Play Text (TTS) vs Lector

We got fed up with paying for overpriced subscriptions just to have text read aloud — basic apps that, more often than not, turned out too buggy to actually rely on. So we put our AI tools and skills to work and built Play Text in a single evening. We hope it helps you too. Play Text turns anything you want to read into audio — and highlights each word as it's spoken, so you can listen and follow along at the same time. Drop in text from almost anywhere and press play: • Paste & Play — read whatever's on your clipboard • Web links — paste a URL and Play Text pulls out the readable article, skipping the menus, ads, and clutter • Files — open PDF, TXT, Markdown, RTF, or HTML documents • Share sheet — send selected text, a link, or a file straight from any other app A single, clean reading panel shows the full text and sweeps a highlight across each word as the voice reaches it — great for focus, reading along, language learning, proofreading, or accessibility. VOICES • Kokoro — the default. A high-fidelity neural voice that runs entirely on your device, with no account, no key, and no network. • Apple on-device voice — another fully offline option, available on every device. • ElevenLabs — optional cloud voices if you add your own API key. Adjust the reading speed to taste, from a relaxed pace up to nearly double speed. KEEPS PLAYING Audio continues when you lock your phone or switch apps, with Now Playing controls on the Lock Screen and in Control Center. SYNCS ACROSS YOUR DEVICES Your engine, voice, and speed settings sync over iCloud, so Play Text feels the same everywhere you use it. PRIVATE BY DESIGN The default Kokoro and Apple voices run completely on-device — your text never leaves your phone. ElevenLabs is strictly opt-in and only used if you choose to add your own key.

Lector turns your documents into speech, spoken by your iPhone, on your iPhone. Import a PDF, an EPUB, a Word document, RTF, Markdown, or plain text — or share an article straight from Safari — press play, and listen while your hands and eyes are busy: while you work, while you drive, while you walk the dog, while dinner cooks. The name is Latin for reader. For two thousand years a lector has been the one who reads aloud so that others can attend to what they are doing — the appointed reader in church, the monk reading to a silent refectory, the hired reader on a platform above the cigar rollers of Havana and Tampa. Lector puts that old office in your pocket. WHAT IT DOES • Reads PDF, EPUB, Word (.docx), RTF, Markdown, and plain text • Imports articles shared from Safari, and reads text you type or paste • Highlights each sentence as it speaks and scrolls the page for you • Turns a PDF's table of contents into real chapters, with a navigator to jump anywhere • Exports any document — or a single chapter — to an M4A audio file • Keeps reading in the background, with Dynamic Island and Lock Screen controls • Six Siri and Shortcuts actions: play, pause, resume, stop, next, previous • Sleep timer, speed control, voice favorites, light and dark appearance • Honors large Dynamic Type sizes throughout VOICES Lector speaks with Apple's voices, generated entirely on the device. Every voice installed on your iPhone appears in the app, grouped by language, with your favorites pinned to the top. One recommendation: download an Enhanced or Premium voice (Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices). They are free, and they are markedly closer to a human reader. PRIVATE BY ARCHITECTURE No account. No analytics. No server. Documents are read and spoken on the phone and never uploaded anywhere — there is no backend to upload them to. The privacy label says Data Not Collected because that is simply true. ONE PRICE, ONCE Everything in Lector is free to use. The free library holds three imported documents at a time — delete one and the slot opens again — and typed text and shared articles never count against it. A single purchase removes the cap for good. Not per month, not per year — once. The developer was tired of apps that offered a three-day trial and then wanted a hundred and twenty dollars a year, so Lector is built the other way around: the free version is the full app, and the only thing money buys is a bigger bookshelf. Requires iOS 17 or later.