Voice Dream Reader for iOS is now $59.99/year

I’ll have to do it in 2 weeks just so the payments are on the right date but I’m very very impressed. I think this is Jonathan getting as close to angry as his sober balanced and methodical approach allows and the community is all the better for it. Thank you Jonathan for taking a stand against something thats wrong. I respect your willingness to use your platform to address this issue publicly. You’ve walked the perfect line right from the start. I know there are risks as well as rewards for doing this so once more. Thank you.

I had already reported the app via the, report a problem, in the appstore, but given this goes directly to the app review team, I reported it via this channel described by jonathan as well, including links to their blog post where applause group announced the new terms and that all will be forced ;to go subscription, including long time customers who bought and owned the app as a one time purchase. This will sound harsh, but I really hope these guys, applause group, get the boot from apple's side. What they're doing is beyond scummy.

https://mosen.org/voicedream/

Thanks to the strength of the community and the work of Mr. Mosen. I have now some confident that the new owners can come with a new plan that will provide sustainability to Applause Group and entice new and existing users to give it money for new features on a subscription or even on a per-feature basis, without blocking core functionality in the app.

Hi everyone, Column 1

Following 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. Column 1

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. Column 1

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. Column 1

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. Row 2 Column 1

I don’t know whether it was out of fear from being reported to Apple or because they realised they genuinely made a mistake. I lost an enormous amount of trust in this company over the last week and its going to take a lot to regain that from me and I’m guessing others but lets just assume it was realising they’d made a mistake. I’d rather think good of people than not.

To the Voicedream team at Applause. Thank you for reversing this decision. I know a couple of people who will be delighted.

Assuming everything goes smoothly over the next few months, I’ll be donating for definite and can’t wait to see what features you develop that are chargeable. Thats completely fair and they should be paid for features.

Thanks once more.

In light of the most recend controversy around VDR, I sat down and did a little DNS checkup of the app, this means I activated an intercepting proxy for my phone and looked at the data coming through. I looked at the data that VDR sends out when starting the app in normal use.
I can't tell what exactly the data packages include because I haven't cracked them open yet, under iOS this is abit harder than under android and they might be encrypted as well, but the domains that I found were giving some interesting things.
Firstly there is superwall.me which is apparently a tool to integrate paywalls into your product, so this apparently has been there for a long time, I don't know though why they wouldn't use apples infrastructure for this.
Quote from their website: Stop wrestling with your codebase to build paywalls. Start building & deploying paywalls in 10 minutes flat.

Secondly it connects to a bunch of google services like crashlytics, google tag manager, and a firebase remote config server.
For those not in the loop, firebase is a sweet of app creation tools by google.
It then connects to facebook and in the name of god, I don't even know why it does so. I have no facebook account linked, no connection between facebook and VDR and I don't know why it opens a connection to Meta in general.
Next one is onesignal.com which is an external push messaging provider. Again I am wondering why they don't use APNS, the push notification service from apple themselves.
Lastly, it connects to three different app analytics and data collections websites, namely app measurement, amplitude.com and sentry.io.
I wonder how seriously the team behind VDR take our privacy if 2 of the biggest data collectors, google and Meta are included in the app and there is no way to opt out of that.
This also wasn't asked when you install the app for the first time which is a blatant violation of the GDPR.
So yeah, make of this what you will.

I don't know why the heck they didn't simply allow people to continue using the app in it's current state if they wanted to (as the app store guidelines require), then offer an optional half price or lower tier for those who wanted just bugfixes and updates to keep up with new IOS releases,, with the additional 5 dollar per month tier being just for those who wanted the new features. Split it into two apps if that's easier. They would probably claim that this would have been too complicated, but you can easily add a plain English description to in app purchases that really covers everything well if you take your time to do it right, and craft media releases that explain things further while being there to answer people's questions. Also, the annual only subscription option is just out of touch in 2024. One of the few advantages of subscription to the end user is that you can spread the cost out so that it has a much lower up front impact. That's precisely why most monthly subscriptions offer a discounted yearly one as well, to entice people into a purchase that is higher risk to the customer and higher reward for the company; something that they likely wouldn't want to do without an incentive.
Additionally, I still maintain that 5 dollars per month is too much when this app is more mainstream than other blindness apps and the burden therefore can be shared between a greater number of users. They also supposedly have other apps in their portfolio, so Voicedream really shouldn't have to carry their company so much unless something is seriously wrong at applause group HQ. but I don't know their true finances in the end...
For a company who say this is their whole thing, they really suck at it. Just a complete cluster all around. Removing features and forcing people into a subscription is totally against the app store guidelines which is probably much more to do with why they backed off rather than the community pressure, because people started reporting the app. Communication sucked, and they kept asking us to direct how this would go via email feedback, despite the fact that half of the things we had a problem with were complete business 101 no brainers that they really shouldn't need to rely on the customer for in the first place. Maybe they are nice people who just don't know what the heck they're doing, but they completely through away their trust with all but the most naive users, and it's a shame, if indeed they were planning on useful new features. I hope that they don't eventually abandon the app entirely now and allow it to fall behind new IOS releases to the point that it gets removed from the app store.

