SpeakCoveYes, Apple Books can read to you, but not with a button of its own. Turn on Speak Screen in Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak, open a book or PDF in Books, and swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. Speak Screen reads the page, turns pages as it goes and lets you change the speed; Apple's iPhone User Guide describes the same steps for iOS 26 and iOS 27 as of October 2026. Books itself is a polished e-reader for EPUB books and PDFs, pre-installed on every iPhone and iPad, with a Book Store, an Audiobook Store and iCloud sync.
So do you need another app? It depends on how much you listen. SpeakCove is built only for listening: it opens 10 formats, reads them with its own on-device neural voices, highlights the current sentence, remembers your place and has a sleep timer. Here is how the two compare for listening to your own files.
| Feature | SpeakCove | Apple Books |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free download (Premium $14.99 one-time) | ✓ Free (pre-installed) |
| Read Aloud | ✓ Built-in player | Through iOS Speak Screen (turned on in Accessibility settings) |
| PDF Read Aloud | Yes, in the app | Yes, with Speak Screen, which turns pages automatically |
| Supported Formats | ✓ 10 (PDF, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, DOCX, FB2, CBZ, RTF, TXT, HTML), DRM-free | EPUB, PDF and audiobooks; no MOBI or AZW |
| Voices | 10 on-device neural voices (2 free) | Apple's built-in voices, chosen in Settings |
| Highlighting | Current sentence highlighted | Speak Screen can highlight spoken text |
| Speed Control | 0.75x to 1.75x, adjustable during playback | Rate control in the Speak Screen controller |
| Sleep Timer | ✓ 5 to 60 minutes | For audiobooks; not among Speak Screen's controls |
| Store | Free Project Gutenberg books; arXiv, Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex paper search | ✓ Book Store and Audiobook Store (free and paid titles) |
| Narrated Audiobooks | No, text-to-speech only | ✓ Yes, with speed control and a sleep timer |
| Visual Reading Tools | Sentence highlighting, document scanner with on-device OCR | ✓ Themes, fonts, Line Guide, bookmarks, highlights and notes, reading goals |
| iCloud Sync | Yes, library and reading position | Yes, including imported books and PDFs |
| Offline Support | Reading, OCR and speech work offline | Downloaded books work offline |
Where Apple Books Does Well
- Free and pre-installed on every iPhone and iPad
- Book Store and Audiobook Store, with narrated audiobooks, speed control and a sleep timer
- Works with Speak Screen to read EPUBs and PDFs aloud and turn pages automatically
- Polished visual reader: themes, fonts, Line Guide, highlights and notes, reading goals and iCloud sync
Where Apple Books Falls Short
- No read-aloud player of its own; listening depends on Speak Screen, which you turn on in Accessibility settings
- Doesn't open MOBI or AZW files, and DOCX, FB2, CBZ, RTF, TXT and HTML aren't on Apple's list of importable content
- Speak Screen uses Apple's built-in voices and has no sleep timer among its controls
Where SpeakCove Excels
- A dedicated player with play, pause, speed and sleep timer in one place
- Opens 10 formats: PDF, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, DOCX, FB2, CBZ, RTF, TXT and HTML (DRM-free files)
- 10 on-device neural voices of its own (Serena and Max are free, 8 more with Premium)
- Real-time sentence highlighting so you can follow along
- Sleep timer from 5 to 60 minutes
- Remembers your position in every document
- Document scanner with on-device text recognition for paper pages
- Free Project Gutenberg store and research-paper search (arXiv, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex)
- Background, lock-screen and CarPlay playback with Premium ($14.99 one-time)
The Verdict
Apple Books is a good e-reader, and it costs nothing. With Speak Screen turned on, it can read EPUBs and PDFs aloud and turn the pages for you, which is enough for occasional listening. It is also where you buy books and narrated audiobooks.
SpeakCove is for people who listen to documents regularly. It opens formats Books doesn't, such as MOBI, AZW3, DOCX and FB2, reads them with on-device neural voices, highlights each sentence, remembers your place and has a sleep timer. The free version covers all of that with two voices. Premium ($14.99 once) adds eight voices, background and lock-screen playback, and CarPlay.
Many people will keep both: Apple Books for reading and buying, SpeakCove for listening to their own files.
Try SpeakCove Free. No sign-up required. Start listening in seconds.
One-time purchase, no subscription
Free to start with 2 voices and every format. $14.99 once unlocks all 10 voices, background playback and CarPlay. No subscription, ever.
Listen in the car with CarPlay
Your documents on your car's screen and speakers, with CarPlay in Premium.
Works offline, fully on-device
Your documents never leave your device. The app has no analytics and no ads, and reading and voices work in airplane mode.
Free Text to Speech, Right in Your Browser
Paste text or open any file (PDF, EPUB, Word, scans and more) and press Play. SpeakCove reads it aloud with natural voices in 31 languages. It's free, with no sign-up and no length limit, and your text never leaves your browser.
Open the reader →Frequently Asked Questions
- Can Apple Books read PDFs aloud?
- Not with a button of its own, but iOS can. Turn on Speak Screen in Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak, open the PDF or EPUB in Books, and swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. Speak Screen reads the page, turns pages as it goes, and lets you pause, skip and change the speed. SpeakCove has its own player for PDFs and nine other formats.
- Can Apple Books read MOBI, DOCX, or other formats?
- Apple lists PDFs, many EPUB books, MP3 audiobooks and Audible audiobooks as content you can import into Books, and says Kindle files such as AZW open only in their own app. SpeakCove opens 10 formats: PDF, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, DOCX, FB2, CBZ, RTF, TXT and HTML, as long as the files are DRM-free.
- Does Apple Books highlight text while reading aloud?
- Speak Screen can highlight the text it speaks, and you can set the highlight style and color in Settings. SpeakCove highlights the current sentence in its own reader.
- Is SpeakCove free like Apple Books?
- SpeakCove is a free download. The free version includes 2 of its 10 voices (Serena and Max), all 10 formats, all 31 languages, speed control, the sleep timer, sentence highlighting, widgets and iCloud sync, with no ads, account or time limits. Premium is a one-time $14.99 purchase (US) for the other 8 voices, background and lock-screen playback, and CarPlay. Without Premium, playback pauses when you leave the app or lock the phone. In the browser, SpeakCove's free web reader at speakcove.com/text-to-speech has all 10 voices. Apple Books costs nothing beyond the books you buy.
- Does SpeakCove work offline?
- Yes for reading and listening. Speech, document reading and text recognition run on your device. The book store, paper search, iCloud sync and the purchase need a connection. Downloaded books in Apple Books also work offline.
- Should I use Apple Books or SpeakCove?
- If you mostly read EPUBs and PDFs and only sometimes want them read aloud, Apple Books with Speak Screen costs nothing and may be enough. Apple Books is also the place to buy books and professionally narrated audiobooks. SpeakCove fits if you listen to documents often, use formats Books can't open, or want a player with neural voices, a sleep timer and saved positions.
Sources
- Apple Support: Hear iPhone speak the screen, selected text, and typing feedback
- Apple Support: Read books in the Books app on iPhone
- Apple Support: Listen to audiobooks in Books on iPhone
- Apple Support: Import books, audiobooks, or PDFs in Books on Mac
- Hadley: Using the Speak Screen Feature on iPhone/iPad (July 2022)