Speechify Books: Read & Listen Reviews

by ATOPTEN

SpeechifyBooks loses its place, restarts chapters over and over, and won’t allow for advancing to the middle of a chapter. I really would like a good alternative to audible but the repeating chapters makes this unusable in the car. Other than the Sanderson books I have to listen hear on, I will not be back.

by Khalazhad

Chapter regularly start repeat. Hitting the next button starts the chapter over again rather than go to the next chapter. Trying to fast forward by dragging the bar also starts the chapter over. Pausing, using a different app, for example taking a phone call, then hitting play, starts the chapter over again. SpeechifyBooks also drains my battery at an unacceptable rate. Cant think of a single reason to use SpeechifyBooks outside of Brandon Sanderson's secret projects.

by KirstenG1989

I downloaded speechify and utilized the free trial. I disabled the automatic renewal function. I ultimately decided I didn’t want to continue after the free trial. Speechify took a year premium subscription fee from my account 5 days after the end of my free trial but it wasn’t linked to my app and wouldn’t allow me to use the subscription. It continued to be an inactive subscription on my apple account. I contacted the company 2 times over a 7 day period via email (the ONLY way to contact them) and had no response. Great concept, does need improvement in overall app performance, and DEFINITELY needs better customer service response.

by J.U.1

Did the free trial, received a credit , was listening to a book, and it just disappeared. No customer support. I canceled the free trial so maybe that’s why? I always cancel so I don’t forget and get charged. I was actually enjoying because this was exactly what I needed. An audiobook to read along with the ebook. I was actually looking up the pricing to consider it but now I’m not encouraged to want to resume

by NXgravity

Based on my experience, when you pay for a book, it will be removed within a month.

Read/Listen quickly, as books are only rented briefly. They will be removed within a month and unavailable until another credit is spent. I contacted support, and like all Speechify support cases, they were never resolved. Customer support will stop responding after the initial greeting.

While the concept has promise, Speechify is not a reputable or honorable company. How they maintain such a high rating is a testament to how money can alter statistical truth. Run, don’t walk, from Speechify.

by 박우현

Every time I open your app with audiobooks (the old one and now the new one, I’m greeted by the “F” word with as you try to sell me the book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ******”. That is a very offensive word to me. Not sure why that has to be there, even if it is on a list. Opening SpeechifyBooks is uncomfortable and offensive. Can you include a way to hide titles so I don’t keep seeing the F word? Or can you remove offensive content that isn’t being searched for? Thanks for your consideration.

by Weary Elephant

I signed up for a 3-day free trial. When I went to cancel my trial before the end of the trial period I was immediately charged a full monthly subscription fee. I did not have the opportunity to cancel the trial and avoid the fee. I reached out to customer service and they were unwilling to refund my subscription fee.

Additionally SpeechifyBooks interface is annoying. They advertise as a way to increase one’s reading comprehension by merging the auditory and visual, but the highlighted texted word-by-word is extremely distracting making it difficult to read. And you can’t even turn off the highlighted text function. At least let me turn it off.

The audiobook side of SpeechifyBooks lacks an easy and intuitive navigation tool. I can’t jump back or forward 15 seconds with the touch of a button. Instead, if I’m just listening I have to scroll the timeline bar manually, or pull up the book text and find the exact paragraph where I want to rewind to. Very clunky and frustrating.

It’s neither a good reading platform or a good audiobook platform.

by NatVader88

Literally the worst app! And customer service is a joke! They charge and arm & a leg and give you 12 credits, but half the books you want “can’t be bought with credits” so you still have to pay. The narrators sound like robots. Save your money & sign up for scribed! It’s SOOO much better! & all the books are included with your membership!

by Bibb5678

I signed up for a free three-day trial. Upon cancelling on day one of the said trial (because inventory of books is low), I was charged $120 for the annual subscription. Then, when I attempt to contact customer service, my app incidentally stops working.