Did you notice that, during Jonathan's interview, the statement was given that those who already purchased the app would get a 25% discount? Then, however, Jonathan asked what would happen if the subscription price goes up in the future? Would the customers who originally paid for the app still pay the same? The answer was, finally, due to being pressed for clarification, was that we would be charged a 25% discount of the new, higher price. So, if the subscription goes up to $100, users who originally bought the app would now be charged $75, not $60. Fortunately, now that I don't have to subscribe, I will not. Due to their untrustworthy treatment in the past, they're going to have to earn my trust through vastly improved and honest communication with customers.

Hi all,

Here is my take and ultimate conclusion to the unfortunate turn of events regarding this topic.

As I've followed VDR's (Voice Dream Reader) switch to paid model story unfold, I've been taken by surprise that VDR pursued a strong stand towards a subscription model including for all existing users. This alone was a breach of trust and a loss of confidence for many of us.

upon a broad public discovery of their percieved greedy business intent, did they indeed have an epiphany, and realise how many people with limited or fixed income use and depend heavily on their newly acquired product? Do they now truly understand how damaging their decision was? Hmmm... That may be so. BUT, I have only to "assume" these are savvy business individuals who saw and took an opportunity to sharply grow their revenue.

In my mind, I cannot see how one can arbitrarily demand long-time existing users to begin now paying to continue using a product they've already purchased, especially with no added benefit proportionate to its price hike!

It's clear to me and many other users across the world who have depended on and stood by VDR, promoting it every chance we got, we can no longer trust the new owners of this app.

Dear Winston, I'm sure I speak for thousands when I say, we valued your dedication and commitment on behalf of those of us who used your app regularly, for so much of our daily tasks.

In addition, the new revelation of this app's extensive and undisclosed communication with so many unrelated and extremely unnecessary third party entities is a critical and damaging fact I personally cannot overlook at any cost.

It greatly concerns me personally. And it should you as well!

VDR's reversal to not charge existing users does not persuade me that they sincerely have the end-user at heart. Because of public backlash, they were simply forced to do so. And that sentiment is unsettling.

To me, VDR is no longer an app I can safely trust. I don't trust their privacy efforts. I don't trust their ultimate aims. I don't trust they won't force another subscription attempt in a year, 2 or who knows when, or worst....

I have made my mind up. I will be migrating everything out of VDR. This is an unfortunate reality since I've personally invested and leaned heavily on VDR for so many years for so many reasons and purposes.

For me, switching out of VDR right now is the wise thing to do, rather than continue kicking the ball down the road to eventually jump quickly off. No. I'll migrate out for sure before its too late and I find myself regretting waiting!

Labsii at SC (Speech Central), I appreciate what you are doing! Please don't sell SC! And if you do, because the decision makes sense for you, on behalf of the B&VIP (blind & visually impaired people) community; if at all possible, PLEASE ensure your ethically preferred business model is written in the contract!

There are a couple hiccups with SC I would love to see addressed. Please provide the best forum to share those with you.

Friends, these are my own views in coming to a determination as to what steps to take next.

As hard as it is, developers ought to consider thrice how they implement serious changes that affect so many of their users. After all, users are your greatest asset! VDR forgot that, and perhaps felt that user's great need for the app would supercede VDR's newfound hunger for wealth.

In closing, SC's ability to use Microsoft Azure voices is phenomenal! It's not too difficult to setup. I've used it for 2 months now and have yet to pay a single dime. Try it. They blows VDR's voices out of the water!

No! I don't work for SC nor have investments in anyway. However, I do value this product, especially now since I've spent much more time gdigging into it for myself. It is worth your time and effort to get familiar with it. Awesome is the fact that it easily syncs with iCloud and has a decent Mac app as well. There are a lot of plus points for SC.

I genuinely believe, in time, SC can surpass the competition as far is features, compatibility, functionality, quality, and of course price! Much of this will depend on our willingness to contribute our experiences with the developer.

This is ultimately what separates one from another. So, here's to Speech Central's progress!

Here's to an experiment tried and failed! So long VDR... Hello SC!

Thank you for reading MHO (my honest opinion)...

