles sometimes disappear and take a minute or two to comeback again. Today, the application started crashing completely. I have uninstalled / reinstalled, rebooted the phone and it has not fixed the problem. As the subscription is expensive this is disappointing..Jones 77 77Version: 2.16.2

✓ Used to be life changingThis used to be a fantastic app, I bought premium & used it every single day. It reopened the world of reading for me and literally helped change my life for the better. That’s why it’s been so bitterly disappointing to see the app deteriorate with each release. The Mac app is what I use the most, to read almost everything, the audio still functions well, however as of a release numerous weeks ago, - the text no longer accompanies the audio when reading. - When transferring an audiobook from the Mac app to the iPhone app, the book no longer arrives at its destination. - On iPhone, Articles sent to Speechify from other iPhone apps & Safari often no longer make it into speechify. Attempts to contact the creators of speechify have been ignored. Unfortunately the focus seems to be on ‘improving’ the aesthetics of speechify at the expense of functionality and usability. I sincerely hope this changes and they prove me wrong..NomadwinoVersion: 1.9.3

✓ I give up - too buggyGreat concept, but every time I go to use this app there’s something wrong. Sometimes little things, sometimes big things. The support staff are very helpful, which is great because you’re going to spend a while corresponding with them. After paying a rather extraordinary amount of money for the annual subscription, I would expect a much more stable product. Luckily, I chose this for convenience listening in the car rather than as an aid for a reading problem. I might try again in a couple of years when the technology has matured..MrdbowmanVersion: 2.17.1

✓ DbbejejsnxbfjdIt's pretty good although without premium the ads for it are annoying..Katherine GeeVersion: 2.15.1

✓ Greedy and poor qualityI have a premium subscription and reached my “monthly word limit” for the premium voices after less than an hour and a half of listening. What exactly am I paying for then? Your free AI voice isn’t even up to par with Microsoft Edge’s. The app is incredibly buggy and often refuses to open my kindle, or will have an error with my uploaded PDFs. Customer service is very delayed and laggy. Overall, I’m extremely dissatisfied and wouldn’t recommend this service to anyone..TessaaaaasVersion: 2.28.0

✓ I used to love speechify..I’ve had this app in the past, I loved how I could just scan pages, as someone with ADHD I find it miserable to read long chapters and liked I could listen to my textbooks as I did other things. However it’s changed since I re-downloaded it. If you’re using the free version it interrupts SO many times to advertise the paid version, I understand the need to advertise but it’s so pervasive that I can hardly justify the time it saves me because it is so distracting. It made me want to find a new app more than pay for the Speechify subscription. Now however the app won’t download files I add, it won’t process them, I thought it was because I had about 50 pictures worth of files, however I deleted that version after 3 days of seeing if it was uploading (meanwhile having a good WiFi connection over multiple networks) and it was still at 0%. I retried and did half as many files and it did the same thing, then I tried just one and it still isn’t working. Despite maybe some technical difficulties on the app’s end, after all of that I really lost a lot of time and faith in this app, it’s just not reliable and the “mission statement” of the developer wanting to help others save time and help those with issues reading long passages just doesn’t ring true to my recent experience using it..A happy Co-WriterVersion: 2.19.0

✓ To many issues - don’t waste your moneyI want to love this app, as the concept is great. However, I have consistent issues with it. From not loading documents at all (which was an ongoing issue for over a week for all and customer service provided no compensation for the paying subscribers), to restarting itself when I have started listening to a piece of audio - the issues occur almost every single time I use the app. I keep up to date with the relevant updates and it doesn’t seem to make a difference. I gave this app over 6 months of daily use and I’m getting fed up..Em1277Version: 2.19.3

✓ You are too greedy.You are too greedy for an app that is way overpriced and by the way your customer service is pretty bad..[ Silent Warrior ]Version: 1.9.36

