Buggy
Very buggy. Support does not respond to reports. Biggest pain is the requirement for multiple logins — which of course you can’t while you are driving.
Almost there!
I came across this app when I asked Perplexity to list any available apps that would see and read my email via CarPlay.
I was a bit concerned when I saw the most recent update was nearly 2 years before the time of this posting, however, the free price was low enough so I figured I’d try it out.
In short, this is exactly what I was looking for!
It still works, I was able to add my google apps account email, and it displayed my unread messages.
I immediately paid for two of the four extra features, and was able to reply to messages as well. I plan to purchase the remaining features of nothing else to support this developer.
All that said, there are a few things that could use improvement.
The interface is a little sluggish and I did need to force restart the app after purchasing the upgrades to be able to successfully dictate a reply.
Also, it doesn’t seem to refresh very often to catch the new email as they come in, I’m unsure if that’s because the app sometimes gets pushed to the background or if that’s a function of me running iOS 26.
Last little thing is that the phone app needs to be running in order to dictate new messages or read existing messages. The developer helpfully explains this and the reasoning behind it in their FAQ, I just wish that there were a way to have it work with the app running in the foreground. For now, I’ve just set an automation to automatically start the app when I connect to CarPlay.
All in all, this is the app you want if you want to safely monitor email whilst driving and hopefully the other minor issues are resolved in the future!
I was a bit concerned when I saw the most recent update was nearly 2 years before the time of this posting, however, the free price was low enough so I figured I’d try it out.
In short, this is exactly what I was looking for!
It still works, I was able to add my google apps account email, and it displayed my unread messages.
I immediately paid for two of the four extra features, and was able to reply to messages as well. I plan to purchase the remaining features of nothing else to support this developer.
All that said, there are a few things that could use improvement.
The interface is a little sluggish and I did need to force restart the app after purchasing the upgrades to be able to successfully dictate a reply.
Also, it doesn’t seem to refresh very often to catch the new email as they come in, I’m unsure if that’s because the app sometimes gets pushed to the background or if that’s a function of me running iOS 26.
Last little thing is that the phone app needs to be running in order to dictate new messages or read existing messages. The developer helpfully explains this and the reasoning behind it in their FAQ, I just wish that there were a way to have it work with the app running in the foreground. For now, I’ve just set an automation to automatically start the app when I connect to CarPlay.
All in all, this is the app you want if you want to safely monitor email whilst driving and hopefully the other minor issues are resolved in the future!
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Decent App With Lot More Potential, In App Prices 2X What’s Listed Here
I loved having Cortana read my email, reply, take other actions, including accepting or declining meetings, etc. on my calendar while using Microsoft Outlook on my iPhone while driving. For some reason, Microsoft killed that functionality. (Full disclosure I am an Apple and Mac user for more than 40 years, but my day job is with Microsoft for the last 12 years).
I was happy to see this app and have installed the free version and it works quite well. I wanted to be supportive of the developer and also get the additional functionality using the in app purchase option.
Be aware that in-app prices for all the various functions are double what are listed here in the Apple App Store details section. I have emailed the developer about it.
The bigger challenge I have run into is that even though it runs fine with my personal imran.com email, my real need was to be able to read and respond to literally the several hundred emails a day that come through my work email account.
Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of enterprise customers will have something block this app from accessing outlook email for exchange email servers — which I can easily access through Outlook for iPhone and mail for iPhone.
Not sure what the problem there is. This is just based on my first attempt. So that is one major caveat, which may or may not apply to your situation but is taking away 80% of what my primary use for this would have been.
Hopefully this detailed review helps you make use of this app which has a lot of potential. I also emailed the developer asking why there isn’t a single button premium combo purchase for all the additional functionality (instead of having to make four or five different actions to add the functionality in parts). Let’s see what I find out.
I was happy to see this app and have installed the free version and it works quite well. I wanted to be supportive of the developer and also get the additional functionality using the in app purchase option.
Be aware that in-app prices for all the various functions are double what are listed here in the Apple App Store details section. I have emailed the developer about it.
The bigger challenge I have run into is that even though it runs fine with my personal imran.com email, my real need was to be able to read and respond to literally the several hundred emails a day that come through my work email account.
Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of enterprise customers will have something block this app from accessing outlook email for exchange email servers — which I can easily access through Outlook for iPhone and mail for iPhone.
Not sure what the problem there is. This is just based on my first attempt. So that is one major caveat, which may or may not apply to your situation but is taking away 80% of what my primary use for this would have been.
