Voice Recorder Free-Smart Utility and text converter for interviewers, students and reporters Productivity 'Voice Recorder is a handy voice recording app for your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch.' In years gone by, text to speech software was rather expensive, but these days there are excellent text to speech tools available free of charge. We're here to help you find the very best tools.
When you’ve spent your entire day at work looking at a screen, reading the news or a feature on yet another screen isn’t the best way to recuperate. Which is why I converted my Kindle into an E-ink web articlereading machine. But as it turns out, you can go one step further and take your eyes completely out of the equation.
Say hello to the world of voice reading where synthetically created AI voices and sometimes even real human beings narrate you articles, books, your email and even notifications so you don’t have to wear yourself out reading them.
Cool Tip: Voice reading apps are also great for kids with learning disabilities as it allows them to process information without being boggled down with the complications of reading.
These apps are perfect to use when you’re driving your car, taking public transport or just doing your daily chores. You can get your work done when catching up on your reading list towards which you’d normally dedicate special time.
1. Default Text-To-Speech for iOS
Just like dictation, the built in text-to-speech agent in iOS is marvelous but it’s turned off by default. Go to Settings ->General ->Accessibility and turn on Speak selection.
You can customize the speed here as well. Now go to any app, highlight some text or an entire article and from the popup menu select Speak.
2. Default Text-To-Speech on Android
Google has its own text-to-speech app on Android and it comes installed on your phone. But it’s limited. It only works in apps that have expressly integrated the functionality – the most notable being Play Books. You can’t share any text you’re reading directly to the app (like you can with the third party app listed below).
3. Voice Reading For Android
Voice Reading is a powerful text-to-speech client for Android. Not only will it read highlighted text for you, it will also let you read ebooks and parsed content just from the URL. Voice Reader also shows the text it’s reading in a floating window so you can scroll back up if you miss something.
You can add content to Voice Reading using Android’s share menu. If you’re browsing an article in Chrome, go to the sharing menu and select Voice Reading. The same works in any app with text. To read books go to the app, tap the + icon, then the browse button and select your ebook file.
Adding more content one after the other creates a playlist that’s editable. And the app can keep reading stuff in the background so you are free to use your phone as you please.
4. Pocket for Android
Pocket for Android has a built in functionality for voice reading. When you’re reading an article, tap the three dotted menu and select Listen (TTS). The app will now read the article to you and you can control the playback and voice speed from the popup.
5. SoundGecko For iOS And Android
SoundGecko takes a different approach to the art of voice reading. You can add links you want to read using its Chrome extension on desktop or the sharing menu on Android. You need to register for an account to be able to play saved articles.
One good thing about SoundGecko is its support for RSS feeds. This way you don’t need to go looking for content to listen to, it comes directly to you. The cloud implementation and sync between devices is helpful as well.
6. Read Out Notifications With Out Loud On Android
Don’t like picking up your phone to look at a meaningless notification? Have Android read it to you using the Out Loud app. But you should spend some time customizing the app and when it’s allowed to run because the last thing you want is for your whole office to listen to the raunchy text your wife sent you.
7. Apps For iPhone
NaturalReader
NaturalReader lets you listen to ebooks, webpages and PDFs imported for cloud servies like Dropbox, Google Drive or just your local storage. But you’ll have to download a voice to get going (some users are reporting issues with downloading a voice in the current version).
Listen to Pocket – Lisgo
The app’s name is pretty self explanatory. If you use Pocket to add things to read later, they will show up in Lisgo. There’s also a built-in web browser if you want to read a particular page.
If you’re interested in having your RSS feed read out to you, check out FeedRead.
8. Have Actual Humans Read To You
If you can’t stand the robotic voice of the text-to-speech engines (they are getting better day by day), there’s an escape for you. Umano (iOS, Android) is an app that employs actual humans (including professional voice-over artists) to read you the best stories from the internet.
There are a lot of different categories in the app and you can customize the sources to create your personalized listening news feed. Best of all, the app is free. There is a premium subscription for playlists and pro features but the free version is going to be more than enough for most users.