This is do to the developers poor attitude towards members. This developer attacks users. This has happened more then once. This developer thinks it is a "waste of time to give tech support" so Yes VDR screwed up and should have to earn our trust they deserve a second chance to prove themselves. it is worth noting I would've gladly did the $10 donation had the dev of speech central not attacked me and helped me resolve my issue.

I'm glad you took the opertunity to improve things. in the future you might not want to say it is a waste of time to help new users. Not every user will know how to use your app. I do also suggest adding audio formats and bookshare titles if they aren't already added.

I enjoy using Speech Central, although mostly on my Mac. I would suggest, however, that some of the less obvious features be given some kind of tutorial, the Azure voices for example. I took a look at it, but can't honestly say I know how to set up the feature; consequently I left it alone. I'll take another look at it and see if I can figure it out, but I'm probably not the only user who would appreciate knowledge of how to use such a feature.

I, perhaps foolishly, have decided to hold on to my copy of VoiceDream, mostly because I purchased any number of voices I'm quite happy with that suit my specific use case and that iOS voices have thus far failed to help with. But the breach of trust is very, very real. No one can say with confidence that this will never happen again. I would encourage the developer of Speech Central to keep up the good work, and to try and have patience with those individuals who grow frustrated over features they have trouble understanding. This is where a tutorial of some sort would help.

offering support to members will go a long way and just in general not attacking potential users will go a long way. your apology is accepted. I want to see your app have success and there be a good alternative to voicedream and other services for those that can't afford the subscription or just don't choose to subscribe to it. When you add audio formats support everything mp3, m4b, m4a, ogg ETC.

While I'm glad applause was forced to back down, despite that I stopped using voice dream since a little before it was sold to applause group... The sites it connects to, specifically google and facebook... This is a book reader app; it should, in my opinion, have no business connecting to these sites, for one; and for another, you aren't told that this is the case, so breach of privacy and trust, right there, just from the get go⋅ I mean everyone knows google and facebook don't really care about your privacy, they cell your data to the highest bitter... So then why in the world is a book reading app contacting these services? It makes no sense. Unless, of course, they're celling your data or something of that nature, but this app should have no business connecting to these services, in my opinion. I'm glad for the vdr users that the decision got reversed, although, as some have well pointed out; it was do to backlash. If there hadn't been any backlash, chances are they would have kept the decision; and it is precisely these sorts of things th,at say a lot about a company, and to me, what they're saying out loud is... We're not to be trusted, as a decision like the one made should've never been made in the first place, and it only got reversed do to them getting backed into a corner, and us forcing their hand via reporting to apple. I just... All of this, to me doesn't inspire confidence, to be honest, but who knows? Maybe time will prove me wrong? But as it stands, their current image is... not looking good at all, as they did it once; they're likely to do it again per all that happened. I.e: their reversing of their decision do to publick backlash and not do to the, oh we messed up factor, plus others... I'm sorry but if there was a chance of me going back to vdr some day... With all that's happened? Its well and truly gone. I won't put my trust in a company that can flip at a dime like this unless things drastically change, and their is undeniable proof that they've actually changed for the better. but this is just my opinion.

Hi,
I HATE annual subscriptions, I like monthly better, so I see there are different tiers for voice dream, a $4.99 a month, a $5.99 a month, a $9.99 a month, and a $19.99 a month tier. What's the difference between these? I know we'll have the features we already payed for, but I need it on my mac too, which still requires a subscription. So what subscription should I pick if I still want it on my mac and iOS devices? The voice dream on mac was never a one-time purchase. I definitely want monthly though, as $59 is quite a chunk to be taken at once. I can always upgrade the subscription if I find it necessary, but I do know for sure, I definitely need voice dream on my mac and iOS devices, as I read on all of them. But I'm very confused about the tiered subscriptions. Any help would be appreciated.

I do have the same question too. I really wanted to use voice dream on my mac as well. I love reading in the computer and don't really like to use 2 separate book readers on my one company devices. Also, I was about to get the speech central copy, but i'm not really liking the program and am just using it so I don't use voice dream due to all the sytes it sends info to. Actually it's not that I don't really like it, it's that I don't really get used to it. There's not a manual on what slider does what thing, I tend to miss my 15/30 seconds sliders, you can only read with voices that you already have installed on your OS and no more so yeah.
Thank you.

to subscribe send a email to
Voice-Dream+subscribe@groups.io

If people wish to ask or answer about how the new subscription model works, it is fine to do so here too.
Thanks.

After this tortuous road, I'm not in a position to trust the new Voice Dream Reader developers any longer, and Speech Central offers everything I want. It's well-maintained, and the developer does a great job of answering questions and addressing user comments, even a lot faster and more than what we get from paid apps.

The revelations of and focus on the "analytics" in Voice Dream is both necessary and refreshing. Thank you. Even in spite of the payment model reversal, this is concerning.