Hopefully this detailed review helps you make use of this app which has a lot of potential. I also emailed the developer asking why there isn’t a single button premium combo purchase for all the additional functionality (instead of having to make four or five different actions to add the functionality in parts). Let’s see what I find out.
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Exactly what I need!
The user interface it's a bit confusing but it does what it has to do! Love it!
Response from developer
Thanks for your review! We are fairly limited within the CarPlay structure on user interface. But we have now released a new version with several new CarPlay tabs for more functionality.
Won’t load
Downloaded from App Store and the screen tries to load. Goes from 72-84 and starts over.
Response from developer
Hi, this issue is now fixed! Please download again from the App Store.
Didn’t work
This app hangs at the 365 login and asked for you to log in when not connected to car play, although it’s not connected. Rubbish app.
Response from developer
Sorry to hear it did not work when you tried signing in with your Microsoft 365 account. This usually works whenever we have tested it. Also it usually detects connection to CarPlay properly, we have not seen that issue either. Perhaps try rebooting your phone.
Best App for Triaging Email While Driving
I live just a few minutes away from work. My typical routine used to be (1) wake up late; (2) look at email and commence experiencing panic; (3) shower while panicking; (4) get ready while panicking; (5) drive to work while panicking; (6) get to work and begin playing email tennis for a few hours.
Now, I wait until I’m in the car and then I use SpeakingEmail to triage my email. Sure, I could process email and do all my responses via SpeakingEmail but I prefer to just get rid of all the email that doesn’t really require much action or is just junk. I use the unsubscribe and block commands
to deal with all the unsolicited email that I get. I also forward emails to TickTick or Todoist for my GTD workflows.
You’re probably thinking: why not just use Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook both of which have text-to-speech functionality. Well, Apple Mail is incredibly limited in what it can do. Outlook uses Cortana which has a fantastic natural sounding text-to-speech engine. But the downside is that it is so focused on sounding human and friendly that it takes over a minute for each email to be read out.
No other voice-based email app has the level of customization that SpeakingEmail has. I love it and the main reason I wrote this long review is that I hope someone else reading this will also find it and get the same benefits that I do.
Thank you guys for making this app. You have greatly reduced my chances of dying of a heart attack.
Now, I wait until I’m in the car and then I use SpeakingEmail to triage my email. Sure, I could process email and do all my responses via SpeakingEmail but I prefer to just get rid of all the email that doesn’t really require much action or is just junk. I use the unsubscribe and block commands
to deal with all the unsolicited email that I get. I also forward emails to TickTick or Todoist for my GTD workflows.
You’re probably thinking: why not just use Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook both of which have text-to-speech functionality. Well, Apple Mail is incredibly limited in what it can do. Outlook uses Cortana which has a fantastic natural sounding text-to-speech engine. But the downside is that it is so focused on sounding human and friendly that it takes over a minute for each email to be read out.
No other voice-based email app has the level of customization that SpeakingEmail has. I love it and the main reason I wrote this long review is that I hope someone else reading this will also find it and get the same benefits that I do.
Thank you guys for making this app. You have greatly reduced my chances of dying of a heart attack.
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Very buggy
Works some of time but mostly not.
Update:
It appears that the developer abandoned this software as it’s totally broken and no updates since it’s release. Avoid it unless you wish to waste cash.
Developer, please fix this app as it’s terribly buggy. I would delete it but I purchased the two in app purchases prior to testing.
Update:
It appears that the developer abandoned this software as it’s totally broken and no updates since it’s release. Avoid it unless you wish to waste cash.
Developer, please fix this app as it’s terribly buggy. I would delete it but I purchased the two in app purchases prior to testing.
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Response from developer
Sorry to hear you had a poor experience. This is not at all correct, we have not abandoned development, we are providing support and working on ongoing feature improvements, and the software is working perfectly according to our testing and feedback from many users. If it is still totally broken please email us on feedback@speakingemailcarplay.com with a detailed description of the problem and we will investigate. If you wish to get a refund for the purchases this can be request through Apple.
Worked fine now it’s broken
Wired fine at first. Just recently it just loads and loads until it tells you something went wrong. Needs fixing.
Response from developer
I believe this issue was fixed. Please try again and let us know if you are still experiencing this, by using our in app support form or emailing feedback@speakingemailcarplay.com
Spaeaking Email
Saves me time actually as I can listen to emails on my commute. Love it!