What a scam! I will be disputing this with my financial institution. Avoid!

by Huntercj501

Yes it reads audio but don’t dare pausing, rewinding, skipping, or changing anything. It tosses you right back to the start of a chapter and I haven’t found a way to listen without starting over. The interface is horribly optimized and it’s a shame I can’t use audible for the Sanderson audiobook I just got.

by WednesdayRavenAddams

I have used speechify before so I wanted to check out the new app. After I downloaded it though it won’t load. I tap to open it and I see the loading circle go around a couple time and it just disappears like I never tried to open it. It doesn’t even show up in my open app thingy

by UnhappyGirl2023

Literally the worst app! And customer service is a joke! They charge and arm & a leg and give you 12 credits, but half the books you want “can’t be bought with credits” so you still have to pay. The narrators sound like robots. Save your money & sign up for scribed! It’s SOOO much better! & all the books are included with your membership!

by Yjkotool

Ebooks uploaded to the same account can not share between web account and iOS APP. Make me doubt is SpeechifyBooks a fake APP? Because it can not access speechify’s user account information.

by PA0620

I was excited to use SpeechifyBooks because it meant I finally found an app where I can read and listen to a book simultaneously but unfortunately I ended up disappointed. SpeechifyBooks is promoted as a read and listen solution but it failed to let consumers know that only 5% of the book would be offered with text + audio. If you wanted the text to the whole book, it would be an additional fee which I had no idea about because it’s not mentioned ANYWHERE on SpeechifyBooks or even on the Apple Store app description!

I started with a 3 day free trail where I received a credit for a book. The text didn’t always match up to the audio and sometimes the chapters would repeat. The fast forward feature didn’t work so if I wanted to go back a sentence or move forward to the next, the chapter would start all over again. Clearly lots of glitches but even then I thought it was okay enough for me to commit to SpeechifyBooks and not cancel before my 3 day trial. I finished the book and was ready for the next! I found the book I wanted to read/listen next, paid $14.99 for the book and started my journey. After chapter 3, I was asked to “upgrade my book” or continue with my audiobook. I was like hmm what does that mean? Turns out I was being asked to pay an additional $12.99 to continue with the text portion of what I thought would be included in the READ AND LISTEN app!! So really it’s going to cost around a minimum of $28 per read and listen experience, plus the $14.99 monthly subscription fee. Unfortunately, I will finish with the audiobook I already paid for and canceling my subscription. Can’t trust a service that isn’t upfront with you!!

Only good thing- customer service team is great. Answers concerns in a timely manner.

by ArielleC

I signed up to try the free trial bc I like speechify. There was no free credit to try. Each book is costs more than other audiobook on other apps. The one I was interested is was listed at $18.99

by FreeG'aim

I had SpeechifyBooks for 20mins and deleted it I hate how you have to sit thru the guided learning portion of SpeechifyBooks ….. I hate the man’s voice we should be able to skip it his voice was so cringy

by Batteries12

Consistently loops the same chapter, requiring a lot of babysitting to get through a book. It worked fine on the speechify app, not a fan that they spun off a new app with new problems

by Kittkatt025645

I enjoyed the free 3 day trial untill I realized instead of it being $16.99 it tried to charge me $180.60 even though I clicked monthly. And I’m sure not paying either one now. I get the 180 is for a year but some people would just rather not have apps take money without at least notifying the person. You do have to use email, and phone number when signing up in site there’s someone who controls the subscriptions thankfully I know better then to add my actual bank card to anything in case anything like this happens.

by Sunrisewolf

I have clicked “subscribe” and “try for free” and nothing pops up to purchase. I will try to restart my phone but currently app doesn’t work.

by Dewey Vozel

This subscription starts with a 3 day trial that includes 1 credit. I looked into Speechify because Brandon Sanderson has a deal with them and is not making certain books available on Audible. The credits you get with your subscription can’t be used for his books though, so are essentially worthless to me. I would have to pay the subscription and then also purchase the books for 25% more than they currently cost on Spotify!

Their customer service is a bot and if you want to talk to a person it says they’ll respond in 2 days… and the trial is only 3 days long.

I used privacy to create a virtual card that I used to sign up. Fortunately, I closed the card before canceling the trial because when I canceled the trial they tried to charge my card… legitimately trying to steal from me.

by BEEEEEAAAANS

I bought the monthly subscription and had a 3 day free trial it took 120 DOLLARS OUT OF MY ACCOUNT

by Jaws12

Since I can’t appear to leave a big report of this issue anywhere else (as the Message Us link in SpeechifyBooks doesn’t work and SpeechifyBooks Support link here on SpeechifyBooks Store leads to a broken page), I will post this issue in a review.

