# Voice Dream - Natural Reader — user reviews > 711 indexed App Store user reviews of Voice Dream by Voice Dream LLC, rated 4.50/5 from 14,153 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/voice-dream-natural-reader/id496177674/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/voice-dream-natural-reader/id496177674.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 11,129 · 4★ 1,159 · 3★ 569 · 2★ 263 · 1★ 1,033 ## What do users think of Voice Dream? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Excellent productivity tool - 👍 Customizable reading experience - 🔍 Useful for academics and research - 🎨 Supports a variety of file formats - 🔊 Natural-sounding voices **Cons** - 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes - 🔢 Issues with numbers and abbreviations - 📚 Struggles with complex text formatting - 💰 Expensive subscription model **Commonly reported bugs** - Inconsistent behavior when importing files - Unreliable iCloud syncing - Jumps in playback position **Most requested features** - Improved table of contents and navigation - Ability to annotate and highlight text - Syncing across multiple devices - Better support for mathematical content ## Newest reviews (13 of 711) ### 4/5 — Excellent but voice config has gotten worse *2026-08-10, version 5.5.6* I have used VoiceDream for years and it’s been an amazing app. Recently, the voice selection and configuration has gotten difficult to user. For example, adjusting voice speed seems very glitchy. I think some of the speed config doesn’t apply to the AI Enhanced voices and instead different config needs to be used, but a) that’s bad UI even tho no doubt there are technical reasons behind it, and b) at least the inapplicable config should be unavailable for voices it doesn’t apply to. In addition, personally I don’t value AI summarization and similar features within VoiceDream at all. I can always use my favorite AI chat interface to summarize any document easily and with full control. The unique feature I use VoiceDream for is to read the original or summarized doc to me *with a great, easy to use, bug-free* interface, and that is where the devs should maintain their laser focus IMO. ### 3/5 — Bug *2026-08-09, version 5.5.6* When reading an EPUB file aloud, it often keeps looping the same section of content over and over, as if it were a bug. This didn’t happen before. ### 4/5 — Voice Dream over Microsoft Edge *2026-07-26, version 5.5.6* Works better than Microsoft. Voices are too robotic, please change it! Thanks. ### 3/5 — Accessibility degrading steadily *2026-07-20, version 5.5.6* This app was the gold standard in versatility and elegant interface for reading with screen reader. New features such as AI summary are still not accessible although it was reported to developers. It still remains a powerful app compatible with many text and audio formats, but it feels like focus of developers may be less a-tuned to accessibility considerations. Still one of my main reading apps for taking notes while reading. ### 2/5 — Ehhh *2026-07-17, version 5.5.6* An absolutely ungodly amount of call to actions before you can even begin to give the product an actual run through. If you misclick anywhere, you can no longer access certain offers or options, and truthfully this userflow has been so frustrating that it shows that the application is built by marketing and not engineering, and I can’t trust it to deliver as a result. ### 4/5 — I have loved this app for years but recently *2026-07-11, version 5.5.6* Since they added AI voices and AI features into the app, even though I’m not using them, using Voice Dream makes my phone heat up intensely and eats through my battery very quickly (and sometimes it’s so hot that it won’t let me charge the battery until it cools down - and this is on a iphone that’s only about a year old! I can’t imagine how it would work if it were any older. I’ve tried several apps, I came back to this one, but I’m going to have to move on if they don’t fix this soon. ### 2/5 — Not impressed *2026-07-07, version 5.5.5* When I scan a book it doesn’t do a good job getting the words correct a lot of mistakes which is super frustrating ### 1/5 — Inexcusably Buggy, and Getting Worse *2026-06-29, version 5.5.5* Once upon a time, this was the gold standard of accessible reading. This app is the reason I stopped using an ancient reading device from 2003 that ran on AA batteries, used a very robotic-sounding voice, and required software that only runs on Windows XP. For a bookworm, it was life-changing. So it doesn't bring me joy to do this, in fact I've put it off for a long time. But my experience using this app has become so consistently frustrating that I don't know how much longer I can do it. I speak only for myself and the people I know who also use the app. First, audiobooks, because it's simple: When I listen to a zipped audio book, VoiceDream occasionally skips entire chapters. I realized this when I had just started a new book and the app skipped from the end of chapter 1 to the beginning of chapter 3. It's very easy to miss this if you're not paying attention to chapter numbers, so if you find yourself confused often when reading audiobooks, you might want to check that you've actually listened to every audio file within the book. I stopped using it for audiobooks, so I don't know if this was fixed, but I heard another complaint about it in early 2026 so it would have to be a very recent fix. When I read ebooks, the behaviour is very buggy in a complex way, and mostly seems to affect Bluetooth audio devices like AirPods. I'll just describe individual things that I experience, but it all seems to be linked back to some critical