Top image credit: Shuttershock.
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iPhone is a wonderful device which comes in handy while travelling. With a powerful camera and stereo speakers, it is indeed a cool device.
However, even the best of gadgets miss out on a few things: iPhone can’t help you when it comes to real-time language translation. Thanks to the advent of smartphones and availability of apps, language is no barrier. Whether you are travelling to a foreign land or you want to translate a document, the translation apps for iPhone can make life easy for you.
You don’t get many options to choose from due to a limited number of apps present for real-time translation. So, we have listed some of the best voice translation apps for iPhone in 2018.
Best Translation App For iPhone
1. iTranslate
iTranslate is one of the best voice translation apps for iPhone as it is a good and reliable translation dictionary. Let’s look at the features:
- This app can translate text, websites in over 90 languages.
- It gives you an option to change the voice to male or female.
- You can also switch to different dialects.
2. iTranslate Voice
It is paid version of iTranslate and has a lot of features and is one of the best apps for translation. Let’s take a look at the features:
- The new Offline Mode features enable you to use iTranslate abroad without paying roaming charges.
- It can instantly speak over 40 languages
- The accuracy of the voice recognition is amazing so you no longer have to type.
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3. Google Translate
Yet another app for translation which is free. Let’s have a look at the features:
Free Voices For Mac
- It translates up to 103 languages by typing and allows you to translate 52 languages without internet connection
- It also translates text in images in 30 different languages instantly by just pointing the camera at it.
- It quickly translates bilingual conversations in over 32 languages.
4. SpeakText
SpeakText is a free app that translates text documents and web pages. Let’s check out the features of the same:
- Either touch the text documents, web pages, and newspapers or copy & paste or key in, the app will speak and translate sentence by sentence.
- It speaks in 100+ voices and translates in 50+ languages sentence by sentence.
- It allows you to play, pause, skip a sentence, adjust playback volume and see the sentences list on a lock screen.
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5. SayHi Translate
SayHi Translate is one of the best translation apps for iPhone as it provides accurate speech recognition. Let’s take a look at the features:
- It can translate to and from 50+ languages.
- It allows you to not only switch languages quickly but also choose male or female voices and speed up or slow down the rate of speech according to your preference.
- It has a simpler interface which makes it easy to use.
6. Voice Translate Pro
One of the best translation apps, Voice Translate Pro is a paid application. Let’s look at the features:
- It has accurate speech recognition that lets it understand tongue twisters let alone the daily conversations.
- It translates instantly whenever and wherever you want.
- Forthwith, start a voice to voice conversation with people in 100+ countries.
7. MyLanguage Pro
MyLanguage Pro or Translate Voice – Language Translator & Dictionary is yet another paid application that aims to make traditional language translation and learning experience fun, engaging and practical. Let’s check out the features:
- High-quality voice translation in 30 different languages.
- It supports Transliteration.
- The app is supported by an active community, it has up-to-date information and is expanding all the time.
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8. WayGo
WayGo is one of the best translation apps available for iPhone if you are travelling to China, Japan, and Korea. Let’s look at the features:
- The app allows you to hover your phone’s camera over foreign text and translate in no time and read that text in English.
- It lets you translate the street signs without internet.
9. iHandy Translator
Best Voice To Text App For Iphone
iHandy is one of the best translation apps with a slick and intuitive user interface. Let’s look at the features:
- It offers quick and instant translation to sentences, phrases, words in around 52 languages.
- It allows you to search your history for recently-used expressions or translations
- It has an integrated copy paste functionality which can come handy when you text your foreign buddies.
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10. Worldictionary
- Worldictionary is the translation app which has bagged many awards for its excellence. Let’s check out the features:
- The instant ‘View and Translate’ feature allows you to get the quick translation by hovering your iPhone’s camera over it.
- You can select an image from your phone to get the translation without typing anything.
- It saves your search records.so that you can build your own word database to increase translation efficiency.
So, this is the list for best language translation apps for iPhone in 2017. Try them and travel to any corner of the world without a worry and never get lost in translation!