NEW YORK – July 5, 2022 – Text-to-audio converter app Speechify today announced it has surpassed 6.5 billion monthly words listened to by users, maintaining its #1 ranking on the Apple App Store. The app makes it easy for professionals and learners to access information and helps people with neurodiversity to learn in a more natural way.
People who have had trouble with reading do better when combining multiple senses. Using both sight and hearing, they process easier and understand much faster. Cliff Weitzman, founder and CEO, first developed the app in college to help him learn better with his dyslexia. Now, the Speechify app is widely used by students and professionals alike who prefer to learn faster through listening.
Speechify boosts productivity, comprehension and reading speed, not only for people with dyslexia and ADHD, but also for those who are slower or bored readers and want some help to get through text materials. The app turns any text into audio giving users the ability to listen to anything they want.
Exclusive Artificial Intelligence technology was integral in developing the Speechify app, which reads almost anything to the user by generating natural human-like voices. Speechify’s Head of AI, Tyler Weitzman, who began coding at the age of 9, completed his Bachelors in Mathematics and Masters in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University. “My research at Stanford centered around Natural Language Processing and Speech Synthesis allowed us to create a product that generates exceptionally high quality voices, on all devices. For the first time in history we are able to make voices that sound like a real human, with the ability to read us anything.” Speechify can read books, documents and articles from a mobile device while people cook, work out, commute or wait in line at the store. Speechify uploads documents, scans books, imports PDFs and downloads from Google Drive, iCloud, or Dropbox.
“Listening is a better way to read,” said Weitzman. “Speechify is designed for people who are better listeners than readers.
Everyone has busy lifestyles, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to focus. More people are learning by listening and fewer people are reading. Research has shown that, in 2020, more than 74 million people in the U.S. had listened to at least one podcast per month. It is fascinating that 19% of listeners increase the speed while they listen to ingest more information in less time.”
Weitzman explained, “It is not surprising that the trend for humans is that we’d rather listen. Speechify makes it possible to turn any text you want into audio. For people who retain information by hearing it, they can save so much time. You can read all the books, articles, reports and other text you’ve been meaning to by listening to it. That’s what the Speechify Audio Reader will do for you. You get reading superpowers.”
The Speechify app is free to download and includes unlimited reading with playback controls, users are able to control the voice they listen with as well as the playback speed of the audio. Speechify also allows the user to scan and import documents, and take notes from audio books with the Speechify bookmark and highlight features with a choice of colors.
Speechify offers an option to sync content across all devices making the application accessible by mobile device, tablet, and directly in web browsers with their chrome and safari Extensions.
“Speechify is great for employees working through a stack of boring memos or reports, parents looking to keep up with their child’s reading, students forced to read the world’s most boring books, or anyone hoping to finally make it through the stack of books on their nightstand,” said Weitzman.