Reviews & Comments of Natural Reader Text to Speech chrome extension

Worst text to speech app on chrome that i have tried. And i have tried quite a few. Was looking for a replacement to my old robotic TTS extension. Considering all the crazy TTS AI voices weve been seeing around i figured it was about time. First, i could not install the extension and set it up, without it attempting to read an entire tab i was on about xbox. It just kept reading and reading even though i never told it to read anything. I also couldnt set up the extension while this lady was yelling the entire time. I finished the setup process and told the extension to read an article for me. It continued to not read the article, and instead began reading adverts on the web page for some reason. So i went and highlighted the text i wanted to read specifically that. But instead of reading the text, it now told me my 5 free minutes of use per day that the extension provides had been all used up. So not only does the extension not advertise that it is a paid extension, but the extensions itself is beyond buggy, reads text @ a diff speed than you set in the setup, doesnt read what you want it to. And then lies about how much usage youve had and cuts you off. I just absolutely love wasting my time. Guess i gotta go actually do stuff now that ive lost all interest.

good one.

Its easy to use and sounds really good.

best free option I found. I tried Talkie and Read aloud and was not satisfied with options.

Doesnt sound robotic or annoying!

nice working by using this app ,very useful

It's Great and so helpful to me while trying to finish college with a full time job. When my eyes/brain are so tired are work I force myself to hear sonia read the words in the school textbook lol I pay for the plus membership and it has been worth it to me.

Overall W extention but sometimes it glitches out and skips words that are short(not all the time)

It skips some sentences sometimes. Also it should have checkboxes for each language, and the user can choose one/multiple voices for each language, and then the extension chooses a voice randomly for the detected language (or predetermined language). It pauses sometimes in the same sentence and confuses the reader, for example here: https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/2-2-chemical-bonds In this paragraph: " Even though a single water molecule is unimaginably tiny, it has mass, and the opposing electrical charges on the molecule pull that mass in such a way that it creates a shape somewhat like a triangular tent (see Figure 2.10b). This dipole, with the positive charges at one end formed by the hydrogen atoms at the “bottom” of the tent and the negative charge at the opposite end (the oxygen atom at the “top” of the tent) makes the charged regions highly likely to interact with charged regions of other polar molecules. For human physiology, the resulting bond is one of the most important formed by water—the hydrogen bond. " it pauses speaking for 1.5 seconds or something as if there's a period or comma where: makes the charged regions highly between "charged" and "regions". also, make it possible to toggle among more than 2 voices only. if you fix these this extension becomes awesome!

Naturalreads is a life saver for me, great quality text to speech

Doesn't work all the time, but still the best free TTS extension I've used. For pdfs, use the natural reader website instead.

Simply the best so far.

Excellent widget. I use it constantly for classwork as listening to something spoken aloud while simultaneously reading it helps me retain the information better

When it DOES work its great! that being said it rarely if ever does.

I love it, is an excelent extension, very simple to use, and very useful. I use it for Learn English and I fill a good progress, Thanks Natural Language team.

Thanks for my degree NR.

Uninstalled. Opening a PDF in your browser causes this extension to open its own tab. Closing the extension tab results in it opening another tab. This cycle continues endlessly. Unusual, annoying, and suspicious.

Been using this extension for some time now, but I think the control panel should be smaller so that it isn't a distraction, and that it blocks only as little as possible of webpages/articles being read.

Great app with a range of high quality human-like voices in Premium Plus option. It helps me to keep focus and pace of learning.

Compared to the alternatives this one is actually quite good and versatile. Using both desktop and mobile with web pages and pdf files. My first year is almost up and I will renew the paid subscription which says it all.

I am a dyslexic in grad school but unless I pay for the app I can only read on line for 20 minutes and that is clock by their slow reader. How can we live in the 21st century and not have text to speech as a base function on all web browsers . Why must I print and scan things to read on your reader unless I pay extra. I am shocked that your company only sees this as a lazy mans tool not the resource that could change lives. you suck!

I bought the premium package for the product to use as a read aloud tool for my mail. It was a total waste of money. The extension is so buggy that it doesn't even work!! What a waste of money!

I try on the phone and on chrome and it is a headache of an experience even with the paid version. when it does not crash when reading a chapter of a text book it will read the right side first then the left, on other sites when I try to have it read the page it will skip large sections of the page even after highlighting it and telling the extension to read it, it still skips or quite often just stops reading all together. I want to love the program but it is exhausting.

So far so good! Thanks.