✓ Over pricedI give this app a try to read me Microsoft word documents and possibly to replace my web page reader. First I tried using connect to desktop method to transfer docx files to app. Every time I tried to open one the app crashed. Then I transferred using the OneDrive method. The file opens put possibly 1 word in 10 was missing a letter that was present in original doc changing how word was read. Needless to say I didn’t listen to the gibberish for long. Then I tried it for a fan fiction book on a web site. This was complicated because app does not have any web browsing ability. 1st I had to bring it up in Safari then share it with app. The app actually did a better job reading it then my current were page reader app. But then I reached the end of the short chapter and could not just click on the button for the next page. To read next page requires you to go back to Safari go to next page then share again go to app find new shared doc and open. I mainly use my web page reader while driving for my truck driving job. The complexity involved in just getting to the next page. Would prove to be an unsafe distraction if I was driving while trying to use this app to read web pages. So with the trouble I had trying to get this app to properly load Word docs and the complexity involved in reading web pages I can not recommend this app especially with its high subscription price..HuntjdVersion: 2.1.9

✓ From excellent to non-functionalFor graduate school reading for the past 2 years, I’ve used this app intermittently while also using Apple’s native reader for reading textbook and journal articles. I was originally satisfied with the app but noticed that this app has progressively gotten worse with its new changes, not better. You would hope for improvement not regression. First they added too many voices and half the time it wouldn’t load the voice I selected and would switch to different voice mid-read. That was at least functional. After returning from summer break, I discovered that Speechify has become non-functional for academic work. It will automatically import the PDF but it can’t handle the reading. It jumps all over the place. I tried with 2 different documents. Although their prior system was time consuming, I did not mind completely processing the documents or complex textbooks myself if it ensured the reading order was correct and unnecessary text was removed from being read. It’s clear that they did not do appropriate level of user testing before releasing a system to “automatically” read that cannot handle all types of text. Minimally, they should have a kept a a manual import option to override these problems. If you are a college student, do not get Speechify look into other applications or Apple’s text to speech works relatively well for many things..Jane PlainerVersion: 2.27.0

✓ Voices are good, the product is rubbishThe idea is good and the HD voices are good but the implementation is poor. The applications are buggy as hell and the web app is even worse. The main issues are the predatory tactics that speechify use to get your money. I’m not against paying for a product that is good but the fact that they decided to hide the monthly payments or all the other subscriptions to force you to pay £139 for a whole year for 150K words is just ridiculous. There are several other ways of doing this and offering a monthly payment makes way more sense than paying for a whole year. Support is rude, blunt and basically non existent. The onboarding experience is just from another world, maybe aliens understand why you need to listen to the same rubbish over and over again about why this company was started, maybe you guys can use the money to offer a better experience to your customers. Overall, the product is ok when it works and if you don’t feel ripped off when paying for a year but the rest of the experience is one of the worst experiences I ever had with and app.Mouxy_PtVersion: 2.17.4

✓ 140$? Like really??😂💸💸140$? Like really??😂💸💸 140$ for a computer voice and a glitchy app. It keeps cutting off on me. Not sure who you paid for those 5 star reviews.. maybe if you gave me 140$ a year I’d consider increasing the star rating, and since we’re talkin big numbers how about 1400$ a year? Or 14,000$?.Top 5OOVersion: 2.16.3

✓ I really wanted to like itThis is about the app for Mac but I’m sure these issues are the same on the phone app too. It’s a good concept and it would be really helpful if it actually knew how to read like an English-speaking person. It doesn’t know how to pronounce pretty basic words like “scientific” and other stuff as well as bigger words like “fundamentalism”. And it’s not just the specific voice, I used two very different voices (Snoop Dogg and Barak Obama) and it pronounced them the same. It’s just annoying because I constantly have to be watching along with it to understand some words. And sometimes it skips over part of a sentence all together and there’s no way to get it to read that part so I have to just read it in my head which would be fine except I have to be paying close attention to realize that that’s happened so I can go back and read it in my head. You can’t really listen without also following along so it’s just not great for multitasking. It also insists on reading the little copyright claim going up the side of the page between each new page and none of the “skip content” buttons account for this. It’s a good concept, just poorly executed and glitchy. If it was free I’d say it’s worth a chance but for the price it’s a ridiculous waste of money..•ES•Version: 2.27.0

