Speechify is a mobile and desktop app that can read any text read aloud using a computer generated voice. It uses near human quality voices and performs optical character recognition (known as OCR) that allows users to scan physical books or documents and instantly listen to them spoken like an audiobook.
It is particularly useful for anyone with reading difficulties to assist in reading long wordy emails, documents, pdf files or printed text.
It’s easy to use the text to speech app, just take a picture of a page and then have it read out aloud.
There are similar alternatives to this app such as Seeing AI (free), Office lens (free) with Immersive Reader on Office365, RNFb reader €100, , Prismo reader €11.
Some of the advantages of Speechify are its simplicity and its ability to create ebooks from documents or pdf files. It offers various reading options such as reading speed and font size, with a range of high quality voices.
There is a 3 day trial available but the annual subscription is €144/year.
Further information: Speechify – Listen to text with Speechify
The good: easy to use and the speech quality is excellent; the ability to create ebooks from documents or pdf files is very useful.
The not so good: The accuracy of its scanning feature is variable which may cause confusion for the listener, if text is incorrect/inaccurate. It’s expensive.
The verdict: For someone with reading difficulties this would be certainly an app to trial over a free three day period.
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