Review Insights · App Store
Speechify - Text to Speech PDF
Speechify Inc. · 469,119 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
469,119 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 70 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"read"
18 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money. Okay it’s good and all but I mean it’s money and plus when I try to let it read it only does the default robot voice which is hard to follow along with" - MayBay;
2
"book"
18 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not worth it. It put random words into the book that weren’t actually there while reading, put word from the line under it into the current line. After I got to chapter 18, all of the pages I had scanned in for it to read. IT DELETED IT ALL!!" - Just wanted to finish the book
3
"free"
14 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Voice. This app seems like a great idea, but the robotic AI voice is unbearable to listen to. The only way to access more natural, human-like voices is by paying an absurd monthly fee. It would be much better if users could purchase individual voi…" - jjjubilee
4
"money"
11 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money. Okay it’s good and all but I mean it’s money and plus when I try to let it read it only does the default robot voice which is hard to follow along with" - MayBay;
5
"voices"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Voice. This app seems like a great idea, but the robotic AI voice is unbearable to listen to. The only way to access more natural, human-like voices is by paying an absurd monthly fee. It would be much better if users could purchase individual voi…" - jjjubilee
6
"books"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not actually 5 stars. Money you need money to get books" - Spread the word about th
7
"trial"
9 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ ".. It does work but you have to either pay or use the trial to use the voices and if you dont you can only use the annoying AI sounding voice. I was excited too use this app but deleted it because im 15 and can not pay for the other voices." - your mom 1001
8
"does"
8 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money. Okay it’s good and all but I mean it’s money and plus when I try to let it read it only does the default robot voice which is hard to follow along with" - MayBay;
9
"hard"
8 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money. Okay it’s good and all but I mean it’s money and plus when I try to let it read it only does the default robot voice which is hard to follow along with" - MayBay;
10
"library"
8 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why?. You can find audiobooks online if you have a library card or completely for free if you have YouTube or Spotify" - Invasion FC
11
"voice"
7 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Voice. This app seems like a great idea, but the robotic AI voice is unbearable to listen to. The only way to access more natural, human-like voices is by paying an absurd monthly fee. It would be much better if users could purchase individual voi…" - jjjubilee
12
"subscription"
7 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Voice. This app seems like a great idea, but the robotic AI voice is unbearable to listen to. The only way to access more natural, human-like voices is by paying an absurd monthly fee. It would be much better if users could purchase individual voi…" - jjjubilee
📋 All 70 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Not working
Not working stuck on Gwyneth
App review
The soo has a great concept, however the deliverables fail.
Pick the voice you want to read the passages. The preview reveals clear intelligible speech.
Upon actually downloading the app and listening to its presentation, I realized that the material delivered was well below my expectations and below what was promised.
The voices do sound make and female. However the voice no matter whom the speaker is reported to be sounds like the old televisions show of a tinny voice by a robot.
Intonation is lacking and acute pronunciation of standard American words taught in elementary school,
The optics to me are a gross failure. I have since deleted the app and strongly recommend against it, and I was hopeful.
I enjoy hearing literature and reports on my device while I do activities around the home or while driving.
Hopefully the developers will pay attention. Of not we will be teaching our children, teens and young adults
Inferior speech and thought patterns. A straight recording by stated narrators would be the beginning of a vast improvement. This in an area that AI fails profoundly.
And I would like to see our language preserved snd not poorly spoken and integrated. Thank you.
Pick the voice you want to read the passages. The preview reveals clear intelligible speech.
Upon actually downloading the app and listening to its presentation, I realized that the material delivered was well below my expectations and below what was promised.
The voices do sound make and female. However the voice no matter whom the speaker is reported to be sounds like the old televisions show of a tinny voice by a robot.
Intonation is lacking and acute pronunciation of standard American words taught in elementary school,
The optics to me are a gross failure. I have since deleted the app and strongly recommend against it, and I was hopeful.
I enjoy hearing literature and reports on my device while I do activities around the home or while driving.
Hopefully the developers will pay attention. Of not we will be teaching our children, teens and young adults
Inferior speech and thought patterns. A straight recording by stated narrators would be the beginning of a vast improvement. This in an area that AI fails profoundly.
And I would like to see our language preserved snd not poorly spoken and integrated. Thank you.
Why?
You can find audiobooks online if you have a library card or completely for free if you have YouTube or Spotify
NO customer service
I didn’t approve the premium membership & have been charged. ALL the instructions via app, website & FAQ lead to dead ends. I’ve also sent an email & currently waiting close to 30min for AI support & now told “someone” will get back to me within 24hrs
No.
So, it looks good. But why do you have to pay?? Why can’t we just read without paying? You made this app so we could read so why do we have to pay… I can’t read anything on this. I just want to read my book.😭
.