✓ 15 something a monthNot worth downloading. Monthly subscription or almost 200$ a year or 15$ a month instead of purchasing the app. Ridiculous! I do not purchase subscriptions I buy apps I like. I could buy a program for the computer that would be a lot cheaper & upload it to my google drive & use it on my phone. Rip off!.Just my opionVersion: 2.1.2

✓ A bit clunky to useI used the app to scan articles in magazines (like The Economist) however the experience wasn’t great. Was a bit tedious scanning the pages (2 pages) and when the commentary started, many very basic words were mispronounced, whilst it was also go on to articulate all components in a graph or chart (i.e. “1%”, “2%”, “footnote” etc). I’m sure I’m a few years the app will be more fluid, but for now it’s more annoying that helpful. I’m sure it’s better for web articles though..LionelCN1Version: 2.25.0

✓ Disappointing as it doesn’t work with KindleLike the title says, I am very disappointed because it doesn’t work with the Kindle app on my iPhone or iPad. I wish it would have said this somewhere on the website, as this was primarily why I wanted to use the app - for all those ebooks I have which don’t come with Audible narration (and the iOs narration feature isn’t good). A customer service rep told me I could use Speechify with Kindle books on my laptop using Chrome but I tried the method and they won’t play. It’s very frustrating. To be fair to Speechify though, they are good when it comes to reading PDF’s or web pages. I’m just very disappointed in the lack of Kindle support, and the lack of transparency about this on the app’s website..C.M.1992Version: 2.25.2

✓ ReviewThis was a really good app when I first downloaded it. Unfortunately it has become less and less user friendly with each update.Hobbitual-psychickVersion: 2.2.2

✓ Could be great, but wasn’t able to fulfill its purpose for meIt sounds like a really great idea. I went through the trouble of getting a textbook through the kindle app so I could listen to it on my commutes to work and school. If you didn’t know, textbooks are pricey, even e-books, so that was already a commitment. Unfortunately, when I tried to listen to it, it told me that the licensure limit had been exceeded and that I needed to buy another copy or delete it from a device. The problem is I had deleted it from every device and it still wasn’t able to download it in the speechify app. This app does claim to connect to the kindle app, so there shouldn’t be this issue. I actually tried to download and undownload on different devices and it let me immediately download on those devices through the kindle app. However, when I tried to download on the same device through speechify it wasn’t having it. I did test novels on on speechify through kindle and it worked, but that’s not what I got this app for. If I wanted to listen to a novel, I would have used audible. I wanted to listen to a textbook with no other audio version. That was the entire reason I got this app and subscribed to the premium version. I can see how it could be useful, but they should fix these problems. I wasn’t able to use it for the purpose that I got it..MEGANBABY<3Version: 2.27.7

✓ Charged the Highest SubscriptionI wanted to try the 3 day free trial. I forgot to cancel - and right away got charged over 200 dollars. That’s insane. For a monthly or yearly subscription. And instead of having the lowest option linked - they charged me over 200 dollars. Haven’t used it since. I couldn’t even submit review before finding an unused nickname..MarsyK1224Version: 2.16.0

✓ £300 annually for freeware. Wait for the competition.You are paying for a pretty UI and a pretentious individuals (marketing strategy) personal struggle. Ridiculous price for what is essentially identical to freeware - rehashed with a pretty UI. Most of AI voices are free & open source and available on multiple platforms (which they ludicrously claim are the most advanced in the world). The advertising for this app has a smug entrepreneurial revolutionary feel which is totally off kilter for this software which essentially existed for years on PC. There is nothing new about this idea. The app works fine, sure. Though to claim it as some new profound invention which sparked some journey that changed the lives of all the people around it is frankly, insulting and pretentious. But it is the only way they can possibly ramp up the price and sell their snake oil. I would pay a one off price of perhaps £20 for this app but 115 odd pounds annually?! AND that’s apparently a special offer?... No doubt what this app is really about. Just another Wild West attempt at cashing in before the the utilities of the web are fully fleshed out. I also have no doubt that a fixed price app will replace this within a year. Absolutely no doubt at all. Enjoy making thousands from fools who pay hundreds to borrow your freeware..AutumnlowVersion: 2.7

