Speech Central vs Aloud

Speech Central has been built for focused, serious reading since 2014. It works across PDFs, web articles, books, and documents. Designed for productivity and accessibility, it combines powerful controls, deep customization, and seamless integration across Apple devices. No subscription. A one-time upgrade unlocks unlimited use. Free access is available for blind users with VoiceOver and for schools deploying the app through Apple School Manager. READING WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS Optimized PDF & Web Reading • Accurate reading order and navigation • Optional cleanup to reduce distractions such as headers, footnotes, citations, and links • RSS support and easy sharing from Safari and other apps Broad Document Support • PDF (including scanned PDFs with two-column layout) • EPUB • Word (.docx) • PowerPoint (.pptx) • OpenOffice formats • HTML, TXT, RTF, Markdown, and more VOICES: OFFLINE AND CLOUD AI • Use high-quality Apple system voices offline • Supports compatible system-wide voices from third-party apps, including offline neural voices from Piper - Neural TTS and ToBe SAID (Pocket TTS) apps • Connect cloud AI voices (OpenAI-compatible APIs, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, xAI) using your own API keys • Proprietary enhancement layer improves realism and streaming playback • Optional AI summarization tools help you review content more efficiently BUILT FOR THE APPLE ECOSYSTEM • Sync reading position and playlists across iPhone, iPad, and Mac • CarPlay support for listening and control in your vehicle • Independent Apple Watch app — listen without your iPhone nearby • Optional Health integration to track mindful listening time ACCESSIBILITY FIRST • Dedicated profiles for ADHD, dyslexia, and low vision • Interface and reading behavior adapt for reduced distraction and improved comprehension • Fully accessible with VoiceOver STUDY & KNOWLEDGE TOOLS • Annotate while reading • Export annotated text to .docx • Export text to audio files for offline listening PRIVACY BY DESIGN • No ads • No tracking • No usage analytics WHO USES SPEECH CENTRAL • Students and researchers • Professionals converting reading into listening time • Users who rely on assistive reading tools • Anyone who prefers distraction-reduced, hands-free reading Notes: - Free version limited by the number of daily articles; unlimited access available with Pro upgrade. - Some features require the latest OS version. - License is valid only on iOS/watchOS; separate licenses required for other platforms. - DRM-protected books (e.g. Kindle) are incompatible. - AI features may occasionally perform unexpectedly.

Aloud reads articles, PDFs, EPUB books and any text you paste in a natural voice made on your iPhone. There is no subscription, no ads and no tracking, and nothing you read leaves your phone. Share an article from any browser, open a PDF or an EPUB from Files, or paste some text. Aloud reads it sentence by sentence and keeps your place. FOR THE READING LIST YOU NEVER GET TO Saving articles is easy. Finding an hour to read them is harder. With Aloud you can get through them on the commute, on a walk or while doing the dishes. Turn on autoplay and it announces the next piece and keeps going. FASTER, IF YOU LIKE Listen at anything from 0.5× to 3× without the chipmunk sound, and turn on Shorten Pauses to trim the silence after each sentence. At 2×, a thirty-minute article fits a fifteen-minute walk. The voices are made on your iPhone, with no server involved. That is why Aloud needs no account, doesn't meter your listening, and keeps working in airplane mode. Each voice downloads once: about 190 MB for the English voices and about 390 MB for the voice that reads the other thirty languages. After that you don't need the internet to listen. WHAT IT READS • Web articles: share from any browser or paste a link, and Aloud keeps just the story • PDFs, including scanned ones, which are recognized on the device • EPUB books without copy protection, from any chapter • Any text you paste, from notes to your own drafts • Your saves from Pocket or Instapaper, imported in one go TWO LANGUAGES, AND IPHONE DUO • Translate a piece on your iPhone and read the original and the translation side by side • On iPhone Duo, the cover screen is a large player and the open display shows the page READ ALONG • The sentence being spoken is highlighted • A rail in the margin shows the whole document. Hold it and slide to move through it • Your place in each document is saved as you go • Speed from 0.5× to 3×, with the time remaining adjusted to match • A sleep timer that fades the voice out at the end • Reader mode hides the player so you can read the page yourself • Find in article, plus your choice of size, font, paper and column width ON THE GO • Keeps reading with the screen locked • Lock Screen and AirPods controls: play, pause, skip 15 seconds • Optional autoplay moves on to the next piece when one ends • Two shelves, To Read and Read, sorted by date, length or title, with search across titles and sites • An optional unread count on the app icon FOURTEEN VOICES Ten US and UK English voices, and four voices that read thirty more languages, all made on your iPhone. For any other language Aloud uses the system voice. Tap a voice to hear a sample. PRIVACY Once a voice is on your iPhone, Aloud makes no network requests to read to you. Your phone fetches articles the way a browser does, and the voice models download once from a public host. Extraction, speech, your library and your listening history stay on the device. The App Privacy label says "Data Not Collected" because the app has nowhere to send data. ONE PURCHASE Aloud is free to try. The free shelf holds three pieces, with every feature included. One purchase removes the limit for good. There is no subscription, and your listening is never metered. People use Aloud for long articles, research papers, contracts, fan fiction and their own writing. If you rely on spoken text every day, we would like to hear what you need next.