It does work but you have to either pay or use the trial to use the voices and if you dont you can only use the annoying AI sounding voice. I was excited too use this app but deleted it because im 15 and can not pay for the other voices.
Waste of money
I scanned 5 books, only 1 of these books were in their library AND it only had the first two pages! What a joke!
Too complicated
Haven a hard to with just getting started
Money hungry
Yall i just wanted a passage read to me but nope it cost for them to even do that. It's not even worth paying for anyways.
Devs- do not reach out to this account this app id a lost cause because of greed.
Devs- do not reach out to this account this app id a lost cause because of greed.
Pay for books
It gives you a library but you have to pay for books. I already had audible at least everything was covered paid for
Have to pay to use it
Even if you own the book they still want you to pay again
Don’t
Terrible app. There’s no clear way to cancel the membership inside the app, which feels completely misleading. You get pushed into paying, and then still have to pay extra for content you actually want. Total bait-and-switch. Avoid.
Huge money grab
You essentially have to buy the book again through their library to read it. Does not allow you to listen to the full book.
.
Looked for an app where I can have a dramatic voice narrate an essay. Got an app that locks AI voices behind a subscription.
Incorrect charges
I did NOT approve this charge because I was on a 2 day trial. I would have never signed up for a year subscription when they didn’t have the books I wanted to hear.
really glitchy after getting premium
Idk why but the quality just keeps getting worse. I tried continuing a book I started yesterday and the ai is unable to read the words it was reading perfectly yesterday. I tried to delete the book and redownload it to try and fix it but the app is so buggy I can't delete the file. 130 dollars down the drain I guess. I could have just got a kindle.
Misleading Advertising!
Concept is great and when I see in the video ads a user slapping their phone down on the cover of a printed book and immediately being able to listen to it as audio I start getting excited. I have a good collection of printed books I would rather listen to than read. Unfortunately, the only way I can listen to one of my hard books on speechify is to import a digital pdf, which I don’t have because I bought the hard copy, or to take pictures of each page of the book, which I don’t have time to do!
Horrible
I spent all this time making it what I wanted and then it just wouldn't let me use the voices and then told me I needed to subscribe. Nothing on here is free.
Would not suggest
Way too much money for a reading app
Disappointed
I had as this app before and had to drop it as it’s too hard to scan each page of a book to be read. Now that I’m disabled without user ids one arm, I saw the app again and it looked as though it had been upgraded. As though just the title of the book downloaded it. NOT! I feel as if I was tricked. Note I can’t find the way to çancel my subscription for a refund. Very disappointed.
Speechify
U have to pay for it and that’s so annoying
Useless App
This app sucks. The 3-day free trial is a scam. It tried to charge me $139.99 on the 2nd day. This app isn’t even worth $5, let alone $139. While reading it skipped over words, couldn’t stay consistent with speech speed, and sounded inauthentic. I hate AI so much more now. Don’t even waste your time. If I could give a negative star review, I would.
Cannot access kindle library
They claim that you can access your kindle library to listen to those books. This is a lie. There is no way to access your kindle library with this app.
Warning!!! Do not buy this app
This company depicts in there add, an easy transition from a picture of a book cover to text to speech of the entire book. This is untrue. You need to make additional purchases from Amazon.
The voices
I found out that most of the voices aren’t free I asked the ai how might I access other voices for free because usually so voices are t natural and it wasn’t it sounded bad and I couldn’t fix it so here I am
Operational instructions
Your tv ads and actual practice do not jell. I can’t get the picture of a book to a readable format. What am I missing.
What is with the onboarding??
I was trying to find an app to read a few articles for me, and after 10 minutes of answering questions and taking surveys and clicking through things, I gave up, looked elsewhere and found out the iPhone has an embedded feature that does this for free as opposed to $140/yr.
Not in the library
None of the books that I have tried are not in this library of books. The ad makes it sound like it would read any book.
Horrible
It took forever to set up then it couldn’t handle the 280 pages I tried to paste into it. I should have stopped when I realized it was a pain just to get started.
Horrible
It’s good and all but what they DONT tell you is that you have to pay for EVERYTHING!!! literally everything there is nothing you don’t have to pay for
MONTH OF HORROR!
I tried to use the trial version of this app and immediately after, it tried to charge me almost $150!! It tried to charge every card in my Apple wallet. My cards suspected fraud and I had to get new cards just a full nightmare. I reached out to their customer service and they were absolutely no help. They stated that because I purchased the Apple through Apple there was nothing I could do. They don’t even have a customer service to speak to for an app trying to charge $150. I’m so happy that an Apple employee was able to verify that they charged me immediately after purchasing the trial. He urged me to leave a review to warn others so the same didn’t happen to them! I thought this was a great idea but after that experience I will never use Speechify again!! I wish 0 stars was an option. In this economy, I cannot afford a $150 loss! Extremely disappointed.