✓ Fraudulent. Don’t let this company have your dataWill attempt to recharge your card (with zero communication) despite your subscription being set to “do not renew” after the year is up. Shady company that is committing fraud, on an already extreme expensive product. Support is very bad, and contacting them makes clear their backend systems & operations are a mess. Your data and financial info is not safe in their databases Definitely do not let a company like this have data on every single thing you read and access to your browser history. EDIT: interesting Speechify’s “leadership” response seems to be blaming Apple and washing its hands of re-charging people’s credit cards without authorization despite documentation of do-not-renew. To be more explicit—Speechify has been sending me emails about re-charging my card hundreds of dollars without authorization after the conclusion of a 1-year subscription, and complaining the charges are declined. When I reached out to customer support saying renewal is turned-off, and to please delete my data/info, they responded with *five* emails, including asking me for my credit card info/trying to pitch me Speechify. They ignored my request to delete my account and data (violating state law) and then blamed me for a 3-day trial? Do they think I re-signed up for 3day trial following a 1year subscription? That’s not even a possible flow..Rome4112Version: 2.24.3

✓ AddsTo many premium adds if I want to stick to the free version stop interrupting my reading a or I’m gonna find another app..NoName27474Version: 2.17.1

✓ Terrible experience- All the pricing is in US dollars which is not noted anywhere for their Canadian clientele. - customer service takes at least 24 hours to reply to any concerns and user often need to follow up daily to get a reply at all. - service is glitchy and inconsistent I’m convinced that this service is a scam. The price point is crazy for the service provided and customer service is a complete joke. I cannot advocate that anyone pay for this. There are certainly better apps that offer the same thing..Cathulhu1Version: 2.28.3

✓ Working worse & worse since purchasingI purchased this the first week of January 2023 to support my graduate school reading. The learn best with a combination of listening and following along in the book and am also a slow, easily distracted reader. I utilised the 3 day free trial (short) to assure that the app worked effectively with journal articles and textbook photo uploads. It worked well! Not perfect but it really was saving me a lot of time and i was learning to count on Speechify each week. About twi weeks ago the app stopped reading my articles and allowing me to batch upload pages (this was a trouble shooting solution a tech gave me), the app became slow and had to buffer after just a sentence or two, frustrating and irritating, it stopped properly reading sentences from uploaded text reading simple words like “the” as “T” and making listening impossible. I have reached out to the techs with out response or response with blanket responses like “please re download the app” I am frustrated because i got to enjoy the app and experience it working well. I have used it on the computer, iphone and ipad and all versions now are inferior to my experience prior to two weeks ago. I paid for a year membership and now am strongly considering disputing this because the app is proving to be useless and an actual waste of my time now..Hazel rainVersion: 2.24.2

✓ Not ready for marketThis App has such potential, but after using it now for one year I would not recommend buying it unless you are okay with major Errors. It took me a long time to Edit the scanned text into format, since you can not edit texts on your desktop but only in your phone (Annoying af!) and after all was done and I reopened the app the next day - ALL EDITS GONE AND NOT SYNCED. This is sadly only one of the several errors that occured. I also think the help chat gave up on me since I haven't heard back in 3 days. Its a real shame this app would be great. But this start up def. needs more programming and better servers to operate on..Mark BaigentVersion: 2.24.2

