Speak it! Text to Speech App Reviews

I was looking for an app to read large PDFs to me. This one claims to be able to read PDFs, but its support consists of your being able to copy and paste text from a PDF into the app, then ask it to play it. This support is further limited by (1) a limit of 1000 lines on exporting speech audio, and (2) the fact that the app can read large pasted PDFs, but the controls do not work during playback. Ill use the built-in VoiceOver instead from now on.

I purchased this application to assist a family member who suffered a severe stroke which has greatly limited his ability to speak (and be understood due to paralysis of his vocal muscles) and has paralyzed the right side of his body so that he only has the use of his left hand. The application allows him to communicate easily and efficiently with other people, and replaces augmented speech board hardware that costs upwards of $5,000 to $10,000 from a rehabilitation hospital. Additionally, the standard voices that ship with the software are of extremely high quality and sound much better than many hospital speech boards in capturing inflection (try the Ryan voice or the Heather voice that come bundled with the app). I am amazed that the developer is able to offer these Accapela and AT&T voices within a bundled application for $2. Normally these voices sell for $35 each if you want PC versions. Features of great value: * Text font size is easily and dynamically increased by pulling a slider. Stroke can often negatively affect vision, so larger font sizing that is easily adjusted by the user with a slider is good. * Commonly used phrases such as "Im hungry", or any other customized phrase can be recorded and saved in a left-column index within the application. These can be scrolled and played back with a simple tap of the "Speak" button. For a stroke patient that has extreme difficulty speaking, this feature provides an efficient way to cross this barrier - both in selecting the phrase, and in speaking it. * Punctuation is recognized by the application. Typing an exclamation or a question mark at the end of a sentence correctly changes inflection. * Stroke can cause cognitive impairment, so speech speed can be critical. The application allows adjustment of speed of speech without affecting voice frequency - this mimics simply talking faster or slower, and the adjustment is done by simply pulling a slider. * Most phrases sound quite natural - especially with a voice such as Heather or Ryan. The days of Microsoft Alice and a flat monotone robotic voice are long gone with this app. * In months of regular use, the application (and any updates) have never caused crashes or freezing. For augmented speech, I honestly dont know how you could do any better.

I have to say that this app is helpful for disabled students that are blind or have LD. The voices are are really good and just as good as my text to speech software that cost about $700.00 to $2000.00. It makes the ipad easier to use if you are disabled. For the text to speech software that apple has on the iPad is limited on what things it can read I find. I do hope that the people that made this app add some more features inputing directly to the to app instead of copying and pasting. and high lighting and to make notes as I use my iPad for school. Thank you for making this app.

I use this to listen to blogs that I want to read while on the go. Works great. Plus you can adjust the speed which is great because I can listen almost as fast as I read.

Great text to speech program, well worth it. Have had some difficulty in downading new voices, rebooting my iphone seems to finish the download. May have been my connection, but it worked after 3 reboots. Minor issue for the quality given. A good purchase none the less.

I would rank this app four stars as a text to speech system. Where it comes up short is when they claim it works while in a call, it doesnt. If you want this app as a phone speech aid or prank tool, IT DOES NOT WORK. People on the other end of the call will hear nothing. Good app but based on the instructions included Im pretty sure this company gas not used their own app.

This app DOES NOT read email as advertised, it only reads text you input. You have to transfer text to the app, it does not access your email. Dont waste your money.

You cant email the the audio file! You can with the FREE Readit app. I wanted to use this in the class with a special needs boy. What a disappointment.

Some people got his app to help others, i got it so i can hear my ipad swear and say funny words, great conversation starter.

I realize this was not the aps intended design but my Girl friend writes novels and e-mails them to me, and I do not have time to read them. I bought this ap hoping I could just plug my phone into my car and have the ap read to me the chapters she e-mailed me while driving. This ap works fine. The voices are not perfect but sound less robotic than most text readers I have heard. I feel I got my moneys worth out of the program but if you are looking at this ap for simalar purpose I would like to point out the following. I find I load the Chapters on my i-phone 4 notes file the cut and paste into the "Speak it" ap. It reads .doc files great (that what she uses), but I have not figured out how to get it to read word excell or .docx files. There is no fast forward but there is a read at the cursor option. There is no book marker (as I can find) so stopping and then trying to find your place again is a bother. There might be better text reading aps for what I am doing, but this serves my purposes just fine.

Works good No other apps like this only thing I could ask for is more voices

The app is incredible but I cant access the settings menu on the top right of the screen. Ive saved some writings but I cant access them because of it. Please fix!!!!!!!

Very good voices, recommended. But I want to be able load text files either local or from dropbox.

Pretty much a waste of time since most other apps wont let you bulk copy text to insert into this. Great idea very poorly implemented

I just had surgery on my vocal cords and cant speak for two weeks. I love this app as I can communicate more fluently rather than scribbling on Paper and save the repetition ones. Its the apps intergration that frustrates other users, you can only save it the first time you type it and its not seamless with dropbox or voice recorder. Its the best app that doesnt sound like a robot even the free voices and like it so much I bought "Rachel" Thank you for giving me a voice! Best wishes, a well known chatterbox x

The letter F is not being recognized in about half the words it is found in. For example the word "scientific" is read as "scientiic" and "classification" as "classication". It does prounounce the letter F in many words but this error is common enough to make comprehension difficult. It also splits words that spell check does not recognize into two word sounds. I have shut off spell check and autocorrect and this helps. Please ix the letter F it is very usterating! Great product overall.

Could not talk after surgery. This app helped a lot. Would be nice to have the email voice integrated.

The next update should make the speech flow more easily. Certain words Robo speeds through, "shouting" them.

It keeps crashing on me every time I try to play created audio. The copy-paste option stinks like a zombies barf, I should be able to open docs and/or import them and the interface should be less complicated, its not intuitive at all. I will low rate this until I can play audio, which should be available for exporting by the way. What a rip-off.

This is by far one of my favorite apps! I do however have 1 suggestion if it is at all possible. Would you be able to add an option where you can make all numerals "silent"? If I cut & paste some Bible texts to the Speak it app for example, it would be nice to listen to a lengthy lecture but without the numerals. its not as enjoyable when "Speak-it" app reads all the chapter and verse numbers. It would be cool to be able to make all numbers (1234567890) SILENT in Settings. But I thank you for creating this wonderful app!