Voice Dream - Read Aloud

Category

Description of App

Apple Design Award Winner! Voice Dream - Screen Reader lets you listen to PDFs, textbooks, Web pages, emails, and books using advanced AI Text To Speech!

Featured by Apple as Best New App and App of the Day in 81 countries. Voice Dream - Screen Reader is also part of App Store Permanent Collections in Education.

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“Both experts recommend Voice Dream Reader as the best app in the text-to-speech space.” - Wired

“This app is one of the best educational finds of my entire career.” - Forbes

“As a user myself and as a mother of a child with dyslexia, I am blown away by the features of Voice Dream.” - Quartz

“Voice Dream Reader is hailed by many as the best mobile text-to-speech (TTS) app.” - Examiner

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Text-to-Speech
- 36 built-in iOS voices in 27 languages are also available for free.
- 200+ additional premium voices in 30 languages from Acapela, NeoSpeech and Ivona available through in-app purchases.
- Correct pronunciation with your own pronunciation dictionary.
- All voices work offline and play in the background even with the screen locked.

Supported Document Formats
- PDF, Plain text, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, RTF, and Google Docs.
- Textbooks
- Web articles.
- Bookshare Books.
- EPUB eBooks. (DRM-free books only. Kindle, iBooks and most commercial eBook platforms are not supported.)
- DAISY text-based books and audiobook.
- Audiobooks in MP3, MP4 or zipped MP3 format.
- Rich text and image support for all documents.

Built-in Scanner
- Scan paper documents with the camera for text-to-speech.
- State-of-the-art A.I. is fast and accurate, even in poor lighting conditions.
- Works entirely on device: No need for internet and your data stays private.
- Only languages using Latin alphabets are currently supported.

Reading Styles
- Tee-up a list of articles and play while you drive, walk or run.
- Spoken word is highlighted to improve comprehension and retention.
- Auto-scrolling and full screen, distraction-free mode to help reader focus.
- Finger reading. For beginners to read by at running a finger under each word.
- Pac-Man. Harvard and MIT developed speed-reading method for everyone to read at 2x speed with no loss of comprehension.
- High contrast and large font size for low vision readers.
- Optimized for VoiceOver, Braille and switch control.

Tools
- Recognize text for scanned PDF documents.
- Bookmarking, text highlighting and annotation. Highlights and notes can be exported.
- Full-text search.
- Built-in dictionary.
- Automatically skip text in PDF header and footer.

Content Sources
- Native support for Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote.
- Native access to Bookshare.
- Safari extension to save Web pages and Web addresses.
- Support for Box and OneDrive via iOS Document Picker.

Library Synchronization
- Your entire library, including folders, reading locations, bookmarks and annotations are synchronized across all your devices using iCloud Drive

Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

Version

4.23.4

Free or Paid

Paid

Apple Watch Support

Yes

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

15.6

Accessibility Comments

This is a very accessible app, and the developers seem truly committed to improving it. Organizing content is somewhat difficult and may require sighted assistance, but downloading and reading content works very well. As of the latest release, 2.7.2, the developer has fixed the issues noted below with regards to the inaccessibility of the text box. It is now possible to read by words, characters and lines through the text with voiceOver.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Other Comments

The samples for peter (happy) and peter (sad) which previously did not play are now working properly.

Developer's Twitter Username

@voicedreamapp

Recommendations

39 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Michael Hansen 3 weeks 4 days ago

Options

Comments

By Bahzad on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 - 11:29

Definitely helpful! I was also experiencing the same problem. I'm glad to know that a fix is on the way. Thanks for the comment.

By vulcansummer on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 - 11:29

I too am having this problem. I'm glad I'm not alone in it, and that hopefully we'll get a fix for it soon. Thanks for letting us know, Clare.