✓ Speechify customer rep may need his own product more than me!Tried to access a 3 day trial, instead they pulled $175 from my account on a Thursday evening, told me they couldn’t initiate a refund and I had to go through Apple. Left me with $18 (still haven’t gotten a refund), my bank deactivated my card because I filed the claim as fraud. Missed several monthly payments and so now my credit will be impacted, and “Ricky” decides after 3 days to tell me that I somehow had a trial over 2 years ago and that’s why I got charged….??? The offer even has a slider button that says NOTIFY me before I am charged. That was selected and it still didn’t happen. What I remember is that 2 years ago they were using G. Paltrow’s voice and that it sounded choppy and uncomfortable. I don’t remember any free trial, just listening to a sample. I could be wrong and would have declined a subscription at the above price and looked at other options. The point is that there were no options offered. There still aren’t and they are still contacting me after I requested that they NOT. To make it worse, they aren’t contacting me to make amends for what happened, they are continuing to tell me why this is somehow my fault…..Potentially amazing product with absolutely no concept of customer relations much less customer service. Someone should tell Snoop as that is their new hook. Major disconnect, really negative experience and no feeling of concern from them. Thanks “Ricky”……🤦🏻‍♀️.Frogee1Version: 2.27.2

✓ Mixed feelingsBe aware of the free trial!!!!!!! The day I authorized a free trial, it asked if I wanted to receive a reminder close to when my free trial was ending. I really appreciated this option, since it is typically easy to forget to cancel one before you are charged. I now realize this was their clever way of tricking me into enabling notifications. I woke up a few days later to an over-drafted bank account!! I was not once reminded that my free trial was ending soon and was then charged about $150 total for a year’s subscription. It felt like a total scam. As a suggestion, the default should be a monthly subscription instead of a year, which is COMPLETELY ridiculous. It shows that you like to take advantage of people since you do actually have a monthly subscription option. This app does what it says - reads to you whatever text you would like. It helped me make it through 100+ pages in my textbook in only a couple of hours. However, sometimes the speech would be mumbo jumbo, causing me to stop what I was doing, pause, and then try my best to locate that paragraph in the physical textbook to see what it actually said, while other parts were flawless. I wasn’t able to figure out the reason for this since all the pictures I had taken were very clear..Mack BryantVersion: 2.20.1

✓ BUGGEDApp has been great except for latest update, cant delete files, certain things in brackets don’t read out from website links, among other things. App is just overall broken from this update..Ardit619Version: 2.28.0

✓ Concept great, reality glitchyI loved the idea of this app for my son who is dyslexic. I have persevered with the glitches for some time hoping it would improve. An example is - in the middle of scanning a study book chapter (12 pages), it stops taking the scans and gets stuck. I then have to delete what I’ve done, go out of the app and start again. After 5 tries, I have to gently put down my iPad (as rather frustrated by this time) and read the books to my son. When it does work it is great but I cannot work out the triggers for the glitches and freezing. Sadly, I will be stopping my subscription and looking for something else. The concept is great and I was willing to pay a chunky annual subscription for it, but the reality is I spend more time trying to sort out the app than it would take to read to my son. A shame as he is wanting to study more independently..MProctVersion: 2.27.7

✓ A refund would be greatI bought the subscription for this app because it was so glitchy and kept stopping midway in my pages, so I had to stop what I was doing to go back to my device and play it. When I bought the subscription, the problem was fixed but I would’ve really appreciated a smaller weekly or monthly subscription because I do not anticipate needing it for a year and the price is not justifiable for me. However, I desperately needed it for one week but ended up having to pay for a year’s subscription. Would’ve loved to get at least partial refund from the developers but it seems like there is no way to contact them for it. Overall, would just recommend people to stick with the chrome desktop version. Paying over $100 for this app for a yearly subscription was not justifiable for me when I only needed it for a week..Felicia0220Version: 2.16.3

✓ Scam?I don’t understand how this app has so many good reviews... I’ve given it multiple chances. I take a picture of a page and it just loads for hours then it’s deleted when I check the app after a few minutes. I’ll be deleting it and looking for another text to speech app.Steele.CassidyVersion: 2.4.8

✓ Money grapTrial period is a joke! Reads 200 words and stopped. For the money they asked, need to see more of the software..WwwentVersion: 2.2.2