Not worth it
This app does not work like they’re trying to tell everyone. You cannot just take a picture of the cover and it will read the entire book for you. You have to take a picture of each every page. If this app works differently than what I was able to make it work somebody needs to show me. Because I tried every button after paying for it. If you need somebody to read a book for you, go to your local library and join Hoopla, Libby, or the cloud. Those are free.
Why an unskipable intro?
.
Good
I would give it 5 stars
The app sucks
Too expensive for something that barely helped with assignment
And books
And books
Something wrong with app
Please check your app it won’t let me download or pay it goes on apple but my card is good I check it’s on on your side
Horrible
I never used it idk how I have a subscription! And it won’t let me unsubscribe!! I want this unsubscribed RIGHT NOW
Scam! SCAM!! And for the back row, SCAM!!!!
I tried to buy a book and it took the money from my account (TWICE) but never gave me access to the book! I tried getting the money refunded and the “person” (Rohan…😒) just gave me a link to an apple page to “View the invoice”…. WTH AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE INVOICE..? The invoice wont give me my money back! Plus before they had taken the double book money, I had tried to add funds to my acc to purchase the book with. Once again the money was taken from my account but NOT added on the account. I just want a refund and am trying to get just that! I do NOT recommend this app and will be uninstalling it immediately after I get my $30 back. Please Don’t be scammed as well!!
Not Cool
I opted for the three day trial, app said it would remind you when trip is up, got no reminder and was charged the only option for purchasing app which is an annual price of $139!
It doesn’t read the scanned pages the way audible reads books, hard to scan pages, this app sucks balls!
It doesn’t read the scanned pages the way audible reads books, hard to scan pages, this app sucks balls!
SUCKS
This is one of those apps that says it’s free but then for you to actually be able to access everything you have pay! Also the pay is ridiculous, 3$ per week! Don’t get this app!
Why do you have to pay 😡
I wanted to let you guys read but l had to make an account l did but you have to pay make a guest account so. So it’s easier
Doesn’t Work as Advertised
Cannot skip forward or backward to a new chapter; app continues playing at the same location.
Customer support was working on this issue, based on numerous emails and information I provided at their request but when my free trial ended (six hours early) all communication stopped.
The voices are good and sound real but I really need to be able to move forward and backward in a book.
Customer support was working on this issue, based on numerous emails and information I provided at their request but when my free trial ended (six hours early) all communication stopped.
The voices are good and sound real but I really need to be able to move forward and backward in a book.
Was charged after canceling free trial and can’t even speak to a human
I thought I would give Speechify a try And took advantage of their three day free trial. I was notified that my trial was about over and I immediately went to The app and canceled any subscription. The next day I was charged for a year worth of Speechify. I have been trying to get in touch with someone specifically a human and as of yet cannot speak to anyone about this. Speechify, you have stolen my money I was going to consider subscribing in the future possibly but after this situation, I will not.
Apple products
Tried using this with my iPad and couldn’t get it to work properly. Wish you’d tell people upfront this program doesn’t work with IOS.
Thieves
Canceled same day as i did not like that app. They stole 138$ and would not refund. Beware. Not to be trusted.
Document download
Worked great for the 2 years that I have been a premium member. Now that I am 2 weeks from a promotional exam I am having technical problems with some of my documents loading. I get error messages and very little customer service to find the issue so I can proceed with using the app. I will most likely be canceling the service after my exam.
For an accessibility app, it’s not realistic and needs improvement
Takes way to long to get to the tool, you have to pay for a membership (and that’s not advertised in the initial download) only a 3 day free trial, and basically just way too long to set up the feature and too expensive. They would sell way more memberships by lowering cost. Most people seeking text-speech support are disabled and not doing well financially!
Hard to Cancel
Speechify doesn't want me to cancel, and they are winning!
This app sucks!!!!!!!!
The app is not at all like the adds and has horrible AI voices do the reading, which by the way requires you to take a picture of each individual page of the book. I scanned multiple books none of which were in their “ library”. How can you advertise as a audio book app when you don’t provide a audio book or a decent app
Frustrated
This app at first seemed great I have been using it to help me go through a text book. Sometimes it say wild
Things but for the most part it has been good. Now when I try to add the photos from my book it won’t recognize them and constantly puts them out of order. Really disappointed since is payed the $$$ for this app and it’s basically been unusable for me
Things but for the most part it has been good. Now when I try to add the photos from my book it won’t recognize them and constantly puts them out of order. Really disappointed since is payed the $$$ for this app and it’s basically been unusable for me
+ 20 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
92%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
5%
Negative (1-2★)