problem with the way it works. I use system voices, specifically Eloquence. If I pause the book from my AirPods and then immediately unpause it, nothing happens. As in, the book stays paused indefinitely. I have to go over to my phone and play it from there. When I take out one AirPod and put it back in, the book resumes, even if it was previously paused. This is useful as a way of unpausing the book, but very annoying when I'm trying to do something else on my phone, I shift the position of my AirPod, and I suddenly hear the book I haven't been reading for three hours. When I open the app after pausing from AirPods, the interface shows that the book is playing, even though it's not. If I pause the book and leave the app in background, it doesn't let go of the audio device. I know this because I occasionally use hearing aids, which use a different sound profile when audio is being streamed to them over Bluetooth. When I pause my book, the hearing aids don't exit this mode until I force-quit VoiceDream on my phone. I also use a multipoint Bluetooth device which connects to more than one device, playing audio from only one at a time. Normally, when I pause Spotify or YouTube or a certain alternative reader app which is very EASY to use, I'm then able to interact with my Apple Watch and hear the audio through the headset. However, since VoiceDream never lets go of the audio device, I have to force-quit the app before I can use my watch. Multipoint is terrible and I don't blame VoiceDream for the way my headset works, but that behaviour does prove to me that VoiceDream is leaving the audio device open. And lastly, sometimes VoiceDream seems to lose its handle on the audio playback and doesn't correctly account for it. So whether I use AirPods, the lock screen, or the play button in the app itself, my book simply will not play. This happens at least twice a week, and it just happened to me after I swapped from one pair of AirPods to the other, which is what prompted me to write this review. Once again, I had to force-quit VoiceDream before I could read my book again. All of this results in a hilariously bad reading experience on Bluetooth, and the only reason I haven't ditched this app is because I still use wired headphones often. But when I don't, I have to pause and unpause from my phone, and if I forget to do that, I have to remove one of my AirPods for a couple of seconds and put it back in before my book will resume. And even then, it very often doesn't, leaving me to stop whatever I was doing, unlock my phone, and restart the app for the eleventeenth time that day. I can confirm that many of these issues are more than six months old, but I binge-read several audiobook series in another app over the course of more than a year before switching back to VoiceDream in mid-2025, so I suspect many of the bugs described here have existed for much longer. I really enjoy this app, I used to have good email threads with its original developer, and I really hoped the acquisition would not result in longterm bugs like this, but these are reproducible, frequent, disruptive bugs. I sincerely hope this app gets better, because if the experience for others is anything like my own, it is in critical condition and on life support. Update (June 2026): I'm getting a daily pop-up asking why I unsubscribed from this app. It is not accessible for VoiceOver users at all, to the point that I can't dismiss the pop-up without closing and reopening the app. The only accessible part is re-subscribing to the app. It's very clear that the developers implemented this screen without actually testing it with a screen reader, and that is completely inexcusable when blind people make up a large chunk of their audience. ### 1/5 — Sounds terrible *2026-06-25, version 5.5.5* This sounds awful. DON’T BUY! I purchased it for a month and even the paid versions are terrible. NaturalReader was much better and I’ll still with that. If I could , I’d give it a zero. ### 1/5 — Я бы хотел возврат средств за покупки *2026-06-25* Покупал программу с желанием заплатить один раз и пользовался издатель поменял это правило на подписку по своему усмотрению я бы хотел чтобы мне вернули мои деньги ### 1/5 — Shadow Charging *2026-06-25, version 5.5.5* I was charged even though when I did free trial; I did not have a charge card attached to the account. After I added the card, the subscription section had no Voice Dream app listed as being due for Annual Subscription. So if person does a free trial, and there is no credit card attached; it will go into hiding and drag along for who knows how long. The fact that there is no card indicates that subscriber is not interested in anything other but the trial. Please contact me to resolve this. Thanks ### 1/5 — no. *2026-06-22, version 5.5.5* why do I need a subscription to unpause it?? I can’t even read with this app. ### 4/5 — Mostly good, but voice selection is quite confusing *2026-06-21, version 5.5.5* First of all, I would like to thank you for develope this app. At the beginning, the voice selection is very good: a clear button for playing sample and downloading. It vividly divides into category like American English, British English. But now, the voice selection is mixed up. I have to scroll a long list to find the voice I want. