Invitation to the Voice Dream App Stars Drop Event

Honestly, I don't use any of the apps mentioned in this post, but it is clear to me that the developer of speech Central is always throwing dirt whenever he can at people that does not agree with him.
I get that he is trying to get as many people as possible to use his app, but this kind of attitude does not yield good results.
These childish comments are an obstacle for himself.

a purchase for $10 10 years ago won't sustain the app long term and allow for bug fixes and new features. However is the Applause group off the hook hear? No. They should've never said things wouldn't change for existing users. What they should've said is
"at this time things won't change for existing users"
This way You are warned at some point things may change. As said on other lists apps such as fantastical went to a subscription. Once they get the monthly option people could try it for a few months and see does the subscription meet their needs. If you want the app to stay around for years developers need to be paid to develop it. Even Winstin said he would've had to go to a subscription model.

They don’t care what you think or say, they care if you’re paying. Whether or not $10 10 years ago is enough to sustain the app (it seems to be doing fine for Speech Central) isn’t the issue. The issue is that people own what they own. They rely on a thing they’ve bought. If Applause want to split and make some serious bank then who am I to stop them but they would have needed to have left people alone with their property that they own. Sorry but theres absolutely no way around that and never will be. If things that have been purchased can be taken back on a whim then ownership means nothing. Perhaps they sweet talked Dennis but the facts don’t change and never will. They could have left people with their property, it might have lasted another 1 year or 10 years but that would have been a natural cycle. Taking something away that people paid for and replacing it with something that costs $100 a year in the UK isn’t how consumers are meant to be treated. Anyone who thinks thats an acceptable state of affairs needs to wind back the clock 10 years and ask if anyone and I mean anyone could have got away with that with some fancy talking. Of course they couldn’t, we’d have taken them to court. We’re in the time of extremely low protections for the public and companies will take advantage but I struggle to empathise with someone who bangs the drum on behalf of these consumer abuses.

I kind of agree on if they had done things differently things might have gone over better, but no matter how you spin it, they're screwing everyone over. What they're doing is theft, plane and simple. You bought the app, you own it; and now they're saying nope, we know you own it but... yeah look we're going to need you to pay us more so you can access what you own? Yeah no. but again, already existing users if they wanted use the mac app, would've have to subscribe anyway, so they would still be earning money. I'm not sure, but the same might be true for the watch app, maybe. Although if they had put it like that... That might have gone a little better maybe, but again its not exactly fair for already existing customers, as they already payed for the app, you'd be making them pay again... for the same app... no new features... It just doesn't quite add up. If they had added new features to the app and you had to subscribe to get the new features, or they'd given you the choice to subscribe to get whatever new features they added, that's a different story, but as is... Where existing users are forced to pay again, for the same exact app, no new features, just the same app is... a slap in the face, pretty much. Not to mention, this is theft. They're taking away what people bought, what they owned, and saying, yeah no, we're locking this despite that you already owned, bought it but, hey want access, pay us. Its a beyond scummy move, and its really not right. Also, when I bought the app way back, to my knowledge, that was never in the terms and conditions of the app, of suddenly being able to force you to subscribe to the app even though you already bought it as a one time charge so... Just on that basis, what they're doing, would be illegal as far as forcing existing customers who already payed for the app to pay again.

Okay so lets assume Kindle support gets that would clearly be a new feature. They say they have added new voices. If that is true they have added to the app. You also have to answer the question how many new sales are they getting in a week or a month? If you are relying totally on the mac app to sustain development again I don't think that is viable. Do I think they did a terrible job at messaging? Yes absolutely. If I had written their post I never would've promised things wouldn't change for existing users. I would've said "at this time no changes are happening for existing users this may or may not change as time goes on" That way you are covered.

The only way that would cover you would be that in the terms and conditions for those who bought it as a one time charge, that was in its terms, that we can change these at any time, for any reason, and this might include a new form of payment, such as switching users to subscription, but this wasn't in there, therefore, legally speaking, I never agreed to it; and even if it theoretically was... its a shady thing to do; and at least to me, would make me stay waaaay away from the company that tried to pull this little stunt, where one day you payed for the app in full, and the next? Nope, shell out even more money for this app just because we felt we needed more money and yeah you already bought this but... Yeah sorry, we can get more money from you because we can so there. I haven't looked at the terms in a long time, but from memory if it serves right, I don't think something like that was ever in the terms to begin with. Furthermore, they wouldn't just be earning from existing users from the mac side, they'd also earn constantly for new users that joined the platform and had to go subscription. They would, in my opinion, do well to take a page from other companies, that is, have both options. For those who rather have a subscription, have that option; but for those who would rather pay once, even though this would be 10 times the price if you subscribed to it, have that as well. That's what many companies do these days.

