# Speaking Email - voice reader — Email reimagined in audio

> Voice-controlled email reader and manager for hands-free operation. (iPhone/iPad app by BEWEB LTD.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/speaking-email-voice-reader/id991406423 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [BEWEB LTD](https://appshunter.io/developer/991406422)
- Category: Productivity, Business
- Price: Free with in-app purchases (on sale, was $0.99)
- Rating: 4.50/5 from 206 App Store ratings · 77 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.0 · 33 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2015-07-07
- Data updated: 2026-08-26
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/speaking-email-voice-reader/id991406423/reviews.md

## What is Speaking Email?

Reads your email out loud, lets you reply and manage mail by voice commands.
Ideal for visually impaired users, driving, or anytime you'd like to check email hands free & eyes free. 
Premium Edition is free for 7 days. Then you are automatically switched to Basic Edition.
(Note for CarPlay users: see our other app 'Speaking Email CP')

— WHY DO I WANT IT? —

FOR DRIVERS

Get more time in your day when you check your email on the move.

Most people spend 1-2 hours in their inbox. With the help of Speaking Email during your daily drive to work, you can easily cut this time in half. Get more done, stay on top and keep a clean inbox.

Voice commands and simple gestures designed to be safe to use while driving give you the ability to archive, flag or even reply on the move.

(Note for CarPlay users: see also our other app "Speaking Email CP")

FOR ACCESSIBILITY

Makes email easy to use for those with visual impairment, blindness, dyslexia, stroke, motor dysfunction. Designed to be used without needing to see or touch the screen, Speaking Email works as a fully voice operated email app. 

Note: a sighted assistant or VoiceOver is required to sign into your email account and configure the many preferences to your liking. The rest is all voice controlled!


— HOW DOES IT WORK? —

Speaking Email reads your latest emails out loud from your inbox, one by one. Swipe left and right to play your inbox like a jukebox.

Whip through your inbox, clear clutter, flag important items and make inbox zero a reality - all while on the go. 

You can interact with your email using full screen taps, swipes and voice commands.

Voice recognition needs a trigger. You choose when to pause for a command - on full screen tap, every 30 seconds, at the start/end of emails.

— FEATURES —

- Smart content detection skips over disclaimers, reply headers, and email signatures to speak only the content without the clutter

- Multilingual mode automatically detects the email language and switches voices to match, using Apple text-to-speech voices

- Makes use of the latest Apple speech recognition technology lets you dictate your reply, which is read back to you before sending

- Our simple Ignore Sender command puts you in control, allowing you to avoid hearing emails from the sender in future

- Connects securely to all email servers, including Gmail (using Google Sign In), Microsoft 365 (aka Office 365 - using Microsoft Sign In supporting Intune, MFA and OAUTH), Exchange (via ActiveSync), IMAP, POP, iCloud (using app password), Outlook/Hotmail (using Microsoft Sign In), Yahoo (using Yahoo Sign In), AOL (using AOL Sign In) 

- Voice commands and buttons include:
Next 
Back 
Archive/Done 
Flag
Trash 
Reply
Forward
Ignore (thumbs down)
Important (thumbs up) 
Block Sender
Rewind 
Fast Forward
Compose
Search
Voice
Slower
Faster
People
When

- Many preferences to set up your experience how you like

— QUESTIONS —

Reach us at feedback@speaking.email
See our FAQ: http://www.speaking.email/faq
Feature tour: http://www.speaking.email

— RECOGNITION —
- Gizmodo
- "Highly Recommended" by Marc Saltzman in USA Today
- TV3 News (NZ), Sky News 
- The Australian, Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph
- NZ Herald, National Business Review
- Featured by Apple in Best New Apps
- Voted Most Fundable App by Context.IO
- Finalist in NZ Hi Tech Awards

— QUOTES —

“This is a nifty app, and one that will make driving a little safer for inbox addicts”—NBR

“My eyesight isn’t as it was years ago, and your Speaking Email makes it so much easier for me to keep in touch with folks” — Willis Hargrave 

“I absolutely love the app and being an outside sales rep in the car 4-6 hours a day find it incredibly helpful. It is literally freeing up and hour or 2 of time for me every day I am on the road by having a lot less time at the desk doing email. THANKS!!!” — Scott Middleton

https://speaking.email/page/privacy
https://speaking.email/page/terms-of-use

## Key features

- Reads emails aloud
- Voice commands for replies and management
- Hands-free and eyes-free operation
- Smart content detection
- Multilingual email support
- Secure connection to various email servers

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Premium Subscription | $4.99 | per month |
| Premium Subscription Annual | $34.99 | per year |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Premium Plan | $4.99 | one-time |
| Premium Plan 3 Months | $12.99 | one-time |
| Premium Plan 12 Months | $39.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Speaking Email?

