Comparison

Blabby vs Shade Compass

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

Head to head
About

Blabby

This app reads typed text aloud in real-time, word by word. Save frequently used phrases as presets and display sentences in large text for easy viewing. Supports multiple languages with quick switching.

Highlights
  • Real-time text-to-speech
  • Quick Presets for phrases
  • Large text display
  • Multi-language support
  • No ads or tracking
Features
Read full description

Blabby is a text-to-speech app designed to be a joy to use. What you type is read out loud in real time, word by word, so your conversation partners don’t have to wait for you to type the entire sentence. And there’s no need to type the same things over and over! Commonly used phrases can be saved as Quick Presets for one-tap access, or to the Bookmarks. Sometimes text is the most effective way to communicate. Blabby displays your sentences in huge letters, so you can just show someone your screen, even at a distance. Polyglots can easily enable multiple languages and quickly switch between them. English (UK and US), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish are supported. If your language isn’t supported, please email feedback@kaylees.site and let me know. And obviously: no ads, no tracking, no data collection, no account required, no dark patterns. Blabby was built with love and patience. I hope you’ll enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed making it!

About

Shade Compass

Visualize the sun's path and your shadow's position throughout the day. Plan outdoor activities, photography, or gardening with augmented reality features and detailed celestial data.

Highlights
  • Live sun and shadow visualization
  • Augmented reality sun path
  • Object shadow casting
  • 24-hour time scrubber
  • Golden hour and twilight alerts
  • Moon and planet tracking
  • Seasonal sun path analysis
Features
Read full description

See where the sun will be, where your shadow will fall, and exactly where the shade lands — at any hour, at any spot on earth. Then keep going: garden planning, fishing and hunting windows, UV, air quality, tides, golden hour, and the night sky. Point your phone and the live compass orients to the world around you. Sun direction and altitude sit right on the dial, your shadow is drawn opposite it at true length, and sunrise and sunset are marked at the exact bearings they cross the horizon — with times corrected for the ridge in front of you, not just the flat math horizon. Drag the time scrubber and watch the whole day play out — perfect for a campsite, a patio, a photo shoot, a garden bed, or the shady side of a trail. SEE THE SHADE IN AUGMENTED REALITY • Point the camera and watch the sun's real path trace across your actual yard • Drop a tree, canopy, umbrella, vehicle, pergola, or solar panel and see its true cast shadow • Play a sunrise-to-sunset time-lapse and watch the shade sweep the scene • Tap any spot to read its hours of direct sun — today, or averaged across the year • Scan the whole yard for a full sun-and-shade map (iPhone Pro models with LiDAR) FOR THE GARDEN • "What grows here" — plants scored against your hardiness zone, soil, and measured sun • Frost-anchored planting windows: start indoors, direct sow, transplant, harvest • Projected harvest date and frost margin before you commit to a seed • Lock in a grow plan and push its reminders to your calendar in one tap • Watering guidance from rainfall, evapotranspiration, and a running soil-water balance • A household planner that sizes a garden to actually feed your family FOR ANGLERS, HUNTERS, AND SURFERS • Best Times windows for trout, bass, big game, birds, small game, and surf • Built from sun and moon position, season, and light at your exact coordinates • Fly hatch charts by region, lures with how to fish them, and a reading-water guide • Knot library with step-by-step instructions and a 200-term field glossary • Tides from NOAA harmonic data, plus buoy wave height, period, and direction • River flow and water temperature wherever there's a gauge nearby FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS AND STARGAZERS • Golden hour, blue hour, civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight, and true dark • Sunset quality scored from the cloud layers overhead before you drive out • Starting exposure for the light you're in, plus light direction and polarizer guidance • Moon phase, rise, set, and bearing; visible planets and an AR planet finder • Milky Way, meteor, and aurora windows, with live Kp and solar activity A WEATHER APP BUILT FOR BEING OUTSIDE • Current, hourly, and 10-day, plus a 7-day strip you build from 23 metrics • UV burn timer tuned to your skin type, with safer windows • Air quality with a likely cause — wildfire smoke, ozone, a winter inversion • Weather alerts, frost warnings, and a Lock Screen rain nowcast where available • Thirty years of local storm history and the months that carry the most risk • A plain-language read on whether today is actually worth going outside for ON YOUR WRIST, LOCK SCREEN, AND HOME SCREEN • Apple Watch app — dial, today, live conditions, and best times — plus complications • Widgets for sun, shadow, moon, UV, and the day ahead • Live Activities for golden hour, rain, UV burn, and your next prime window • Ask Siri for a shade report anywhere ANYWHERE, EVEN OFFLINE • Sun, moon, shadow, planting, and every field guide compute on the device itself • 32,000 cities offline, exact coordinates, dropped pins, saved places carried by iCloud • Any date, past or future — plan an October trip, or compare June to December • Month-by-month daylight hours, sun path, and bearings across the whole year One purchase covers iPhone and Apple Watch. No ads. No accounts. No subscriptions. No tracking. No data collection. Just the sun, your shadow, and a straight answer about the day ahead. Frequent and Responsive updates for feature requests and bug fixes!!

Screenshots

Blabby4 screens
Shade Compass4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Blabby at Free against Shade Compass's $0.99. Blabby also leads on ratings volume (12 vs 2) and iOS requirement (16.6 vs 18.0). Shade Compass's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 4 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Blabby is free to download; Shade Compass costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Shade Compass holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Blabby has 12 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Blabby ships an update every 4 months, Shade Compass every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Blabby versus Shade Compass: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBlabbyShade Compass
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.8 (12 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings12 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS16.6 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB1.2 GB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKaylee CalderollaIra Seferovich

Customer experience

Blabby

All ratings12 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews11 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Shade Compass

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Blabby

No in-app purchases

None

Shade Compass

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Blabby free?
Blabby is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Shade Compass free?
Shade Compass costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Blabby or Shade Compass?
Shade Compass is rated higher. Blabby averages 4.8 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Shade Compass averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Blabby or Shade Compass have ads?
Neither Blabby nor Shade Compass shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Blabby or Shade Compass?
Blabby ships an update every 4 months, and Shade Compass every 10 days. Most recently, Blabby was updated on October 9, 2026 and Shade Compass on October 10, 2026.

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