Speak it! Text to Speech App Reviews

Im a medical student, and I use this app to read medical articles to me while on the go. So far, its better than just using Siri (i.e. turn on the "Speak Selection" option under Settings > General > Accessibility), but only slightly. IMPROVEMENTS over Siri: -voice is definitely smoother/more natural -You can PAUSE! (This is a huge plus - with Siri, theres no way to pause and restart where you left off.) -The audio continues even after hitting the home button. Good if you want to use other apps while still listening. LIMITATIONS: -There doesnt seem to be a way to adjust voice speed once you already have entered text. This is quite annoying for longer articles. If I decide I need something read faster or slower, I have to delete the whole article, adjust the voice speed, and then re-paste. Major hassle. -The audio starts at the beginning of the text, no matter what. This is a problem for two reasons: 1) If the voice speed requires adjusting, as described above, I either have to go back to the source article and c&p from where the voice left off, or listen to everything I already heard after I re-paste the entire article from the clipboard. 2) If I were to accidentally hit the stop button instead if the pause button, I ought to be able to put the cursor where I want to restart, but instead, Im back to the beginning. Not good. So, overall, its better than Siri, but I cant see why the limitations cant be corrected, and I hope they will be in the next release.

What happened? I used to tell people about this app. Now, I cant even purchase new voices, nor use any of the tools, like slowing down etc...

...only one that sounds realistic!

The female British voice has 95% perfect inflection. I think it is the best software of its kind. I have goastreader for the Mac and this is as good but without the extra functions.

I really like the app, its nice to be able listen to stories and articles as I travel in the car. However, the app doesnt do so well with acronyms. In a medical article, it reads an IV as "four". Or if a story happens in Los Angeles, youd never know because the app always reads LA as "Louisiana". Or worse, if a character calls his mother Ma, the app calls her "Massachusetts"!

I was hoping to type in text from stories and play it for students who have trouble reading. I tried it and the voice sounds robotic-no expression. When there is an exclamation point, the voice doesnt change. Complete waste of money.

When I switched from iPod touch to iPad this app automatically updated itself to the proper version. However, it had an issue with redrawing properly when I switched from landscape to portrait orientation. That issue has been fixed, although the options buttons are not available in landscape mode. I love this app, because the voices are so much better than those built-in to iOS 7. I especially like Ryan, the male American English Voice. No other voice I have found is as good. In addition, this app can continue to read after you put your device into sleep mode, saving battery life. That in itself, makes this app worth the download!

Hey, this is broken. Can’t save files, write audio files, get access to settings, etc on the iPad Air.

Not sure what everyones problem is, this has always worked great for me. Would like it if they added even more voices - but excellent app!! Does exactly what it is supposed to do.

I use this app both on my iPhone and iPad. Everything works great on the iPhone, and I can even make adjustments with the reading speed. However, on the iPad, these adjustments are not available and grayed out. If it were not for this, I would give this app 4 stars.

The app does exactly what I want it to do. I have several stock phrases I need to answer the phone - then it does a great job of letting me talk to people without being able to use my voice. Not sure why others are having such a bad time - Im on an iPad4 with iOS v7.1 running Speak it! 2.6 build 2101. HTH Yes - there are an UserInterface tweaks I would love to see happen: Being able to clear the text-input are without also answering a dialog. How about a button to do so? Overall - I could not be happier. You can tell that theres lots of good work behind this capable and very useful app.

This has to be changed if Im going to continue to use this app, I dont know why they did that, really f$&@ing annoying. Otherwise the reading is fine

Had for few years now. Its always very reliable. Easy to understand, saves text well and dont crash. Its just Great.

Needs an option to open the files in the app. The only way to get your document into the app is to copy and paste and it takes forever if your document is more than one page. This app was a waste of money.

Cant click setting or anything. Its only allowing me to write text but none of the buttons are responding when I press them (except for the voice change). Theyre all just grey. Please help or I will have to be refunded.

Not a review, simply a comment. Amidst higher and higher levels of excellence, this reader is my favorite.

Very disappointed thought I could speak into it iPad and it would do text... Does anyone know how to contact customer service and get a refund?

I can no longer download all my in-app purchases. It just says "server not available". This was a great app - I just think it died.

With IOS 8 now out the predictive text keyboards dont work with the app and app still only runs in the old iPhone 4s resolution. Please update else make it open source somehow. Overall it does what I need it for but it could be a much better app if some effect was put into it.

I used to rely on this app but it no longer works properly on iOS 8 and my iPhone 6 Plus. Please update!