By DrummerGuy on Friday, July 21, 2017 - 11:29

Hi all:
I downloaded Voice Dream Reader yesterday and, so far, I really love this app. However, when I downloaded the app it said that I would get to choose a voice to start reading and so I chose the Acapela voice of Heather, just to see how it worked. The problem is that, even though I have gone through the settings many times, I cannot make Heather read anything. When I do the command to read, it is VoiceOver that reads the text to me instead of the Voice I chose. On the other hand, when I tried Reading with A different iOS voice, it worked like a charm. Can somebody tell me how to do this properly? Maybe there is something that I am missing. Please help because I really want to buy a few voices that will make my reading time more pleasant. I will be going for the NeoSpeech and Ivona voices for I think they are the best voices out there. By the way, I am using an iPhone 7 Plus with the latest iOS version. Thanks in advance for your always greatly appreciated help.
Have a very nice day/night, everyone.

By Jeff Crouch on Thursday, September 21, 2017 - 11:29

Hi basically my subject says it all. I have my e-text book in iCloud drive. It is split up in to 41 files. It's a pain trying to add each individual file. So is there a way to add multiple files at once. ps. there all DOCX files. thanks in advance.

By AnonyMouse on Saturday, October 21, 2017 - 11:29

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

What's New in Version 4.4.1

- Updated for iOS 11.
- Added support for loading documents using iOS 11 File Browser.
- Added support for iOS 11 Drag and Drop for files and URLs.
- Minor bug fixes and enhancements.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Saturday, October 21, 2017 - 11:29

VDR is using a large amount of space on my ipad mini. Is there a way to store VDR contents in icloud, or similar, but so I can still access the contents easily, but free up storage on ipad?
Thanks for advice.

By siria on Thursday, June 21, 2018 - 11:29

Hi! Since the last update, I have encountered some problems. When I open a book, voiceover becomes stuck on the text of the book, and I can't move toward the play button and toward all the other buttons. I've discovered that, if i double tap some times on the text, the buttons reappear, but it's unpredictable, meaning that I don't know how many times do I have to tap. I'm the only one having this problem? I've an iPhone SE with the last IOS.

By Rajesh Malik on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - 11:29

Hi everyone,

On my iPhone 8 running the latest IOS with Voice Dream Reader, I can no longer find page numbers in DAISY text files or PDF files while using VoiceOver. I have reported the issue to the developer and am told that the page numbers are still there but VoiceOver cannot find them. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I have begun noticing this since the latest release of Voice Dream Reader.

By Rajesh Malik on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - 11:29

Hello everyone,

Since the latest release of Voice Dream Reader, I can download only EPUB files from Bookshare from within the app and not DAISY text files. My setting on Bookshare clearly indicates that I prefer DAISY files but Voice Dream tries to get only EPUB files. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I have an iPhone 8 and am running the latest IOS.

By Rajesh Malik on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - 11:29

Hello again everyone,

I have yet another problem to report with Voice Dream Reader.
I had purchased the Kendra voice to use with this app years ago but I am being asked to pay for it again after deleting and redownloading the app. Here's what happened.
Some time ago, I changed my Apple ID from an email address I no longer have to my iCloud email, and everything worked quite smoothly with all of my apps, including Voice Dream Reader. I was able to use Kendra reliably as before. However, since I began to encounter other problems with the app, I decided to delete it from my iPhone 8 and then reinstalled it immediately. All of my settings for the app were successfully restored from icloud accept for the setting related to Kendra. When I proceeded to download this voice I was told to pay for it yet again. I have reported the issue to the developer but have heard nothing. Does anyone know any possible solutions to this problem? Thank you for your help.

By vulcansummer on Sunday, October 21, 2018 - 11:29

Hi, everyone,
Here's an example to explain what I mean.
Whenever I try to flag a document of any kind, or delete a book, or try to perform any other such actions, Voice Dream Reader either reads the text of the book by word or character, or skips completely to another book or button.
I've checked the rotor in the speech settings with no luck. I've also removed the app from the app switcher and turned off the phone completely then restarted it, but nothing seems to help the problem.
I've also noticed that before when I used to type in page numbers or percentages in the edit box, the numbers used to appear in a phone pad system. Now, though, the regular keyboard appears and I have to switch from letters to numbers, then type the number using the number row. Is there a way I can return the key pad back to the phone key pad style?
Thank you in advance for any help.

