TTS: Voice Aloud Reader, a text to speech app for iPhone

What can you do with it?

Get text into the app

Type or paste into the box Type or paste text to read aloud…, or fill it from a source. File loads a PDF with a text layer, a TXT or an RTF file. URL downloads a web page and keeps its readable text. Scan recognises printed text in one photo, from Camera or Photos.

Listen your way

Pick any installed voice in the Voice menu. Speed runs from 0.50x to 2.00x and Pitch from 0.10x to 2.00x; a speed around 1.25x works well for text you already half-know. Tap Speak, and use Pause, Resume and Stop while it reads. The highlighter icon next to Scan turns on word highlighting, so the word being spoken is shown in bold on a coloured background.

Keep it as audio

The tray-with-arrow icon beside Stop saves the reading as an M4A file (AAC, 128 kbps) and opens a player with a share button. Batch turns a list of short texts into one M4A file each.

Study, translate and act out a script

• Study splits your notes at blank lines and repeats each section, speeding up from Start to End.
• Translate (iOS 18+) turns the text into one of 12 languages, then Read Translation reads it.
• Podcast reads a script written as Name: text lines, giving each name a different voice automatically.
• History keeps your last 500 readings on the device so you can load one again.

Quick start

1. Open the app and paste your text into the box, or tap File, URL or Scan to bring text in.
2. Open the Voice menu and choose a voice that matches the language of the text.
3. Adjust Speed and Pitch if you like. Both go back to 1.00x each time you open the app.
4. Tap Speak. Use Pause and Resume to continue from the same word; Stop ends the reading.
5. To keep the reading, tap the tray-with-arrow icon, wait for Exporting audio…, then share the file from the player.

What is free and what PRO adds

Everything is in the free version: all installed voices, including the ones marked [Premium] or [HD], file, web and photo import, highlighting, Study, Batch, Podcast, Translate and History. Free users get 1,000 characters a day for Speak and for saving audio, plus 500 more for every rewarded ad watched to the end, and the count resets at 00:00 UTC, not local midnight.

The free version shows ads: a card on the main screen, a full-screen ad after some readings and imports, and one when you return to the app. The optional PRO upgrade (weekly, monthly, yearly or a one-time purchase) removes the daily limit and all ads, and nothing else.

Privacy, offline use and permissions

Speech is produced on your device, so reading and saving audio both work offline once a voice is installed. URL, the first Translate language download, ads and purchases need a connection. No account, no sign-up.

Camera access is asked for only when you tap Scan then Camera; Photos uses the system picker, which hands the app just the one picture you choose. Saying no to the tracking prompt after the first run only makes ads non-personalised, nothing breaks. History stays on the device and is never synced anywhere.

Where it falls short

The one that trips people up most: there is no background-audio mode. Lock the phone or switch apps and the reading stops, full stop, so keep the screen on while it works through anything long.

• The voices are Apple's own iOS voices, nothing more; no AI, cloud or Siri voices.
• Scanned, image-only PDFs, normal EPUB books and Word files load no text at all.
• Saved audio is reachable only from the share button right after saving; there is no export library to go back to later.
• iPhone and iPad, iOS 17.6 or later. No Apple Watch, Mac or CarPlay version. The Android app on Google Play is separate, and its features can differ.

It is a reading tool, not a medical, therapy or certified assistive device.