What is the situation with Speech Central? Last I looked they were publicly disclosed but non-optional. To be clear, all analytics are inherently bad and should be optional, because they always disclose at least your public IP address and an identifier. I would therefore strongly prefer an app where they could be disabled. At the moment VDR still has the functional high ground, but I hope SC can change that.

Thanks for that @ Labsii.

I would have no objection to analytics that are carefully considered as long as they're completely optional. People like me can reach you on AppleVis.

I am going to try to switch to SC full time. To be clear I have no issue with the "nuts n' bolts" approach at all. It is not the core functionality that is the problem, it's all the rest. Now of course you can use BookPlayer for m4b files, or ListenLater for OpenAI voices. VDR was never perfect of course, but it did combine a lot of useful tools (and some completely unnecessary ones, like a pronunciation dictionary) in the app. I'm glad that you can appreciate that there is a lot wrapped up in that app, not just muscle memory but a lot of positive past sentiment. No doubt unpicking that, beyond the core functionality, is legitimately difficult for some.

Again thanks for being engaged. It's appreciated.

heya all.
OK, I've finally gave up on voice dream and have purchased the mac version of speech central. However, it would be neet if the dev adds a hotkey to know in what part of the book you are. In the iphone the regulator expresses it and you can really know where you are, but over here with the regulator and the remaining pages to finish the chapter it's not too much info. it'll be highly appreciated. Thanks.

That they learned their lesson and wouldn’t try any sly ways to artificially make the subscription a requirement by removing features people paid for. It doesn’t matter how it happens, if people lose features they bought, it’s still theft and I very very much doubt Applause will be given another chance by the community. They are playing with fire and the flames only just died down. If they want to test the resolve of the community, I’d invite that test. I don’t think it would go well for them. They can add new features all they want and consumers will make their decisions but any more funny business and their investment will be worthless. We’ll lose an app and thats sad but at some point we have to draw a line and say these people aren’t playing by the rules and we reject them for it. I see many comments of people they’ve already lost from their previous shenanigans. Any similar japes won’t be welcomed or tolerated is my prediction.

Yeh I know exactly what you mean. I’ve had the app for over a decade and never found much of a use for it. I do know people get a lot from the app though. It’s the way some people enjoy books and those people don’t have much else to look forward to which is why I’m so outspoken about this app.

That it makes all media whether books, pdf’s, documents or audiobooks use a similar UI. I think people get used to a UI and like that they always know how to do things instead of using a different app for each format they’re trying to read. As I say, it doesn’t offer me much. I’ve bought voices in VDR but now we have Siri voices in iOS, all the VDR voices seem inferior to me. As I say, I think its the fact that the UI is predictable, its a single place for all formats and its a single place to store everything. It definitely has benefits for some but not me. Or not that I’ve found yet. It can’t be about the voices so those are my assumptions.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/elevenlabs-reader-ai-audio/id6479373050

I just started using this new app for some of my books with mixed results. The voices are great but some of the text is read in wrong order. But for free it’s great start (don’t think it will remain free, though)

i like it; all we need now is that ability to use those voices with kindle; one of the UK voices sounds creepy then back to how it should be. fantastic though how it reads.

Seems like a lot of people aren't getting why one would wish to use either program over something like Kindle or iBooks. First of all, you can lock the phone and put it away and keep reading. Second, you can stop and start, back up and go forward all with controls on your listening device. I seldom read with my behind in a chair and the phone in front of me, and I always want a way to back up, interruptions are a fact of life. I think Kindle, Ibooks, and even bookshare's own reader have to be some of the worst apps for reading ever invented.

You can't lock the phone and read, and have pages turn with voicedream and kindle.

Yaniv, thanks for the link to Elevenlabs AI reader. The voices are very high quality. So far my favorite is Matilda. She sounds very natural, better than anything in Voice Dream in my opinion. I checked all the voices and like a couple others too and will keep experimenting with them.

Not just the actual sound but also the expressiveness achieved by the use of AI. My main concern with the app is that it won’t remain free and not before long some sort of sub plan will be introduced to all users.

I particularly like the expressiveness; makes reading books more like reading audiobooks than textbooks. If this were to go sub, I would probably subscribe, so long as they're transparent about the reasons why.

if these voices can be used i still wouldn't want to have to keep my phone unlocked, just to read in audio for me, but as others have said, page-turning when locked just isn't possible.

If you mean with this particular app, I haven't tried it yet. But VoiceDream can do continuous reading, Speech Central reads one chapter at a time, and this app has a pause button you can access from the lock screen. Only Kindle and iBooks seem to have fallen behind on this front. Once upon a time, you could ask Siri to read an entire iBook just by saying speak screen, then locking your phone. No longer possible.