Overall sentiment: mixed

**Pros**

- 👍 Life-changing for accessibility
- 👍 Great for visually impaired
- 👍 Excellent for ADHD/focus issues
- 👍 Time-saver for busy users
- 👍 Useful for commuting
- 👍 Allows email management on the go
- 👍 High degree of customization
- 👍 Superb customer service
- 👍 Handles high email volume
- 👍 Independent email use
- 👍 Simple and easy to use
- 👍 Innovative functionality
- 👍 Handles badly formatted emails

**Cons**

- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 🐛 Unreliable connection issues
- 🐛 Difficult to set up
- 🐛 Poor voice recognition/robotic voice
- 🐛 Battery drain
- 🐛 Excessive storage usage
- 🐛 Clunky interface
- 🐛 Annoying prompts
- 🐛 Cannot skip forward in emails
- 🐛 Difficult to edit responses
- 🐛 Voice too fast/gabbled
- 🐛 Frozen settings page
- 🐛 Emails disappear after reading
- 🐛 Not compatible with Outlook 365/Exchange
- 🐛 Muting issues with AirPods

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Keeps crashing
- Doesn't work reliably
- Granting Gmail access is buggy
- App crashes after an update
- Doesn't save place in emails
- Cannot skip forward in emails
- Cannot connect to emails
- Times out from mail setup screen
- Frozen in settings page
- Emails disappear after reading
- Unstable with Exchange
- Archived emails disappear
- Doesn't recognize passwords
- Cannot delete the app
- Hidden icon floating around screen
- Browser cookies disabled error for Gmail
- Too loud with AirPods
- Emails don't load properly

**Most requested features**

- Ability to search using voice command
- CarPlay support
- Apple Watch App for interaction
- Support for Exchange using Active Sync or Outlook Web Access
- Dark mode option
- Better voice quality
- Option to turn off voice command prompts
- Ability to set to only pull 'primary' for Gmail
- Improve editing of responses
- Better battery optimization
- Clearer understanding of settings
- Ability to save place in emails
- Search functionality

## Recent user reviews (10 of 77)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/speaking-email-voice-reader/id991406423/reviews.md

### 5/5 — I love this app!

*2026-03-27, version 3.0.9*

This app has been so helpful for me!  I use it with both my work and personal email and I really appreciate being able to file emails and write responses through the app. I looked for other ways to accomplish this, but I could not find anything this good! I highly recommend it!

### 1/5 — Crashes

*2026-03-11, version 3.0.9*

This keeps having issues and doesnt work & we are told there aren't fixes.  Works about 1 in 5 tries.

### 5/5 — Life changing

*2026-03-05, version 3.0.8*

My wife needed this for a few months while she was recovering. It was absolutely life changing! Easy to set up and easy to use. We had a minor issue and reached out to the support team. The resolved the issue quickly. We have recommended this to many friends and will continue to do so.

### 5/5 — Great app! Gave me functionality I could not find anywhere else.

*2026-02-05*

I really needed a way to get through my email while I was driving and out of all of the options I looked at, Speaking Email was by far the best one, nothing else was even in the running. I have been using it for several years and I can’t even say how much it has helped me stay on top of my email. This doesn’t just read your email to you but allows you to respond and file email, which is really what makes this better than any other product out there.

### 1/5 — Doesn’t actually work, and there’s no support

*2026-01-22, version 3.0.4*

Granting Gmail access  to the app  is very buggy. I tried multiple times to no avail, and without that the app is not usable.

### 5/5 — Life Line to outside world of family and friends

*2025-12-28, version 3.0.4*

My 95 year old mother has been using Speaking Email for 2 years . She is blind and immobile and without Speaking Email would not be able to hear from her family and friends in UK , Portugal , S.A ., Canada & USA. Speaking Email has enabled her to write and receive emails on a daily basis with complete independence . It has undoubtedly been her best and most valued addition to supporting the quality of her life in her 90th year when she list her sight .

