PageEcho started with a simple wish: to listen to the things I read. Not only books, but PDFs, papers, articles from the browser and my own notes, in a voice that sounds like a person and without sending any of it to a server.
Version 1.5 is the biggest update since launch, and most of it was shaped by one device.
Unfold it, and it becomes a book
On a closed iPhone Duo, PageEcho reads aloud on the outer display, so you can keep listening on a walk or on the subway. Unfold it and the same page opens into a two-page spread across the fold:
- A real spread. Two pages side by side, with margins that keep every line clear of the fold.
- Page turns that follow your finger. Drag a corner and the page curls with you; let go halfway and it settles back.
- Controls on the side. Playback lives on a vertical rail at the edge, away from the hinge and out of the text.
- It keeps your place. Fold it or unfold it and you stay on the same page and the same sentence.
Easier for everyone to use
Alongside the Duo work, 1.5 went through every screen with VoiceOver and low vision in mind: the reader, the player, the library and settings. Buttons say what they do, text grows with Dynamic Type, and the e-ink theme keeps high contrast.
Eleven languages
The app and its App Store page now speak eleven languages: English, Korean, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Steadier voice downloads
The Qwen3 and MOSS voices are large downloads. With version 1.5.2 they finish more reliably and no longer disappear after a download completes. Thank you to the reader in Germany whose review pointed us to it.
What stays the same
Everything still happens on your device: the voices, the translation, the summaries and the answers. There is no account to create, no PageEcho server, and no analytics. The Network Transparency screen in settings lists every place the app can connect to, so you do not have to take that on trust.
Coming in December
From December 1, a small in-app event looks back on your year in reading: what you finished, how long you read and listened, and your longest streak. Like everything else in PageEcho, it is worked out on your device.
Everything PageEcho does on iPhone Duo is collected on one page.
If you have an iPhone Duo, unfold it and open a book. That is the moment this update was made for.