It worked 1 time. After selecting text and clicking the toolbar button a play button▶️ appeared and read the text back to me. Now every time i try it, i get redirected to the website. It didn't work on IMDb site either. Wouldn't read any user reviews etc. Disappointing. I already have an app that will read from my clipboard, so asking the user to copy and paste text to it is redundant, no thanks. This is supposed to read websites and/or selected text and fails to do so, as a browser extension. I'll stick to the online website, bookmark that and uninstall this useless addon.

Most improved text-to-speech application compared to those I've used. It's like real voice talent!

Better than speechify!

Awesome productive tool !

The VERY FIRST text-to-speech that I think doesn't sound robotic or annoying. I absolutely love the Sara voice. Very easy to listen to. I got a paid subscription to access the plus voices, and for me it was worth it by a long shot. It's super helpful if you have ADHD. I really love the closed caption window that shows a few lines of the text in the bottom corner. It helps because you can choose to follow along visually without having to move your eyes across the page. On mobile, some documents are hard to zoom in perfectly to my liking to where it's just right, but most documents work great with zooming in. I guess it depends on the document.

Keeps invading browser When I want to use this extensions it's ok (despite the daily limit). But when I'm opening any PDF online (which I do a lot as a student), Natural Reader makes a new tab essentially advertising/informing of it's extension. If I close it, it opens again (sometimes duplicates), over and over again. I changed settings to 'open when clicked only'; it still happens. I turned off the extension; it still happens. The only other choice I have is to uninstall this app to stop it invading my browser with what are effectively lackluster popup ads. It makes me feel unsafe to have it consistently ignoring my settings, and the fact they have no way to stop it is pretty suspect. I've had this for a very long time and it's never done this, not sure what it's aims are but it's succeeded in pushing me away. I'll just stick with Claroread instead.

I have A.D.D and use natural reader to do my school work. It helps me study and is a life saver.

It's so good, I use the free version and its great

I love the natural reader website its so useful and has been helping me throughout my studies, I use it on all my devices. This extension however has never worked for me I am so confused by the good reviews. I have installed it, uninstalled it and reinstalled it over and over again and it has never fixed the issue no matter the website.

Microsoft's Azure TTS, now on Google Chrome. Kudos!

The extension is great when it works. The extension has a bad habit of stopping after installation. The only why I can fix it is by removing the extension and reinstalling it. It's very annoying.

way better than speechify which doesnt provide any voices other than Microsoft voices without premium.

if the unpaid voice can be extended, it would be perfect. Overall, its excellent

This is a very helpful tool. I am a slow reader and the fact that I can listen at 2x is very helpful. The different voices that you can choose from helps make it very personal. The different tool of where you can change text into mp3 makes so easy to take with you on the go. Some times it is a pain when the program won't read certain document, but there is always copy and past in to their reader page that help make easier to read. I would recommend Natural Reader to any one.

I have ADHD and this application has made getting through my school reading much easier. I appreciate the options as far as voices go, and the adjustable speed. The reading sounds very natural. Other readers often sound so mechanical that I forget to listen to the content of the text, and just become irritated by the voice. Not here! Thanks.

This is a really valuable tool. It may use some work, but overall, I enjoy it.

good and useful _/\_

It works. I like the many selections of voices, and that we can control the read speed. Great tool for proof reading too.

Does not work on MDN websites...

I've tried them all...paid and unpaid...this is by far the best one. This is the only extension that offers a natural reader whereas the other ones are mainly robotic readers. FYI, this is not a paid review...genuine user! I see a lot of spam comments bashing this extension and they're most likely from competitors.

Tried a few different text to speech extensions, and this is the best one I've found.

There are some glitches with this reader, but the reader voices sound more natural than any of the other readers I have tried. I use the Plus-tier, and there are some really good voices there. I have reported a couple of bugs to the tech team, and so far they have been responsive with them. Potentially very good reader.

good reviews are all fake. this does not work. waste of time.

