Hear the Light vs ToBe SAID
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hear the Light
This app transforms light into sound, enabling users to "hear" brightness and locate light sources. It's designed for individuals with vision loss, offering features like color recognition and vibration feedback.
- Light to sound conversion
- Detects small indicator lights
- Fast response time
- Vibration feedback
- Color recognition
- Adjustable sensitivity
- VoiceOver accessibility
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Hear the Light turns light into sound, so you can "hear" where brightness is around you. It was designed from the ground up for people with vision loss. Point your device's back camera in any direction and listen to a tone that rises as the light gets stronger. This makes it easy to find a window, check whether a lamp is on, or tell if a device has an indicator light lit. What makes it stand out: It detects even very small device lights — such as the LED on a router, a TV on standby, or a charger. Of all the apps of this kind we have tested, it is the only one that reliably picks them up. For very faint lights, the room should be dark so they stand out from any other lighting. Extremely fast response: the tone changes instantly as you move the device, noticeably faster than other similar apps. Features: Vibration feedback with variable intensity, independent of sound: use sound, vibration, or both together. Ideal if you have trouble hearing. (Vibration requires an iPhone.) Colour recognition: hear the basic colour of a small light, for example red, green or blue. It is a helpful guide, with best results in a dark room, close to the light. Two sound modes: continuous tone or pulses. Three sensitivity levels, affecting both the sound and the vibration. Light intensity shown in lux (estimate), spoken aloud with a single tap. Built-in user guide. Fully accessible with VoiceOver. Two languages, Greek and English, adapting automatically to your device's language. Privacy first: It does not collect any personal data. No internet connection required. No advertising, no tracking. The camera is used only to measure light — it does not take or store photos. Note: the lux reading and the colour recognition are estimates based on the device's camera and may not always be exact.
ToBe SAID
This app provides a high-performance, offline AI voice generator and system-wide Text-to-Speech engine for enhanced privacy. It transforms documents and books into natural-sounding audiobooks, integrating seamlessly with your existing reading and productivity applications.
- Offline AI voice generation
- System-wide Text-to-Speech engine
- Convert EPUB/PDF to audiobooks
- Seamless integration with other apps
- Clone and create personal voices
- 100% local processing for privacy
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Your Voice. Your Device. Your Privacy. ToBe SAID gives your iPhone, iPad, and Mac natural AI voices that run on the device itself. It is a system-wide Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine: once installed, its voices appear in your system voice list, so VoiceOver, Spoken Content, and any app that can use system voices can speak with them. No servers. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. ToBe SAID is a voice provider, not a reading app. It works together with the apps you already use: your e-book reader, your PDF viewer, your AAC communication app, or the system's own Speak features. TRY IT IN SECONDS Open the app, type some text, and hear it instantly. The English voices are ready the moment you install. Other languages need a one-time voice download, and after that they work fully offline: on a plane, on a train, or anywhere without a signal. WHAT YOU GET, FREE • 4 natural English voices • 2 natural voices in each of 14 other languages • All voices work system-wide, in every app that lists system voices • Works offline after the one-time voice download • No ads and no in-app purchases HEAR YOUR OWN VOICE Voice cloning preview: import a short audio file (MP3, WAV, OGG, and other popular formats, any length: ToBe SAID trims it automatically; 15 seconds is all it needs) and hear your clone speak inside the app. In this free app, the clone is a preview and stays inside the app. WANT TO KEEP YOUR CLONES? ToBe SAID Pro is a separate app with the same voices, plus an unlimited voice library: save as many cloned voices as you like and use them in every app that uses system voices. 15 LANGUAGES English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Estonian, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian, Greek, Turkish. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything runs on your device. Your text and your audio files stay with you. Only clone your own voice or voices you have permission to use.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ToBe SAID at 5.0 against Hear the Light's 4.7. Hear the Light's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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.
ToBe SAID holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hear the Light | ToBe SAID |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 3 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 172 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Stelios Platsis | Bakhtiar Lukman |
Customer experience
Hear the Light
ToBe SAID
In-app purchases
Hear the Light
No in-app purchases
ToBe SAID
No in-app purchases