By Khushi on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 - 11:29

hey everyone
I'm from India
I'd love to buy this app. but this app is way too costly here in India. and unfortunately, the free trial version of this app, voice dream reader lite is also not available in this country.
I am considerring to sign up for bookshare. so was thinking to buy this app.
will the developer be bringing this app to India with a much more affordable cost? as many people here use bookshare :)

thank you

By TJT 2001 on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 - 11:29

In reply to by Khushi

If you can't afford the app, consider Dolphin Easy Reader instead, which should hopefully be available in India.

By Khushi on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 - 11:29

In reply to by TJT 2001

hey
thank you for the suggestion. dolphin easy reader is available here. I just had one question/concern related to it.
will I be able to read my books with the voice I use as a voiceover voice? IE, the IOS voices? like voice dream reader promisses?
:) it offers more flexibility compared to many readers so I posted here in case the developer reads this forum and considers doing something for the Indian population :)

By SeasonKing on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 - 11:29

Yes, I was going to recommend EasyReader, it works very much like VoiceDream.
And yes, you can use those nice voices that you use in VoiceDream, Though you do have to pay for them.

By SeasonKing on Sunday, March 21, 2021 - 11:29

In reply to by Khushi

Consider buying Voice Dream during one of their anual sales. I think it's in Jun or August. Till then, easy reader will get the job done.

By vulcansummer on Friday, May 21, 2021 - 11:29

I would love to see Voice Dream have the eloquence voice as an option. I know they already have Fred, but eloquence would be great to have as another voice option. Just a thought...

By Zoe Victoria on Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 11:29

Hey so I've tried downloading a book from Bookshare within the app but for some reason the download button doesn't show up. I can only view book details. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Edit: Wasn't the app's fault; I just forgot to renoo my subscription. Works fine now.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 - 11:29

I bought the bundle. Color me surprised when I open Voice Dream Reader, can't find the next button, come across unlabeled buttons, and can't get any of the gestures to work with Voiceover enabled (and they only work half the time with Voiceover disabled). Yikes. I've requested a refund. I'm not paying 30 bucks for an app with unlabeled buttons and broken gestures.

By TJT 2001 on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 - 11:29

It's really unfortunate that Voice Dream Reader doesn't work for you. I'm using the most current version of the app, and all the buttons are clearly labelled and the gestures work correctly. However, just in case it makes any difference, I'm using an iPhone X S and bought the app many years ago before apps could be bundled.

By Jakob Rosin on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 - 11:29

In reply to by Unregistered User (not verified)

are you shure you didn't accidentally turn on screen recognition?
None of that over here.

By Holger Fiallo on Tuesday, December 21, 2021 - 11:29

Getting an iPad 9 in Jan and want to know if it works well with iPad and smart keyboard?

It's definitely not on. I had to turn it on in order to find the next button on the very first screen before I turned it off again. I wonder if this has something to do with iOS 15.

Update: Well, apparently screen recognition decided to be a sneaky bugger and turn itself back on. I distinctly remember turning it off. I still can't get the gestures to work though. Does Voiceover need to be turned off to make them work?

By PinkCupcake5 on Monday, February 21, 2022 - 11:29

Hi! How do I highlight text using voiceover? I can select the text but then can’t find the option to highlight.

By Portland Chris on Monday, March 21, 2022 - 11:29

I absolutely love VoiceDream Reader. My one question is whether there is a way to stop it from reading the page numbers in books that I’ve downloaded from BookShare. When crossing from one page to the next, it reads out the page number as if it were part of the sentence in the book, which is a bit distracting. Is there a way to stop it from doing this? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

By Misty Dawn on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

I was trying to figure out how to read OneDrive documents on Voice Dream Reader, so I looked at the Health page. I followed the instructions, but OneDrive does not appear in my options.

I tried to contact the official people, but I have not received a response in several weeks from anyone.

So, I was wondering if you guys could help me?

By Yvonnezed on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

As far as I can see, there's no direct support for 1Drive. Your best bet is probably to make it appear in the files app and then use the file browser content source to get to it.

By Labsii on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

Since iOS 9 (almost 8 years ago), you can access any cloud storage from the Files app / flies browser that is available in most of the apps including in Voice Dream Reader.

You need to have that particular cloud storage app installed (e.g. OneDrive) and to enable it in the Files app.