I’ll say one last time, You owned something, they took it off you and now you’re on their PR department. We really have fallen a long way. It’s their choice to add new features and try to attract customers to those new features but to steel what people own and charge for it then have people making arguments on their behalf. I’m honestly finished with it. It’s deleted from 4 phones that I know of and thats the end of it for me. I’m not going to play identity politics over the actions of an investment group. The facts aren’t changing and Applause will either be fine or they won’t but I’m not wasting any more mental energy on it.

Completely agree with you there. This, in a perfect world, would't happen, and it’s very, very messed up what companies think they have the right to do in the name of money. It’s infuriating to be honest. I ditched this app a while back, and god I'm glad I went to another app because, what they did is just... I don't have the words to describe how wrong it is.

Absolutely nowhere does it mentions this as far as forcing existing users into a subscription, or them being able to switch the terms and conditions at any point... This does seem illegal. For reference here are the terms,
In addition to legal terms and conditions that you accepted when purchasing the Application from Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or Amazon Appstore, you also understand and accept the following legal terms and conditions as a condition to your use of the Application:

Addendum A. Text-to-speech voices (TTS Voices) from Acapela, Ivona and NeoSpeech (Vendor)

TTS Voices, either packaged with the Application or purchased through in-app purchases, are subcomponents of the Application and are subject to the same legal terms and conditions as the Application, plus:

You will use TTS Voices only as a part of this Application.
You will use TTS Voices solely for personal use and not for commercial purposes.
You will not use TTS Voices in a manner that: (a) may be considered sexually explicit, vulgar, profane, offensive or obscene, defamatory, slanderous, religiously or racially offensive or otherwise promoting hate towards individuals or groups, promoting terrorist or other criminal activities; or (b) infringes anyone else’s intellectual property rights or rights or privacy.
You will not distribute Speech generated by TTS Voices, in any manner, including, but not limited to, in the form of audio files, as a part of applications, materials and multimedia works created by or for you or otherwise rent, resell, lease or lend Speech to any third party.
You shall not tamper with, modify or defeat nor attempt to tamper with, modify or defeat, any security measures built into TTS Voices.
Voice Dream at its sole discretion may teriminate the license of one or more TTS Voices granted to you.
You agree to destroy TTS Voices together with all copies, modifications and merged portions in any form upon termination of the license granted to you.
Addendum B. Use of Application while operating a motor vehicle

Voice Dream draws your attention to the fact that, when using the Application, observing traffic rules and regulations (e.g., proper and generally expected care and attention in the given situation) is your exclusive responsibility. You acknowledge and understand that use of the Application while driving may be dangerous and result in accidents. You agree not to use the Application while operating any vehicle in a manner that presents a danger to others, would constitute a criminal offense or would give rise to civil liability. Your use of the Application while operating a vehicle is at your sole risk.
VOICE DREAM WILL NOT ASSUME (AND HEREBY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS) ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES OCCURRED WHILE USING THE APPLICATION IN A MOTOR VEHICLE.
But yeah, curious and looked this up. This does appear to be illegal, to put it mildly, as your making changes that... No one ever agreed to in the first place as this wasn't even in the terms to begin with, nore did it say that these terms can be changed at any time either.

As far as I know my app is 10 years old and is one of the most frequently updated app with major rewrite just in the last year.

If you need data on revenue you can always check estimates from sensortower.com

At the time when Winston sold the app he was earning 40-50k before Apple's fee (but mostly 40k).

For the last month Applause Group earned 50k before Apple's fee.

I will sustain from answering anyone and I will just quote exact and verifiable facts.

But this pretty much explains sustainability for anyone who wants to misuse that word.

No one knows what the companies actual costs are. Developers don't work for free. Tech support isn't free. You get what you pay for. With a free app you may or may not get tech support. You may get in the case of free apps devs who feel it is a waste of time to provide support.

Dennis, you are very correct regarding this. Actually that was my point.

While I am not familiar with how Voice Dream support operates, it is more than reasonable to expect that it works significantly better than my support. Who ever feels like that is a necessary thing I am happy to recommend Voice Dream to him similar to how I did that to you.

That is what the competition and market is for. I honestly don’t understand how the fact that my app is not tailor made for you you take as a personal insult. And making personal remarks to me for that reason is not fair no matter if someone confirms that as fair or not.

But there are legitimate reasons to use Voice Dream just like there are legitimate reasons to use Speech Central. Everything that doesn’t fit in that is a pure PR.

There you go again with the personal attacks. I didn't state any specific app. Any developer who charges little to nothing could feel that it isn't worth providing support. No app was specifically stated. It was an general statement.

I respect Labsii and his app but sometimes wish he wasn’t so public in his interactions.

