Videos
Hey everyone,
Well… we knew this day was coming.
With ElevenReader and a bunch of other AI voice apps moving to strict time limits or paid plans, I’m wondering if there are any truly 100% free text-to-speech reader apps for iOS still out there in 2025. I’m talking about apps that let you listen to articles, PDFs, or ebooks—without character/time caps, forced upgrades, or intrusive ads.
I’ve checked out some of the usual suspects, but most either:
• Limit you to a couple hours or a set number of characters per week • Require a subscription for anything beyond basic use • Have a free tier that’s basically just a trial
I’m aware of a few options like:
• Text to Speech! – Decent, but pretty basic and has some in-app purchases • Speak4Me – Free and supports sharing, but not sure about long-form reading • Nagish – Great for accessibility and phone calls, but not really for general reading • Speech Central – Free for small amounts of content, but unlimited use is a paid upgrade unless you’re blind and using VoiceOver
Are there any new or lesser-known apps that are actually unlimited and free for regular users? Or any creative workarounds (like using Shortcuts or web-based tools) that are still working well?
Would love to hear what’s working for you all in 2025!
Thanks!
Speak Screen
From email to books, let your iPhone read to you. If you have a hard time reading the text on your iPhone, use Speak Screen to read your email, iMessages, web pages, and books. Turn on Speak Screen and swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers, or just tell Siri to Speak Screen and have all the content on the page read back to you. You can adjust the voice’s dialect and speaking rate, and have words, sentences, or words within sentences highlighted as they’re being read. And the new Speech Controller provides a Speak Under Finger feature for more precise control.
https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/vision/
From the Home screen, go to Settings → General → Accessibility → Speech → Speak Screen. Or simply search using the search bar in Settings. To read screen, imagine bringing down notification centre, but with two fingers.
For single words: select them, and find "Speak" in the tooltip options that appear.
RSS reader for iPhone with text-to-speech support?
I tried Speaking Email (speaking email website link) and am finding it really great. It's a one by one email reader which keeps it nice and simple. It has commands like "delete", "reply" and so on which are voice commands, a nice idea - really powerful and no need to wear your eyes out peering at a screen.
The reply dictation works well. It is best for reasonably short emails. Although it works much better than Siri, which seemed to only get about half a sentence before thinking I am finished - whereas Speaking Email keeps the dictation going and only stops after something like 10 seconds, when you really are finished.
PS. I am answering my own question because I got this answer on Quora and thought I should share it here, since I found the app works great (my personal experience). Just in case anyone has the same question (hope that is the right thing to do here!)
What apps are there that are free and convert the voices from an audio file (or a video) to text?
Been trying to journal more lately, but I'm absolutely horrible when it comes to typing out my thoughts.
Are there any good (free) apps out there that will transcribe my ramblings into words so I can just save my stream of consciousness and skim through it later?