Hello,
I am an independent developer and would like to share my app with you: GutenbergListen
The purpose of GutenbergListen is to convert text files downloaded from Project Gutenberg to speech (note: it of course also handles audio files). The app was created with the idea of providing a simple dynamic search or browse of the Project Gutenberg web site designed for persons using a screen reader or for persons with sight but have difficulty reading over long periods. User selected text or audio files are downloaded to the user's phone or tablet for use offline. It is available for iPhone and iPad and requires iOS 26, iPad-OS 26 or later. The app currently
- provides a user interface in English, French, German or Spanish where the UI is static
- speaks text in the language of the file content for the most prominent European languages (verified with English, French, German, Italian and Spanish)
- allows the user to select voices and change voice engines
- has controls for speech pitch and speed
- retains last listening location
- includes a sleep timer
- has simple means of navigation within the file
I would like to hear your feedback about the apps general usefulness, accessibility and overall fitness to purpose. Suggestions for improvements or for apps you would find useful if they were to be created would greatly appreciated.
GutenbergListen is a solo project that uses Apple's native frameworks only, although is will recognise 3rd party voice engines. The app is open source under the agpl-3.0 license, is free to use, collects no user data, contains no in-app purchases and no tracking.
Comments
Requires iOS 26.2 or later
... and therefore works on the majority of active iOS devices. However, it's one of the very few apps I've encountered that does not work on the previous version as well.
Thank you to teele!
That is a very good point and you are correct that this excludes the 11% of users with iOS 18 and the 3% of users that are using iOS 17 or earlier. The English voices included in iOS 18 disappointed me during testing as it lacks the enhanced English voices available by default in iOS 26. As over 80% of the works available from Project Gutenberg are in English, at the time that seemed a definite quality problem, but perhaps I'm being too picky. I will retest my code and verify that all features work in iOS 18 (and will try it with 17). If all of the features continue to work on the earlier versions and the voice quality in iOS 26 doesn't suffer, I'll submit an update to the Apple Store.