BrailleTalk vs Listen 2 Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BrailleTalk
This application reads Braille electronic books aloud using synthesized voice on iOS devices. It offers customizable reading speeds, pitch, and volume, along with features like bookmarking, word searching, and free navigation within books. Users can download books from online libraries or cloud storage.
- Reads Braille electronic books aloud
- Customizable reading speed, pitch, and volume
- Bookmark specific pages
- Search for words within books
- Navigate freely through volumes and pages
- Download books from online libraries
- Supports Dropbox integration
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Braille Talk is an application that reads out Braille electronic book using synthesized voice incorporated into iOS devices, such as iPhone or iPad. If you are qualified, you can get a Braille electronic book from Sapie (Japan), or Bookshare (USA) by registering on-line library. It deals with various kinds of voices. Since it corresponds to various voice types embedded in iOS, you can select the voice of your choice. Customize sound settings You can freely set the speed, pitch and volume of reading. Check the word during reading loud One sentence is displayed during reading loud, you can check the detail explanation of the character on the screen. Move freely reading place You can move freely to any volume, page, line, heading, pageslider. Set bookmark You can place bookmarks on any specific page and jump to reading location where you set the bookmarks. Word Searching Enter any character, and you can move to the exact reading position. Downloading books You can download books by logging in online library by the Safari, or others, finding the book then downloading through Braille Talk. You also store books in online storage, such as Dropbox. Supported OS after iOS 8.0 Devices iPhone、iPad、iPod touch Contact nbs-support@nbs.co.jp How to use http://www.nbs.co.jp/ios/daisytalk/use.htm
Listen 2 Reader
This app converts text to natural-sounding speech using on-device neural TTS engines. It supports various document formats and offers advanced voice tuning and word-level highlighting for an immersive reading experience without cloud reliance or subscriptions.
- On-device neural text-to-speech
- 100+ voices in 13 languages
- Voice tuning and presets
- Import PDF, EPUB, DOCX, and more
- Word-by-word highlighting
- AI figure descriptions
- True offline privacy
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Listen2 runs neural text-to-speech directly on your iPhone or iPad without connecting to cloud services. No subscription or accounts — just a 7 day free trial and then a one-time purchase. Most text-to-speech apps either use the tried and true system voices or require monthly payments for cloud processing. Listen2 runs neural voice models locally using your iOS device's CPU and Apple Neural Engine, giving you natural-sounding speech without ongoing costs or privacy tradeoffs. WHAT MAKES LISTEN2 DIFFERENT Multi-Voice Engines, One App Piper provides reliable neural voices across 13 languages. Supertonic offers a fresh take on a voice engine — flow-matching models running on Apple's Neural Engine via CoreML for natural rhythm and expressive speech. Choose from 100+ voices in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Greek, Hindi, Vietnamese, Swedish and Hungarian. More coming. Voice Tuning Adjust the model parameters of any voice to suit your preferences. Save presets to switch between profiles. Preview pronunciation rules before saving them. Import Anything PDF, EPUB, DOCX, DAISY, markdown, plain text, clipboard, or web articles. Share from Safari and Listen2 extracts the article text. Paywalled content works (even sites on which other major TTS apps fail) when shared from a browser where you are logged in. Machine Learning Word Sync CTC forced alignment matches audio to text at the word level. Watch each word highlight as it is spoken — across Latin and non-Latin scripts alike. Highlighting engine newly re-build to be lean and efficient that's dramatically easier on your battery life. Smart Document Reading Multi-column layout handling, footnote filtering (for PDF files), hyphenated word rejoining. AI Vision for scanned PDFs. Full EPUB, DOCX, and DAISY support. Figure Descriptions On-device AI vision generates spoken descriptions of figures, charts, and photos as you listen. For non-English documents, descriptions translate automatically via Apple's on-device Translation framework. (Works with EPUB and PDF as a first roll-out) Pronunciation Rules Fix how any word is spoken without changing display text. Rules for names, terms, or abbreviations. Live preview before saving. Built-in presets for footnote markers. Global or per-document. Doesn't break highlighting. True Offline Privacy Processing, normalization, and synthesis all happen on-device. Documents never leave your phone. No uploads, account, or tracking. FEATURES - 100+ neural voices across 13 languages, plus dozens of Apple system voices - 3+ engines: Piper (broad language support), Supertonic (high-fidelity CoreML, flow-matching models), and Kokoro. Apple system voices offer efficient, quality options if using enhanced or premium models. - Voice tuning with saveable presets - Word-by-word or sentence highlighting - PDF, EPUB, DOCX, DAISY, TXT, Markdown support - AI figure descriptions with auto-translation (PDF and EPUB support) - Collections with intros, cover art, and auto-advance - Web Article Collections — batch articles into an auto-playing queue - Clipboard import and Siri shortcut support - 0.5x to 2.5x playback speed (Kokoro supports up to 1.4x because of real-time constraint) - Background playback with lock screen controls - Import from Files, links, Share Extension, or other apps - Export any document as a plain-text file from the library - Pronunciation rules with live preview - Atkinson Hyperlegible and OpenDyslexic fonts - Full VoiceOver support with rotor navigation and Magic Tap - Elapsed and remaining time in now playing & reader view. WHO IT'S FOR - Commuters turning drive time into learning time - Students reviewing papers and textbooks - Professionals handling confidential documents privately - VoiceOver users looking for a fully accessible TTS reader - Readers with dyslexia who benefit from audio-visual sync - Anyone tired of TTS subscriptions One-time purchase. 7-day free trial. No subscriptions.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Listen 2 Reader at 100% against BrailleTalk's 75%. BrailleTalk's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 18.2). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. BrailleTalk sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Listen 2 Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
BrailleTalk ships an update every 9 days, Listen 2 Reader every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BrailleTalk | Listen 2 Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.8 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 13 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 18.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 185 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | New Braille System K.K. | Zach Swift |
Customer experience
BrailleTalk
Listen 2 Reader
In-app purchases
BrailleTalk
- Full Version$69.99
Listen 2 Reader
- Listen2 Full Access$19.99