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Whew!!!!! *2026-08-11, version 5.5.6* Fix the bugs!!! The app shuts down for no reason. It speeds up or slows down, it turns off and it takes days to upload books. Most importantly tho my books are starting to disappear 🤦🏽‍♀️ 08.11.26 For some reason all of my covers are reverting to a standard VDR cover 😡 the standard cover books go to the top of the list hundreds at a time. I’ve created a folder to put these books in just to get them out of the way, however every few days they come back. In the middle of reading my book will stop I press play and it reads back a few sentences. When I go back to my home page all those books are right back again. I’ve moved 1300 books that have lost their covers. This is why I cancelled my subscription. ### 1/5 — 👎 *2026-08-11, version 5.5.6* Stupid！！！ ### 1/5 — Not working *2026-08-05, version 5.5.6* I’ve tried to get in touch with these people and they don’t respond. It’s not working and I paid for it. Customer service is not taking care of business ### 1/5 — This app has gone downhill *2026-07-28, version 5.5.6* What happened to this app? I used it a few months ago and it worked great. It still sounded a bit robotic, but it wasn’t terrible. Obviously not perfect; but good enough to listen to. Well, I signed back up and paid for a year and it’s horrible now. For example, it pronounces the word “I’ve” as “ivy” and says the word “period” when there is a period present. And now, the integrated kindle app stopped working. I’m really frustrated and disappointed. ### 1/5 — Scam app *2026-07-22, version 5.5.6* I didn’t free trial on this app, it renewed, so I cancelled the subscription and deleted my account. A year later they continue to take the annual subscription fee from my account despite me cancelling the subscription and account. Their support email also bounces back. ### 1/5 — Nightmare app *2026-07-20, version 5.5.6* Difficult to use. Confusing interface. Try to change speed of the voice. Good luck finding how to do so. Want to skip a page? Good luck. ### 1/5 — No trial? *2026-07-18, version 5.5.6* I will not even consider buying a Read Aloud without knowing what voices are included or available. Consider that if you want to increase customer engagement. ### 1/5 — Freezes in MacOS-Cannot Install *2026-07-06, version 5.5.5* The installation stops at the enhanced voices window. And then there is a menu box at the top that says “Type to Speak”. The only way that I could get rid of that is by installing a new MacOS version. I still have not been able to install this application on my Mac computer. I don’t know what’s gonna happen when I try to install Voice Nightmare! Help! ### 1/5 — exigindo assinatura de quem já comprou *2026-06-30* eu comprei o aplicativo pagando o preço cheio e agora aparece uma tela exigindo que eu participe do período de testes e faça uma assinatura. e não tem como fechar essa tela. total desrespeito aos usuários antigos. a assinatura deveria ser opcional para quem já comprou o app. ### 1/5 — Early adopter- punished *2026-06-30, version 5.5.5* I paid for lifetime access prior to the integration of AI and now the voice I paid for does not work anymore. Waste of money ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — MRNONAME *2026-08-10, version 5.5.6* This kind of software make life of so many people so much easier and this specific one doing a great job. Keep on doing what you’re doing guys. ### 5/5 — Great *2026-07-29, version 5.5.6* Need more updates and not try to recharge me ### 5/5 — A true Study Aid *2026-07-22, version 5.5.6* Great App, easy to adjust, bring a voice to help out with reading ### 5/5 — Love it- Voice Dream *2026-07-17, version 5.5.6* I have been using this app for years, and I appreciate it. I like all the different aspects of it—the apps. I have Asperger‘s. I have a high IQ, but still, I need somebody to read something to me to understand what’s being read fully. it’s been one of the best investments I made myself. They got me to college and even working all these years. All my employers will install it as a see even dictation is better. I also use Grammarly. ### 5/5 — Vision and great resources *2026-07-07, version 5.5.5* This is one of them. This program on my phone got me through a very rigorous graduate level program with honors. I was able to listen to all textbooks and articles with ease. I could adapt the speed the color. The print. ### 5/5 — Beats Speechify for academics! *2026-06-29, version 5.5.5* Got this to read my research material for my PhD. Was working full time and taking care of my family. Voice dream’s bookmark and highlight feature allows you to tab sentences while on a run or a drive and lets you export only your tabbed text into a single txt file with the push of a button! Saves me weeks of time writing notes, trying to find them for papers/dissertation, etc. Phenomenal app! ### 5/5 — Thank you for being fair to existing users. *2026-06-10, version 5.5.5* Thank you for being fair to existing users. ### 5/5 — Just my experience *2026-06-06, version 5.5.5* I’ve struggled with reading my entire life — in school, trying to keep up with classmates, and later at work, trying not to fall behind my colleagues. I tried so many reading apps over the years. Most were expensive, and even then, they still couldn’t do what I needed. Voice Dream changed everything for me. The first time I used it, it felt like a locked door finally opened. Suddenly, I had access to a world that had always felt out of reach. This app has become part of my daily life, and I genuinely love it. If you have a learning disability related to reading or writing, I highly recommend giving Voice Dream a try. It made a real difference for me, and it might do the same for you. ### 5/5 — Voice Dream reader recommendation *2026-06-05, version 5.5.5* I find this a very good effective app to use and it is easy to navigate and I would recommend it to most vision impaired. ### 5/5 — Best app *2026-06-03, version 5.5.5* This is best app --- *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 2026-09-02.*