What it can read
| Kind of text | Formats | How to bring it in |
|---|---|---|
| Ebooks | EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2 | Pick the file from the add menu in the PageEcho library (EPUB also from the share sheet) |
| Documents | PDF, TXT, Markdown, RTF | Choose PageEcho in the share sheet, or use the library add menu |
| Web articles | Web pages | Choose PageEcho in your browser's share sheet, or paste the link |
| Text in photos | Images | Read the text from a photo (OCR) |
| Your own writing | Notes | Write it in PageEcho |
| Free books and papers | Project Gutenberg, Wikisource, arXiv | Get them from the store inside PageEcho |
Ebooks with DRM (copy protection) cannot be opened. The formats above are as of PageEcho 1.5.7.
The store's Wikisource section comes in Korean, Japanese, Chinese and English editions, each with a starter shelf of public-domain classics, and six more languages (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Czech) can be searched.
While you listen
- The sentence being read is highlighted, and tapping any sentence starts reading from there.
- Reading continues with the app closed or the screen off, with controls on the lock screen.
- Speed goes from 0.5× to 2×, and there is a sleep timer.
- Pause after each sentence, repeat a span of sentences (A–B), and move through a chapter by time, with the time left shown.
- On iPhone Duo, unfolding turns it into a two-page book; see Reading and listening on iPhone Duo.
In the library
Titles with numbers sort naturally (1, 2, 10 rather than 1, 10, 2), and a "Time left" sort orders books by how long they would take to finish, with an optional time-left label on each book.
Voices and cost
PageEcho has seven voice engines that run on the iPhone. Apple and Kitten voices are free with no limit; Supertonic, Kokoro, Kokoro Deutsch, Qwen3 and MOSS are free for 10 chapters per engine each month. PageEcho Premium removes the limit and unlocks the full AI feature set. Sizes and languages for each engine are in On-device text-to-speech voices on iPhone, compared.
Is there a way without an app?
iOS has Speak Screen in its Accessibility settings, which reads the text on screen aloud with system voices and needs no app. PageEcho adds a library for your books and documents, picking up where you left off, sentence highlighting and downloadable neural voices.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. PageEcho is free to download, and Apple and Kitten voices are free with no limit. The other four engines are free for 10 chapters per engine each month.
Can it read PDFs aloud?
Yes. It reads PDF, EPUB, TXT, Markdown, RTF, MOBI, AZW3 and FB2 files as well as web articles.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Voices are generated on the iPhone, so after a voice model is downloaded once, listening works without internet.
Can it read Kindle books?
Ebooks with DRM (copy protection) cannot be opened. DRM-free files such as EPUB and PDF can be read aloud.
Is it on Android?
No. PageEcho is for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo (iOS and iPadOS 26 or later).