It was perfect until a recent change. For the most part, it's simply the best reader out there. It's been an invaluable tool for editing my novels, as I can catch errors more efficiently when my work is being read back to me at 2x speed. However, a recent, undocumented change has given my go-to AI voice (Sara, English US) a distracting update. For certain words like "Yeah" and "Hmm", a completely different voice takes over, which is absolutely jarring. The tone, inflexion, and audio quality are noticeably off. I imagine customers who use Sara's voice for ads and videos will also find this frustrating, and deem this aspect of the app unusable for their needs. Please restore Sara's voice to the original. Thank you!

love switching between voices and setting the speed for the reading. Free version works great, too. A little troubleshooting has always solved any problem I've had with it

Please, support Vietnamese! Thanks

I used to love the Natural Reader's website so when this extension came out I was super excited. However, it's a total dissapointment. For the first few times it'll work, until it suddenly stops being able to read google docs, and it'll crash on every website you try to use it on. But worst of all, on the extremely rare chance it does work, the voice will take a 5 second pause after every period, comma or sentence gap. Don't waste your time on this garbage.

doesn't work

Seems useful, but I was looking for a free reader. You can't make any use of this unless you buy it. I got a few paragraphs in and then you hit some daily limit.

it works a little bit as it should with regular sites but the real kicker is the fact that it seems to not work in sites like google doc ?

I'm a university lecturer and I can't begin to express how much this extension helps me. Whether it's a first reading of a student essay or a dozens of short reading responses or message board posts, being able to close my eyes and listen to my student's words being read aloud to me - in a voice, pitch, and rate I choose - is one of the main ways I'm able to grade and give timely feedback to weekly writing assignments for 125 students each semester. I've tried over a dozen other text-to-speech apps and extensions and this one is by far the best. I simply can't recommend it more highly!

I use this program for nearing everything. It helps me find grammatical mistakes in my writing by having the reader read it to me exactly how I wrote it. It also helps me absorb more information having texts be read to me while I read it. The pace it moves at is great as is, but still changeable too. Not only that but it's more or less completely free, only things paid for are the optional voices that do help as they are higher quality- but are really not needed as the base voices are good enough. Plus the paid voices have a plenty long demo time that refreshes daily. Not only that, but if you're dyslexic, this is a great way to help with it as things being read to you makes it easier to understand (my friend uses this for that exact reason) Of course the readings aren't perfect, but it is also text to speech. so for what it is, I love it. My main TTS program for nigh on anything.

This extension freezes my Chrome for about 20 seconds and sometimes their server is down and I have to wait minutes for the voice to load. It's wasting my time and making me impatient. I asked for a full refund.

Love it, when I dont feel like reading something but I got to.

Stupid Can't read what I want it to but if I pay 100 dollars it can then Yay

great ! use it to read long boring articles

Its amazing, I use it all the time for studying for exams!

Natural Reader is so helpful in preparing me for multiple assignments. The best part is that it allows me to multitask.

This is a Fantastic Product!!!!!

I have been using Natural Reader for about 3 years now. It has really enriched my academic and professional experiences.

Makes reading technical docs great - but is hard to understand if your not paying for the pro version.

The AI voices are great and the immersive reader is awesome for reading web articles without distractions!

It specially helps me towards the end of the day when I don't have energy to skim through long articles. I simply turn it on and focus on points I deem necessary. Love it.

Easy to use and fully featured!

Natural Reader makes all the difference!!!! I am just returning to school after three decades! I'm enrolled in a program for my AA degree. The curriculum is designed for working adults, however it is brutal! I take only two classes at a time, but the amount of reading is monstruous!!! Here's where the Natural Reader has been a godsend/saving grace for me!!!!!! I am able to read along and listen (my learning style), at home, on work breaks, in my car, my commute home on public transportation, and at a coffee shop (like today). Having to read 80 pages per class (times 2) would be grueling and overwhelming without this amazing tool! I am so glad I found it and that it is available for free! I gave it four stars only because it doesn't start up as readily or quickly as I think it should. But, compared to the time it saves me in reading... I guess I will now HAVE to make this a 5-star rating. It's indeed a paramount tool for students!!!!!

I was so relieved to find how easy to use this aid is...I HATE reading and this has been so helpful for me, I really love all the options to hear read differently to me. I sometimes even listen in other languages which is really cool. Have NOT had any issues and I've have been using it for over a month, thought it was time to leave feedback. :) Thanks for such a helpful aid!

Thankful for this wonderful aid!

While it sounds good an all for the most part, this extention messes up the page numbers in my vital source e-textbook. For example, I will be on page 50 (in the middle of the chapter), but the page number will show page 142 (the last page of the chapter). This makes it very difficult for me to take notes so I can't use this extention unfortunetly.

I use this app a lot. Suddenly, the reading has a very long pause between sentences, the words is highlighted ahead but the sound come much later which cause the reader is reading much slower than myself doesn't matter how fast I set for the speed. It could be that natural reader no longer fetch ahead the audio for the "text to be read" in recent updates. Please rollback the changes if that is the case!

I love this app, especially because I am so busy. I am a mom, a student, a wife. It's really difficult to get time to sit down and read, so this makes it easier to fit in some reading while I'm doing something else.