The most recent version of SpeechifyBooks at approximately 15-20 seconds left in a chapter will suddenly jump ahead to the end of the NEXT chapter, often times spoiling story elements! This is a terrible bug for story continuity and rather jarring to the listening experience when it happens. Please fix this!

by CQ493

Not having CarPlay support makes SpeechifyBooks useless in my most common use situation. Hopefully this gets added since the book app is standalone now.

by Discongruntified

SpeechifyBooks seems really great and does what it’s supposed to. Supposedly, they’re open to indie authors and I was in talks with them early on to release my books, but at one point they completely ghosted me. I had signed paperwork and never heard anything after that.

by Blackbird12

It will play audiobooks, but if you want to skip back or find any specific point it’s a nightmare. Also several times it tried to replay a chapter instead of moving to the next one.

by WappyDog

Aside from the annoyance of a new app to download it keeps either repeating chapters over and over or picking random chapters to play.

by Sugar-smacks

I thought it works be a great app to listen to for self help while I was busy working on other things but it never works correctly and if it does play it's not in sink. Hardly ever has audio. Great idea but it's just not working for me.

by TeaWizardry

Love SpeechifyBooks so far, i have wanted for years the track along audiobook with audiobook from someone other than amazon (and having to pay for both outside of audible). Anyways, it currently (aug 2023) lacks some QOL features ive come to expect with audiobooks readers:
- no bookmarks or highlighting
- sometimes it starts at the beginning of the chapter if you close it wrong
- no carplay
- cant figure out how to download my content on my computer

by Krernrer

I love SpeechifyBooks , especially reading along with the audiobooks when I feel like it. I feel like it would be my go-to audiobook app IF it worked consistently but many times it gets stuck on a chapter, repeating it over and over again, or it won’t let me skip ahead or move back, or it won’t pause with my headphones. I have to close out SpeechifyBooks and restart my phone before it will cooperate again.

by WikkoPoppin

I love the aesthetics of SpeechifyBooks and the UI/UX. It has all of the books that I could want. But I feel like it’s a money grab at this point. I’ve been paying for Speechify to read my pdfs and I wish the Speechify Books membership was an added bonus instead of separate entities. Now I’m paying for both and it’s just a lot.

by Quad Bravo

My experience with Speechify has been great so far, and it only got better when I had to interact with someone involved in customer service! Wanting to purchase a book with a credit, and seeing that I was unable to do so, I contacted the customer service via text message, and they got back to me fairly quickly. Since the title I was after was unavailable for purchase with a Speechify credit, I was offered a complementary credit to balance it out! Keep it up, speechify! You guys are certainly solidifying yourselves as a major competitor against Audible.

by Rajivtikoo

Love the immersive experience. Great value for money. Way better than Audible.

by Agmatthi

I’ve been an Audible user for years, but recently tried out speechify after seeing a clip of Brandon Sanderson exposing Audible for their terrible treatment of small authors. He released his new books only on speechify, so I gave them a shot. The experience is so much better, and I get cheaper credits for books. I can see SpeechifyBooks overtaking Audible at some point. Thank you!

by Galaxyprincess

Really love SpeechifyBooks. I love that I can follow long with the text while I listen to the narrators. As someone that mostly listens to fantasy and sci-fi, it’s so amazing to be able to see how all the proper nouns are spelt. I like that I can click directly on the text to jump forward and back; it makes finding your place easy if you get distracted or fall asleep.

by Pumpkineater54

I decided to switch over after hearing how Audible treats its authors. The intro to SpeechifyBooks alone felt fresh and user friendly explaining everything I needed to know. The experience so far is amazing! Hope to see more migrate to SpeechifyBooks.

by Carrollsandy

C just called and left me an iMessage and said they were not able and I was

by Fjbrweb

I’m so happy

by Gbvdwtkm

We will get

by Wg Cdiknfer

We will get

by TellTheTruthReviews

In the middle of using the application, it pops up nag screen to review. I hate that interruption so much. Here is your review. Remove the nag screen and I will update my review.

by Elfrieda.kshlein

The first time you