HB Phonological Awareness vs Talking Typer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HB Phonological Awareness
This educational app helps students improve listening and phonological awareness skills through interactive sound-based activities. Students learn to segment, blend, and manipulate sounds to build a virtual rock band, with a multi-level program that gradually increases in difficulty.
- Targets nine phonological awareness skills
- Systematic sound segmentation and blending
- Multi-level program with increasing difficulty
- Monitors progress and provides feedback
- Teaches listening skills for reading
- Customizable program settings
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HearBuilder is available for all users—families, educators, therapists, schools, and districts. Anyone with a HearBuilder subscription can access the full program. HearBuilder Phonological Awareness gives students a systematic, engaging way to build phonological awareness and listening skills. As they learn to segment, blend, and manipulate sounds, students earn instruments and band members to form the rock group The Phonemix, turning skill practice into a fun musical adventure. Program Features • Targets nine essential phonological awareness skills: Sentence Segmentation, Syllable Blending, Syllable Segmentation, Rhyming, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation & Identification, Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Addition, and Phoneme Manipulation • Multi level activities that gradually increase in difficulty • Builds foundational listening and sound awareness skills needed for early reading • Supports learners at a wide range of skill levels • Tracks progress and provides frequent feedback to keep students motivated HearBuilder Online (my.hearbuilder.com) • Access all four HearBuilder programs: Following Directions, Phonological Awareness, Auditory Memory, and Sequencing • Monitor progress and track student performance • Individualize each student’s settings and difficulty levels • Add adjustable background noise to increase challenge • Customize and print detailed reports
Talking Typer
This accessible typing program helps students improve their keyboarding skills through lessons and a fun game. It is designed for blind and visually impaired students but is beneficial for all learners, offering progress tracking and customizable lessons.
- 35 built-in typing lessons
- Customizable lessons for teachers/parents
- Progress tracking for speed and accuracy
- Hurry Scurry typing game
- Self-voicing and VoiceOver accessible
- Supports refreshable braille displays
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Talking Typer finally makes its way to iOS. Help students make typing progress with this fun-to-use self-voicing app! Talking Typer An accessible typing and computer keyboard tutorial app with a keyboard game to help increase speed and accuracy in a fun environment! Learn to type or improve your skills with drills, practice lessons, keyboard explorer, and an entertaining game. It is designed for blind and visually impaired students, but can be used by sighted students too. This makes it a great tool for the whole class. 35 Built-in Lessons Talking TyperTM for iOS devices comes with 35 built-in lessons at levels 1-10. Teachers and parents can create new lessons, edit lessons, and assign lessons to individual students or groups. Speed, accuracy, and typing level can also be set for individual students or groups. The app saves the results of each drill allowing students, teachers, and parents to monitor improvement. Hurry Scurry Game The app also includes the exciting game Hurry Scurry, where students earn points by typing letters before the ball drops. It’s fun for all ages and skill levels! Self-Voicing and Apple® VoiceOver Accessible The app is both self-voicing and accessible with Apple’s VoiceOver. The onboard keyboard of your device can be used with Talking Typer, but an external keyboard is recommended. The app can also be used with a refreshable braille display, like APH’s Refreshabraille 18TM Bluetooth®-enabled device, making it accessible for students who are deafblind as well. Recommended ages: All.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Talking Typer at 4.0 against HB Phonological Awareness's 3.4. Talking Typer also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). HB Phonological Awareness's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 11 months) and review sentiment (67% vs 50%). On price, ratings volume, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Talking Typer holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24 and 11 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 67% of HB Phonological Awareness's written reviews are positive against 50% of Talking Typer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
HB Phonological Awareness ships an update every 2 months, Talking Typer every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HB Phonological Awareness | Talking Typer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (24 ratings) | 4.0 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 24 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 11 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 239 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Super Duper Publications | American Printing House for the Blind (APH) |
Customer experience
HB Phonological Awareness
Talking Typer
In-app purchases
HB Phonological Awareness
No in-app purchases
Talking Typer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is HB Phonological Awareness free?
Is Talking Typer free?
Which has better reviews, HB Phonological Awareness or Talking Typer?
Do HB Phonological Awareness or Talking Typer have ads?
Which is updated more often, HB Phonological Awareness or Talking Typer?
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