This is really helpful on days that I have trouble looking at fine detail on the computer screen and have a lot to read.

This is a phenomenal text to speech extension! miles ahead of speechify! It allows the user to still be able to use it without a subscription and have quality voices! even the free voices are fluid and comprehendible

I absolutely love this tool! I am a full time mom and college student. This program has helped me get through hundreds of pages of online textbooks when my eyes are going cross from staring at so much new information. It is also a great review tool to ensure my essays read how I intended; I've also caught countless typos that I probable would have overlooked had I not listened to them aloud. So grateful for this program!

Incredibly helpful when I am too lazy to read myself but don't mind listening to the article on a site. Very easy to use, and has a large variety of voices.

I am an aural learner. From articles and emails that I need to read for work and discussion posts that I need to read for school, this program helps me to get the information that I need. I use the speed change always, listening to the text faster than I could read it with my eyes alone. It is a fantastic tool!

So helpful as a grad student. The Premium voices are amazing and the inflection is really good.

Great application, very helpful and useful for processing and keeping pace with reading long articles and alike. The free to use is pretty lackluster, but can be a help at times all the same. The paid for upgrades are amazing and super useful if albeit extremely expensive and overpriced for a constant subscription service for most people. If you have the money to burn, its worth it. If not I recommend just buying it a month at a time as needed, like if you need it for college projects and alike.

Great application! Love the premium voices. The free voices are very good too! It makes it so much easier to focus on boring text when studying because you can listen to things being read aloud while reading. I also love that you can control the speed at which the voice reads (the word per minute rate).

Very great and necessary accessibility tool but! don't get caught up using premium voices. Use the free voices available for your device or download some online! Also don't be afraid to download documents and upload them to natural readers its actually really helpful even when using the free version.

My brain has a really hard time reading things that I really don't want to or cant focus on. This app supports me in letting me listen instead of having to constantly reread every sentence.

This works great in so many websites and in different programs. Saves me time when grading papers and proofreading my own work.

The best reading app I have ever used! Simple, effective, and easy to use

I love their website and this extension, but it's stopped working today. When it's in the middle of reading a portion of a website article it will bring up a pop-up window that's blank and just stop reading. I reload the page and it doesn't fix it. I'm signed into NaturalReader's website, doesn't matter. If this gets fixed, I will change the review to 5 stars again. I can't get their website to read the pasted text from the article, either. I love the website and extension when they work, but there's a glitch currently. It doesn't play on the main site, either, when I paste text or upload a document. It just loads forever

What a perfect product. This saves time a lot and make reading easy to when you are boring to

Nearly Perfect, i basically depend on this for my day to day survival, (was sad when the pro plan had a word limit) but plus plan is fine too.. would be PERFECT if... (1) if the pdf & web reader had a Dark Mode (2) it could import the bookmarks/outline from the pdf file/document (3) it we are able to annotate the pdf/web document & save it

Lifesaver.

Awful, it didn't even play sound. I had to check my headphones and computer to make sure the volume was still working. Awful.

This is the absolute best tool I've used to help with my ADHD &. I can hear things that I would normally have to read. I still get distracted, but I'm much more likely to remember things when I can hear and read it at the same time. Thank you for making this!

OMG OMG OMG .... thank you thank you thank you .. so so so much !

clear and generally pretty good

I've used a few of the chrome text to speech extensions and this is my favorite by far. The voice is not robotic and it pronounces everything correctly. Also, it sounds a bit like Susan Sarandon, which I love! Highly recommend!

I always NaturalReader this to edit my papers and to read articles I don't feel like reading myself. I would cite it as one of the reason I did well in college 100%!!

Great one !

Perfect for reading websites and PDFs while you're doing other things. The monthly fee is well worth it to have mp3's with you on the go.

I like it so far. I paid the annual fee. The voice quality is good and the features are largely ones I really wish were built into the iPhone accessibility features but are not yet.

this is literally perfect for ppl w short attention spans

Great app

I really do enjoy using this extension because It helps me pay attention and is a very useful learning tool however It does have many issues that come with it like being unable to use shortcuts and even sometimes having the highlighter not work randomly and these don't sound too bad but if you experience it yourself than it can be problematic because it makes it less easy to use

Really helps me out when I have a lot of reading for school!

awesome tech!

I've been very satisfied with the flexibility of this app.

Love the variety of choices of voices for each level of subscription, and the quality is the best reader I've used so far.