Guys, I'm an attorney in México, if we bought and agree to bought a lifetime suscription then the terms of our agreement have been modified by one of the parties, without the acceptance of the other.
I haven't read the terms and conditions of the original dealbut if we could attact this from a legal perspective, we will have a point to fight for.
I use voice dream a lot and would like to fight for what I have bought.
So if there's an attorney here who practices at the US please raise your voice.

I would certainly be willing to fight if we had a leg to stand on. I don't think we do though. Other apps such as Fantastical were a set price then changed to a subscription model. So again I don't know we can do much.

The best we can do is bring itto apple's attention, as in their guidelines it says the following,
"If you are changing your existing app to a subscription-based business model, you should not take away the primary functionality existing users have already paid for. For example, let customers who have already purchased a “full game unlock” continue to access the full game after you introduce a subscription model for new customers.

Apps that attempt to scam users will be removed from the App Store. This includes apps that attempt to trick users into purchasing a subscription under false pretenses or engage in bait-and-switch and scam practices; these will be removed from the App Store and you may be removed from the Apple Developer Program.
If we read the guidelines, while they're allowed to move from one time to subscription, they should not remove functionality or use to those who have already payed... Which is exactly what they did here. They removed access to customers that already payed for it, and no, giving a 25% discount is still removing access, as you still have to pay in order to access something which you previously payed for as a one time purchase. I reported the app to apple via report a problem in the appstore, its found under the app information, heading. We should all do the same. Apple's terms are being violated, per the guidelines, for one, and for another, what they're doing is... not right.

Well, as the manager of one of the most important portals in Italy on visual impairment, I will do everything possible to advise against this app.
A little honesty would have been enough.
Really, I can understand that if I bought this app 7 years ago, the development continued and there are costs.
It was enough to leave the basic functions still usable for those who paid for it, while for more advanced functions and new voices, you pay.
And instead...

Goodbye Voicedream forever.

I went back into the app and played around with the voices. Still junky TTS in my opinion. I hope someone out there does better and that this app finally bites the dust.

sure, they stumbled a little when they introduced subscription at the beginning--some old features were not available as promised, and the app kept showing pop-up bugging you to subscribe, but they corrected it shortly. original features are free not only to old purchasers but to all new downloaders as well. this shows they are honest and confident. they respond to support request whether you are a subscriber or not, and fantastical is still the best calendar app around.

The podcast is now out for all.

https://mosen.org/voicedream/

Hi all. There are two high traffic posts on this topic at this time. The other one is a broad discussion of the change to a subscription model, while this one was created to promote a campaign asking people to give one star ratings to the app.
In recent days, the two threads have begun to directly mirror each other, with some users literally posting the same comments in both locations.
Can we please refrain from unnecessary duplication. I suggest the general discussion be continued on the other broader thread.
Thanks for your participation and cooperation.
Dave

Do note that it is due to such a level of resentment and reactions that couldn't be ignored and did more harm than good has the company finally had to reverse their decision, which by no means makes it more trustworthy or the attitude more justifiable. Besides, they also had to acknowledge the fact that they had violated the terms and would probably have to face legal consequences for that, even if they could just ignore all the reactions and focus on the subscription fees they would continue to receive. Do also note that it is because some hadn't bothered to say anything back when the company had first announced that they would switch to a subscription-based system and preferred to "speak up" only when their own interests mattered that things have come to this point.

Now that Applause Group have reversed their decision to charge legacy users to continue using the app, will everyone who participated in this campaign go back and amend their ratings to what they would’ve rated Voice Dream Reader for its functionality and accessibility? And if you’re not a user of Voice Dream and you just participated in this to make a point/you have nothing better to do, will you remove your review?

Applause Group have gone back on their decision, so you guys going back on trashing their ratings seems fair to me.

do not know if you updated YOur voice dream app yesterday.
but the company solved the issue, everything now back as it was.
here is what they said:

our recent announcement to transition Voice Dream to a subscription, we received an overwhelming response from thousands in our community. Your feedback, along with the impactful stories shared about Voice Dream being a pivotal part of your daily lives, has led us to reverse this change.

We will continue to provide access to the app's existing features at no additional cost.

As we continue developing Voice Dream, some new features may be offered as part of a subscription, but the current capabilities will remain free to those who have already purchased Voice Dream.

For those who have already moved to a subscription, it's no longer necessary to continue using the app. You may cancel your subscription, but we welcome you to keep it active to support ongoing development.

To those who wish to support Voice Dream, please consider a subscription, a one-time donation via our website, or simply leaving a positive review in the App Store.

We sincerely thank you for your passionate and loyal support of Voice Dream. Your voices have made a difference.

To reflect the devs change of policy. And I feel others should do the same, if they feel the change is justified (though I can understand users who won’t change back).