✓ Intrusive tutorial feels like an advertisement for a misguided business modelThe fact that you have to sit through a minute and a half of advertisement, (where in the speaker, in a deep male voice grumbles “my name is Gweneth Paltrow” due to what must be a software mistake) before you get to use the service is ridiculous. The developers of this app need to understand that the amount of people who will be motivated to pay money for a service like this is near to none. The ability to have speech read to you digitally is so close to mandatory with the purchase of a modern device, that the thought of subscribing and paying a monthly fee for something that my phone can do for me if I’m just a little less lazy is absolutely ludicrous. I have to sit through a minute of your service incorrectly reading an advertisement for me to subscribe to the premium offering of the service, when this should never be something anyone ever has to pay money for. If you must be money grubbing and you can’t fight the urge to monetize even the most simple and complimentary of electronic functions, i.e. text to speech, then at the very least just throw trashy and unneeded advertising breaks in at random intervals, like all of your soulless compatriots. After you peel all the fake price tags off, it works okay though..Thaddius WinslowVersion: 2.21.3

✓ GlitchesFantastic app that is very useful, but is constantly glitching... support team takes an age to reply to any issues, can be frustrating..Robmc082Version: 2.9.1

✓ It’s great when it worksCrashes more often than not. If you don’t want to edit what you are trying to get the programme to read to you it needs to be plain text, in a neat format..NewClareVersion: 1.9.35

✓ Not good not badThis app is on such a roll with where it’s going, but it needs a lot of work. I thought I was all set with my chrome extension but the app just seems to really lag and struggle too many times. One thing that is a major issue is that with online school there are a lot of powerpoints with information. If you open the PowerPoint online, it will not read it. Highlighting the text also does not work. This will likely be the reason I do not stick with this application as it can’t truly read everything on a web page. I have put way too much effort into trying to get it to work when it’s supposed to help save time and be efficient. I look forward to where this technology goes but for now it’s just not really that helpful..ScottieJ17Version: 2.16.3

✓ The worst!It’s the worst if you are taking pictures of the text!!!! It copies it out of order!!! So annoying when your trying to study..SusieqmmVersion: 2.11.1

✓ Seriously?I am a student in high school trying to cram study the night before my unit exam for my medical class. I downloaded this app to help me because I have a hard time reading documents on my phone, so I needed it to be read to me. I gave this app two stars because during my “seven day free trial” the readers voice I selected and the speed at which it read was all very nice, until it told me the voice I had selected (after two minutes of reading) is now a premium voice and I have to switch to a more AI sounding voice. Which then I thought okay, kind of annoying since I did think I would have this available for seven days but whatever. So, I again go back to listening and then the highlighted words that was supposed to tell me where the reader was at kept bugging out and wasn’t correctly following the words. After all of this I was six minutes into my nine minute long document and it then told me that my words had maxed out, and I will have to buy the premium version in order to keep reading. At this point now, I’m very frustrated since I was just looking for an app to read to me and help with my assignments (like it said it was going to at the start of my “seven day free trial”). I will definitely be going back to coping and pasting my texts into google translate and listening that way. No hate, just really disappointed. :(.-adriannAVersion: 2.23.0

✓ Awful AppI tried using this app, I was so excited about it, but it came out as gobble gook, couldn’t understand anything it was reading to me 🤬.TracieileenVersion: 2.1.9

✓ 3 day trial then - boomYou get a 3 day trial then, it’s $184.99/year. Who is going to pay that?.Ch@rl¥Version: 2.2.2

✓ The set up process is completely uselessI downloaded the app, and it started a slow process of me having to listen to a super slow introduction session where I have to customise my experience or whatever. The guy reads super slowly and I can’t do anything to speed it up or skip it. Which wouldn’t be that big a problem if it doesn’t just get stuck in the “choose your free voice” step, prompting me to exist the app, and when I go back, I’m thrown back to step one. So now the app is completely unusable cos I’m stuck in a forever loop of setting up. Just let people skip these steps and go straight to logging in/ using the actual app lol. We can set those stuff up ourselves in the settings later..Michelle317Version: 2.17.2

Speechify Text to Speech Audio works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact Speechify Text to Speech Audio.