This is how you should access all files, as everything else is a security risk. E.g. if you use built-in option to access Dropbox files, you leave your Dropbox completely unsecured. That means that some bug in the app may delete your files (not too likely), but also that if the app is sold to some malicious company (still unlikely but not impossible) someone might try to moenitize your files in various ways.

By Chris Smart on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

For several versions of the app now, I have been unable to read books with my preferred voice, Alex. When I press Play, the app either switches to another voice, or is completely silent, even though the button has now toggled to Pause. I am able to switch to other iOS American English voices with no problem, for example: Allison or Samantha.

This is occurring on an iPhone 8 plus, running various versions of iOS 16, and with several versions of the app now. emails to the developer have gone unanswered.

Is anybody else experiencing this?

By Vsevolod Popov on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

I don't understand what happens with VoiceDream. I think it was sold or something, but I think there was no oficial information about that. ICloud syncranisation works simply horrible and support never answers.

By Misty Dawn on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

Seems like a lot of us have been having trouble contacting support for this app lately.

Has anyone had success in recent weeks and, if so, how?

By mr grieves on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

I bought the pack containing Voice Dream Reader, Writer and Scan.

A little while ago I noticed that Voice Dream Scan had been renamed VD Scan. Which is certainly not an app I would want someone else to find on my iPhone! (Well, maybe it's a UK thing, but it now sounds more like a somewhat sensitive medical app to me)

In the release notes I did get the impression that the name had changed because the Voice Dream brand had been acquired by someone. But not 100% sure of the details.

By Ahmed on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

Hello this is Ahmed the VoiceDream apps specifically VD scanner and writer had Ben acquired by a developer named Opus Noma LLC I just want to keep everyone informed as to what’s going on

By Labsii on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

You can find the correct and full information on the Voice Dream Twitter.

In short Voice Dream Reader is sold to a company Applause Group that will be responsible for its development. For the start they made the app subscription based (current price should be 80$/year but they experimented with several prices already) and made all Acapela voices free. Also you get the Mac app as part of the subscription. Old users generally don’t need to pay the subscription, but they won’t get the Mac app.

The old developer hasn’t sold Scanner and Writer apps, but as he has sold the Voice Dream company and trademark, those apps are moved to a new company and have new names.

By Yvonnezed on Friday, July 21, 2023 - 11:29

I can definitely reproduce this, and as far as I can tell it's an iOS16 and Voice dream issue. I remember the developer complaining about some kind of change to the way speech works last year, but I don't know why it's made such a mess of Alex in particular.

The workaround that works for me most of the time is, when you first open Voice Dream, read a short file of some sort. In my case it's usually a 30/45 minute ePub. That will usually work, and at that point you can pause it and start reading what you actually want to read. It doesn't work every time and you might have to try again occasionally, but it usually does. So basically, keep a short file of some sort in your library to kind of kickstart Alex.

Based on that, it seems to be some kind of timeout issue or size issue or something, not sure which.

By Magic Retina on Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - 11:29

Has anyone else been having issues with the app freezing or being really slow to respond? It's also taking hours or days to recognize books that have been downloaded. I download something from Bookshare, it says it's downloaded, but when I go to my books list the title is grayed out and stuck in a loading loop. Restarting the app doesn't solve anything, redownloading the book doesn't do anything, it just randomly decides I can read my book after a few hours or days, but sometimes never. It does this with files imported from my phone too. If I had to pay $60 a year for this I'd be done with the app entirely. It's very disheartening, this has been such a good app with no problems until this past year.

By SSWFTW on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 11:29

Not sure if this is the same when skipping by paragraph or page. When skipping backward or forward by sentence I experience a bit of a lag. Not sure if this is a new thing because I am only using the app in this way for the first time but, is there anyway to eliminate this. When flicking up or downward to skip backward or forward by sentence there is a lag in this response time, for example I can flick it down three times and have to wait a second before it actually finishes the process of skipping backward or forward

By Brad on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 11:29

I've not used the app but I'm assuming it's using a sepret process to voiceover and I doubt that will change.

I agree with Lottie, I personally don't see the point of this app, yes you can use it to read things all in one place, if it works, but it almost seams like the maker of the app doesn't understand that you can do that in other places too? I'm not sure.