Outread: Speed Reading

Whole heartedly recommend, especially if you consider yourself to have ADD. I generally don’t go in for the whole speed reading thing. I think it’s a flashy, cool thing to market to people who are wrapped up in the hustle culture we find ourselves in. Reading faster is not necessarily productive. I do love that I can pace my reading though, because I often get distracted. I enjoy being able to see how much time I’ve spent *actually reading*, not just counting the amount of time I’ve sat down with the intention of reading. Both the pacing and the time tracking have done wonders for me. I’ve spent 30 mins a day for a week reading at 200wpm (which is not very fast) and I’ve noticed considerable improvement in my ability to read text I encounter in my day to day. This app has already paid for itself in my opinion. This is a comfortable reading speed for me and I’m able to retain full comprehension. It’s the pacing that’s the magic ingredient. The app acts as a finger guiding your eye across the text and it gets you in the zone quickly. I didn’t think this was possible for me and I’m delighted. In its most basic form, it’s simply a tool to help you practice reading, and you get better at what you practice. Developers: When I’m browsing for a book to read, I would love to see the estimated time to complete the book. This could reference the users current wpm setting, or provide a generic range of speeds and times required for completion. A truly worthwhile app. Thank you.

Though I haven’t tried out the app yet, I chose this reader because the developer’s privacy policy states that customer data will not be sold. The developer does use Google Firebase so I looked up the privacy policy for that service provider, which states that end user data usage is determined by the customer’s (app developer’s) policies. Other reader apps do not provide this level of privacy protection. I’ll update this review after I’ve had enough time to make an opinion on it. Update: I’ve given it a few weeks now and I have significantly improved my reading speed. I love how easy it is to import articles and books. However, there’s already a good library of books included in the app, so users may not even need to import any books. I recommend this app for increasing reading speed without losing comprehension.

[Attention: when trying free demo, explore the app for a while because some features you might not see are hiding—some in the settings and others in plain sight. How Outread is not at the top of some best-of-apps-category list makes me question if it’s the fault of the dev for the user interface or if apple isn’t promoting it for some reason. ] Without naming names, I have previously purchased a different speed reading app, tried a few more, even began a free trial on a subscription (as if the little app was some service) that was a complete waste... then tried my luck with Outread. Did the “Welcome note” and got a speed-read tour of the app’s features and when I went to load my thick epub... I needed to buy the full version... SOLD. The modest price (read non-subscription) makes me feel like I can support the dev without bleeding money on months I might not use the app. One price, and it stays snugly on my home screen ready for a new book, should one present itself. I can say that I would only like some guide lines above,below, and on either side of my active words—along with center letter highlighting—and Outread would be much closer to a speed reading app-killer. But as it stands now, it already is. My fear is the developer placed the “flashing” method of reading behind a more traditional reading method that is harder, and potential new users see that and uninstall, not even knowing this app does it. The price, current features, and compatibility make this one app the best I’ve used THUS FAR. FYI, I believe I read this app is English-only.