Read the same paragraph four times? Opened a 200-page PDF and closed it straight away? Engrossed is a reading app for people who find it hard to focus.
It gives you three ways to take in a page, a quick check-in at the end of each part, timed reading sprints and read aloud, all on your own PDFs and EPUBs.
THREE WAYS TO READ. SWITCH ANY TIME.
• Sentences: a few at a time, cut where sentences end wherever the text allows. No wall of text.
• Flow: the whole text, with everything but your place dimmed.
• Pace: one word at a time, at a speed you set.
A CHECK-IN AT THE END OF EACH PART
One short question, such as "In one line, what was that about?" Say it to yourself and carry on, or read it again. "Remind me" can show how each paragraph began.
SPRINTS WITH A VISIBLE END
A reading timer you can see, then a nudge to take a break. Twenty minutes by default. Change it or turn it off.
OR LISTEN
Read aloud with your device's own voices, and keep listening with the screen locked on iPhone. Prefer ElevenLabs voices? Paste in an API key from your own ElevenLabs account.
HONEST NOTES IN SETTINGS
Most settings carry a short note on what research does and doesn't show about them. Bolding the starts of words is there if you like the look. It's off by default, and its note says plainly that it isn't shown to help.
TEXTBOOKS, PAPERS, REPORTS AND NOVELS
In a PDF, diagrams and charts are pulled out and redrawn sharp when you zoom in, and you can jump to the page number printed on the page. Close a book anywhere and it reopens one step back, so you reread the last few sentences before going on. A PDF needs selectable text and an EPUB can't be copy-protected (scanned pages and DRM books can't be read).
MAKE IT YOURS
Four themes, four typefaces, and your choice of text size, line spacing and line width.
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
No account. No ads. No tracking. Your books stay on your own devices. The app connects only to Apple's App Store and, if you choose ElevenLabs voices, to ElevenLabs, which receives your key and the few sentences being read aloud.
ON iPhone Duo
Fold it shut for a few sentences at a time, open it for the whole text, at the same place. Stand it half open like a laptop, with the text on top and Back, Next and the timer below. Shut it while you're on your shelf and the outer screen shows where you left off. Open, the shelf and check-ins fill the wider screen.
ON APPLE WATCH
Listen to the books on your iPhone's shelf from your wrist. The text moves on with the voice, so the words on screen are the ones being read, and you can scroll the passage being read with a finger. While it reads, the controls fade so the words get the whole screen. Turn the Digital Crown for volume. Your place moves between the watch and the phone.
On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
Show more