### 1/5 — Useless garbage

*2025-12-09, version 3.0.1*

This app was bad to begin with; now, after an update, it crashes every thirty to sixty seconds. It does not save your place in emails, so you have to start over at the beginning… where it then crashes again before getting any further.

I’ve had this app a few years now and used it out of necessity now and again, but now it’s functionally useless. I’m deleting it now.

### 5/5 — Superb product !

*2025-10-09, version 2.9.5*

Great features from an excellent company. 

I have been using this product multiple times each day for several years and could not be happier with the absolutely outstanding set of features combined with unparalleled support from the developer.

This is an extraordinary product providing great assistance for those of us with low vision. It makes reading and replying to email simple and enjoyable. The degree of customization in every element of the program is wonderful, allowing preferences to be chosen for essentially every detail of how the program behaves. 

The developer, Mike Nelson, is a master of design and coding. He has been meticulous in crafting a beautiful product, and incorporating suggestions and improvements throughout my years of ownership.

This program apparently provides comparable benefits to those dealing with reading issues arising from dyslexia and ADHD. Combined with those for vision issues, the impact of his benefit to accessibility for all of us just cannot be overstated!

You will love this program. Seriously!

### 1/5 — Useless

*2025-07-10, version 2.9.4*

No way to set to just pull “primary” for Gmail, and the most recent email it pulled was 4 weeks ago. 

Also, it constantly prompts you for voice commands and I can’t easily tell how to shut this off.

The voice is also very robotic, does t come close to what else is on the market these days. 

All in all, I found no value from this app.

### 3/5 — Not that great

*2025-07-08, version 2.9.4*

It’s SUPER annoying to use.

## Frequently asked questions about Speaking Email

### What does Speaking Email do?

Speaking Email reads your emails aloud and allows you to reply to and manage them using voice commands. It's designed for hands-free and eyes-free email access, making it useful for drivers and individuals with visual impairments or motor difficulties.

### What are the key features of Speaking Email?

Key features include reading emails aloud, voice commands for actions like replying, archiving, and flagging, smart content detection to skip disclaimers, multilingual support, and secure connections to major email providers. It also offers customizable preferences for a personalized experience.

### How much does Speaking Email cost?

The app offers a 7-day free trial of its Premium Edition. After the trial, users are automatically switched to the Basic Edition. Further in-app purchases may be available for additional features or to unlock the Premium Edition permanently.

### What email accounts can I connect to Speaking Email?

The app securely connects to a wide range of email servers, including Gmail, Microsoft 365, Exchange, IMAP, POP, iCloud, Outlook/Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL. Specific sign-in methods are supported for each provider.

### Who would benefit most from using Speaking Email?

This app is particularly beneficial for drivers who want to check emails while on the move, individuals with visual impairments or blindness, and people with dyslexia, stroke, or motor dysfunction who find traditional email interfaces challenging. It's for anyone seeking a hands-free and eyes-free way to manage their inbox.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 4.0.2 — 2026-08-25

NEW! Listen while talking - continuous listening for commands option - you can now interject and say a command even while emails are being read out to you
See under Preferences > Voice Commands

### 4.0.1 — 2026-08-17

- Update for iOS26
- NEW! Continuous listening for commands option

### 4.0.0 — 2026-08-04

- Update for iOS26
- NEW! Continuous listening for commands option

Also:
- Command button setup screen now shows buttons that won't fit on screen in grey
- Improved language detection 
- Fixed groups not showing up after adding
- We have now added the ability to disable a language that has been accidentally added
- "Language" command lets you override which language the email should be read out in
- "Check" command checks for new mail immediately and goes back to the start of your inbox
- "Filter" command gives you instant access to change filtering on flagged, unread, and unplayed
- Improvements to "search" command

### 3.0.9 — 2026-03-06

Fix for Microsoft Intune causing crash

### 3.0.8 — 2026-03-04

- Improved speech recognition

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## More apps by BEWEB LTD

- [Quest NZ](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/quest-nz/id1436649994)
- [Speaking Email CP](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/speaking-email-cp/id1488221968)
- [Care on Call CareNet Payroll](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/care-on-call-carenet-payroll/id1588676815)
- [Florence CareNet Payroll](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/florence-carenet-payroll/id1607901935)

All apps by BEWEB LTD: https://appshunter.io/developer/991406422

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-26.*
