Speech Central AI Voice Reader

I already reviewed this app once but after using it for a few more months I felt the need to review it again. Because I use this app every day. Multiple times a day. I truly feel like I got an absolute steal when I paid one time for this app. I have a ADHD and if I am listening to a book or a article or a story then I have to do something with my hands. I can't just sit there and listen. And I really really enjoy listening to stories and things that I don't have the patience to sit down and read. So I listen and I clean or I cook or… Basically it helps me get things done because I wanna keep listening and so I have to keep moving. Lol. When I'm cooking I will have it on the counter and I can listen as I get everything ready and I don't get bored the same way so I'm more liable to actually do it. I also use it most days at work just to have something in my ear while I'm working. Artificial voice can be a little offputting but honestly at this point I hardly notice. The value I've gotten is beyond any other app I can think of

I have mainly used two reading apps before this one, ElevenReader and then Capti. ElevenReader was free, then it started trying to change insane amounts of money, so I had to find an alternative. I used and loved Capti (which was completely free, and unlimited) for a while, but then the company shut down the service. I was heartbroken about it, as I have very long days and love having something to listen to besides just music. I was searching for an alternative that wasn’t over priced for simple text to speech, but also wasn’t extremely robotic and unlistenable. Then I found Speech Central on the App Store, and while I didn’t have high hopes, I tried it out. I was very pleasantly surprised, not only are the voices free, but they’re good! After a few days, I bought the $10 upgrade, which is a one time payment! A rarity theses days! It’s compatible with car play, which I greatly appreciate because I drive long hours often. I have noticed a few issues / glitch’s here and there, such as there being soft static in the background of the audio when used in the car, but other than that the rest are very manageable and barely noticeable when they do happen. This app is 100% worth the $10 payment, and I hope that the dev(s) keep up the great work!

I have always aspired to be a reader, but struggled to read. My work around was to use iPhone’s integrated text to speech accessibility function. What is helpful about this app is that it highlights the words as it reads so you can read along. This is similar to Microsoft’s Immersive Reader. I would suggest adding a couple features that are already integrated in Microsoft’s Immersive reader like more variety on the background colors that are easier on the eyes (Microsoft has a soft green that helps with the contrast between words). Opportunities for improvement to the current functionalities: 1) User friendly integration of RSS feeds - the website following functionality is clunky and confusing. Look at how the RSS Reader App collects unread articles from your favorite sites and then you can click read more for the entire article. It would be niece to have that automation integrated into this app. 2) The most useful thing would be Smart scan camera integration. You can already input already scanned pdfs. But imagine being able to take a picture with your phone’s camera of a piece of physical paper for the app to be read to you. I currently use a third party scanner. But it would be nice to have it all integrated into the app.