Mi Speaks vs Simple Voice Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mi Speaks
Convert text to speech and read along with highlighted words. Import content from various sources, including images and PDFs, for offline playback. Premium features offer cross-device syncing, unlimited input, and audio file sharing.
- Text-to-speech conversion
- Import text from images and PDFs
- Background playback
- Highlight spoken words
- Offline compatibility
- Cross-device sync (Premium)
- Share audio files (Premium)
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Mi Speaks reads your books, articles and documents aloud in voices that sound genuinely human — generated on your device, never in the cloud. STUDIO VOICES — PREMIUM Twenty-eight neural voices, American and British, male and female. They run entirely on your iPhone: nothing you read is ever uploaded, and they work in airplane mode. Blend two voices together to make one of your own. READ ALONG Every word is highlighted as it is spoken. Import a PDF and you can follow along on the real page, with the word lit where it actually sits — not a transcription of your book, but your book. FIND YOUR PLACE Jump straight to any chapter of an imported PDF. Mi Speaks remembers where you stopped, on every device. Skip from chapter to chapter right from the lock screen. BEFORE YOU PUT THE PHONE DOWN Studio Voices need no connection once they are installed, but generating them uses the graphics processor, and iOS will not run that while an app is off screen. Prepare Full Document renders every sentence up front — after that there is nothing left to generate, so it plays to the end with the screen locked, in another app, or on a flight. And if you haven't prepared a document, reading still doesn't stop: any passage that isn't ready yet is read in your own system voice, and Mi Speaks offers to prepare the rest for next time. FREE, WITH NO TIME LIMIT + Read documents of any length + Import text, PDFs, photos of pages, and anything from the share sheet + Live word highlighting, background playback, lock screen controls + PDF page view and chapter navigation + Keep 3 documents in your library, each remembering where you left off + Resume Reading widget on the home and lock screen + Works completely offline PREMIUM ADDS — IN-APP PURCHASE * Studio Voices — all 28, on device * An unlimited library, in sync across iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch * Every playback speed from 0.5x to 2x, plus Turbo * Export anything to an audio file you can keep Premium is an optional in-app purchase: a 7-day free trial, then a Monthly or Yearly auto-renewing subscription. There is also a one-time Lifetime purchase if you would rather not subscribe. Studio Voices need a one-time download of about 325 MB. This uses Apple's Standard Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Simple Voice Reader
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Simple Voice Reader is a free text-to-speech app for iPhone and iPad that reads pasted or typed text, TXT files, RTF files, and PDFs aloud. Open supported documents from Files, use the import button, or drag text and files directly into the reader on iPad. American English Apple system voices work immediately. For the best Apple voice quality, download Apple's free Enhanced and Premium voices in Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices > English. On compatible iOS 26 devices, you can also download an optional American English Kokoro voice pack with Heart and 19 other natural voices. The pack is about 170 MB, downloads once from Apple, and can be removed at any time. Use Simple Voice Reader when you want to listen instead of read: long articles, notes, drafts, manuals, study material, book chapters, accessibility material, or anything else you can paste or import. Choose a voice, adjust speed, change the reading font and size, start from the cursor, pause and resume, and follow the highlighted words as the reader moves through the text. Apple speech continues when the app moves to the background or the screen locks, with pause, resume, and stop controls on the Lock Screen and in Control Center. If Kokoro cannot continue because the device needs more memory or the app moves to the background, reading continues with the selected Apple voice. Privacy: text-to-speech conversion with Apple and Kokoro voices is performed on the user's device. Simple Voice Reader does not send text, documents, or spoken audio to Walter Claw Software or to a cloud text-to-speech service. iOS may contact Apple only to download system voice assets and the optional Apple-hosted Kokoro voice pack selected by the user. Simple Voice Reader is free. No account, purchase, or subscription is required.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Simple Voice Reader at none against Mi Speaks's 3. Simple Voice Reader also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads 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
Both are free to download. Mi Speaks sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Simple Voice Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Mi Speaks ships an update fortnightly, Simple Voice Reader every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mi Speaks | Simple Voice Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Blaine Miller | Walter Claw Software LLC |
In-app purchases
Mi Speaks
- Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Yearly7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Lifetime$99.99
Simple Voice Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Mi Speaks free?
Is Simple Voice Reader free?
Do Mi Speaks or Simple Voice Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, Mi Speaks or Simple Voice Reader?
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