Comparison

Shadowing vs TalkTime

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Shadowing

Practice listening and speaking skills with this language learning tool. It automatically segments audio, allows for sentence repetition, and provides subtitle support for various languages. Import your own materials and track your progress.

Highlights
  • Automatic audio segmentation
  • Adjustable playback speed
  • Subtitle import and translation
  • Import local audio/video files
  • Vocabulary and sentence saving
  • Export learning content
Features
Read full description

Shadowing - English Player supports listening and shadowing practice in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean and other languages. Import your own materials and practice sentence by sentence at your own pace. LISTEN AND REPEAT • Automatically split audio into phrases. • Loop the current sentence or set the playback count for each sentence. • Adjust playback speed and switch between normal speed and a second speed. • Set pauses between sentences for dictation, speaking and shadowing. LEARN WITH SUBTITLES • Transcribe speech to check words you missed. • Translate subtitles and compare the original text with its translation. • Import SRT subtitles and match files with the same name for segmentation. • Hide text to listen first, then reveal it to check your understanding. ORGANIZE AND REVIEW • Import MP3 audio, MP4 video and other materials from Files or via WiFi transfer. • Save vocabulary and difficult sentences for review. • Export learning content as PDF, Word and SRT files. Speech recognition and translation availability depends on your device, operating system and selected language. AUTO-RENEWING SUBSCRIPTION • Duration: 1 year. See the in-app purchase screen for pricing. • Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm your purchase. • Your subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Renewal is charged within 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account subscription settings. Privacy Policy: https://github.com/BestVault/Declares/blob/master/Privacy.md Terms of Service: https://github.com/BestVault/Declares/blob/master/TermService.md

About

TalkTime

Enhance foreign language skills through listening and reading with custom sentence learning. Supports multiple languages and offers automatic translation, pronunciation, and grammar analysis. Includes recall tests to reinforce learning.

Highlights
  • Learn with custom sentences
  • Automatic translation
  • Generate example sentences
  • Automatic pronunciation
  • Recall test function
  • Grammar analysis
Features
Read full description

TalkTime is an AI-powered language learning app that improves your skills by listening to and reading real-world content: - Supports 10 languages: Chinese / Japanese / English / German / Korean / Cantonese / French / Spanish / Thai / Russian - Learn with content that interests you - Study any language using another language - Supports reverse input for bilingual learning - AI-powered sentence translation - AI-generated natural voice for every sentence and word - AI extracts and analyzes vocabulary with part-of-speech, phonetics, and definitions - iCloud sync across devices — your data stays secure and private About Subscription: The app offers a subscription to unlock unlimited use. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription in App Store Account Settings. Terms of Service: https://talktime.shu.dev/terms_of_service Privacy Policy: https://talktime.shu.dev/privacy

Screenshots

Shadowing4 screens
TalkTime4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Shadowing at free with in-app purchases against TalkTime's subscription. Shadowing also leads on ratings volume (245 vs 12). TalkTime's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 5 weeks) and review sentiment (100% vs 84%). On price, rating, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Shadowing sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per year and TalkTime sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Shadowing against 4.7 for TalkTime. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shadowing has 245 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 84% of Shadowing's written reviews are positive against 100% of TalkTime's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shadowing ships an update every 5 weeks, TalkTime every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Shadowing versus TalkTime: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShadowingTalkTime
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (245 ratings)4.7 (12 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings245 — better12
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size140 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer秀平 罗Shumin Yu

Customer experience

Shadowing

All ratings244 ratings
Positive90.2%
Neutral4.1%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews110 reviews
Positive83.6%
Neutral5.5%
Negative10.9%

TalkTime

All ratings12 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Shadowing

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • Continuous playback interval adjustment not working
  • macOS app crashes on audio import
  • Crashes when selecting subtitle files
  • M4a/M4b file import causes high-probability crashes
  • Membership lost after app updates
Show 5 more
  • Rating window submission fails on macOS
  • Sequential playlist doesn't resume from beginning for listened items
  • Landscape mode not functioning
  • URL import functionality not working
  • Subscription unavailable error messages

Requested features

24 requests
  • Fullscreen mode for video with subtitle toggle
  • Keyboard shortcuts for navigation (arrow keys for previous/next sentence)
  • Bluetooth headphone controls for sentence navigation
  • Background playback functionality
  • iCloud synchronization across devices
Show 19 more
  • URL import directly from YouTube
  • Single-sentence subtitle toggle mode
  • Highlight current playing sentence with special color
  • Multi-color sentence marking capability
  • Manual sentence segmentation/editing tools
  • Share sentence segmentation with other users
  • Recording/shadowing functionality
  • A-B repeat feature
  • More playback speed options (beyond 1x, 1.2x)
  • Auto-scroll toggle for text positioning
  • Glossary search functionality for marked words
  • Text-to-audio generation from imported text
  • Landscape mode support
  • macOS desktop version
  • Skip checkbox for unfamiliar content during review
  • Silence-based automatic sentence splitting
  • Word-level clickable dictionary
  • Customizable resource naming
  • Playback control bar hide option

TalkTime

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Shadowing

Subscriptions1
  • Premium for Annual$2.991 Year
One-time1
  • Premium Member$14.99
2 purchases

TalkTime

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$2.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Shadowing free?
Shadowing is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is TalkTime free?
TalkTime is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Shadowing or TalkTime?
TalkTime is rated higher. Shadowing averages 4.6 out of 5 from 245 ratings, while TalkTime averages 4.7 from 12 ratings.
Do Shadowing or TalkTime have ads?
Neither Shadowing nor TalkTime shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shadowing or TalkTime?
Shadowing ships an update every 5 weeks, and TalkTime every 8 days. Most recently, Shadowing was updated on November 7, 2026 and TalkTime on November 4, 2026.

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