Read Aloud for iPhone
Tellbird reads your PDFs, book pages and web articles aloud in a natural voice that runs on your iPhone. Follow along word by word, or lock the screen and just listen.
How it works
Everything you add lands in your Library and remembers where you stopped.
Clean reading
Running headers, page numbers, footnote markers and captions get left out. Two columns are read in the right order, and sentences that break across pages are joined back up.
People retain more of a long text when they can move while they take it in.¹ Walking keeps attention steady through the slow middle of a chapter.
Figure 2. Recall by condition (n = 48) · 214Why we listen while walking.
People retain more of a long text when they can move while they take it in. Walking keeps attention steady through the slow middle of a chapter.
Books, a few pages at a time
New pages join the end of the same entry, and Tellbird keeps your place.
Voices
Ava is free for everyone. Pro adds nine more, with American and British accents. Every voice runs on your iPhone, so it starts right away and keeps going on a plane.
Tap a voice to hear it. Ava is free, the others come with Pro.
No account and no tracking. Your documents never leave your phone.
Lock the screen or switch apps. Play, pause and skip from the lock screen or your AirPods.
Bigger text, Sepia or Night pages, a font made for easy reading, and highlighting by line or by word.
Pricing
No account needed.
About $1.15 a week.
Try it free for 3 days.
Prices in US dollars. Subscriptions renew automatically through your Apple ID until you cancel in Settings at least 24 hours before the end of the period. The weekly trial turns into a paid subscription after 3 days unless you cancel.
No. The voices are built into the app, so reading works offline. You only need a connection to open a web page.
iPhones with iOS 18 or later. Tellbird is made for iPhone. iPads can run the iPhone version.
Each PDF or scanned page is one page. For web articles and pasted text, about 500 words count as a page. Articles from lifehack.org never count.
Yes. Scan pages with the camera, listen, and add the next pages to the same entry when you're ready. Your place is kept.
Open Settings on your iPhone, tap your name, then Subscriptions, and choose Tellbird.