Love this app, using for studying and reading documents that is very large

Love love love plus membership. English UK - Sonia voice is helping me make it through college. Like many others paying for the upgraded speech to text help, who have ADHD..this helps me keep focused while reading/listening at the same time. WORTH IT 10/10 recommend

Awesome!

I highly recommend this utility to anybody looking to add seamless integration to their chrome-flow. The widget is well designed and discrete. The free voices are very smooth and eloquently read. Very hard to go wrong with this. Try it yourself.

I've used several text to speech addons and this is the best as it continues to read the rest of the article if you can't select it all. Also speed adjustments and pausing etc are all very easy to do. Highly recommended.

Great overall. Can't complain with the free version and the paid version sounds GREAT

really good at reading pdfs and other things

Use it all the time!

I take forever to read anything. This has helped me pass classes under a crunch.

I was going back to college after 15 years of being out of school. I was an audio learner than and still am today. When looking for a text reader aid I come upon this and I was like sounds to good to be true. After having it installed on multiple computers it has helped me get to the next level of my career and I am very thankful for this program. Matt Beavers

Simple design. Easy to use. Fast. Good selection of voices.

I have tried other text to speech apps and extensions and I always come back to Natural Reader. I started using Natural Reader in 2010. When it gets buggy I usually switch to an alternative but nothing is as good as this for the quality even at the free version. The bugs are always resolved eventually. Speechify is my go to for mobile but its too expensive for the same features that I get on desktop on Natural Reader.

I used this to read the bulk of the documents needed for my Extended Essay... highly recommend for study-reading

Pro - The app has some good features even in the free version. The app is being maintained and upgraded. Con - Some upgrades have sacrificed functionality for aesthetics at times. Function should always precede form.

Got me this far in college if I'm honest.

Excellent way to "read" while listening, and at the same time engage in other tasks. A good way to multi-task.

So, you're telling me that I have to PAY just so I can have the correct pronunciation? That's lame and greedy. Also, EVERY TIME I pause mid-sentence, it RESTARTS! FIX THIS!!

Very useful for my exam preparation.It let me focus onto my work without any distractions.

I am an online student and the student accessibility center at my school recommended this reader to me. I have used it for 2 terms and I haven't regretted it! I love this reader and believe that this reader is one of the reasons why I fly through the lessons so quickly. I retain the information a lot faster and I love the results in my grades. Thanks Natural Reader!

It helps you process what you are reading a lot better, the only issue is that it does not work on some times of documents, making the extension somewhat limited.

As someone with ADHD, this app has really helped with my reading comprehension. I highly recommend.

I first began using Natural reader in college back in 2018, I have since continued using it for professional and personal use alike. Last year I even encouraged my company to integrate Natural Reader's Commercial license as a resource for our marketing and advertising department. Excellent and easy to use api with clean non-invasive pug-in make me happy to recommend this tool to clients and family members alike.

This is a game changer! It works and is great.

Very responsive, Very clear voices, wish they could make the icon can be resized

Loved the floting control, easy to manage. Sound and pronounciation, awsome quality. Simply loved it.

Makes my work life easier by being able to read things in a timely manner and comprehend better then if I had to read it visually. I'm better at my job, helping people with disabilities, while having a disability because of this program.

best TTS app I've found as of yet. the premium voices are the best in my opinion, and i love using UK Peter voice to listen to books while I'm at work. worth it!

Wowowow the voices for this, even the non premium voices work so well to relay info to my brain, as opposed to other text to speech voices. Been using this for 4 or more years, great job! I love using something around 4x speed while I read so pronunciation has to sound correct or the words don't stick, this does the job. I am not a good reader, so I use this all the time for my online college readings saving so much time. Thank you!

5 minute time limit

I Love this extension. My school DSPS dept put this on my laptop to help me with understanding what I read. You can set the speed which I really like. I got the app on my phone too, I wish it was like this. I highly recommend it If you want a audio feature on anything you can bring up on the screen.

It was malfunctioning like crazy when I tried to use it with google docs. Their customer service while courteous was terrible. It took them close to 6 hours to get back to me on my first inquiry. I would get one message back every 8 hours or so. Don't be fooled by their chat function on the website...no one will answer you for hours...maybe even days. She was nice but not helpful at all. It felt like she was asking me similar questions over and over again. The asynchronous communication was terrible.

I have tried several of these apps and this is the only one that works as advertised. It has voices you may actually want to use and reads the most natural of the ones I've used. As a dyslexic, I use this to proofread my work, and it really helps me to find errors I have read over and missed for years.

Great app. I use a lot to help keeps the concentration and a constant pace while reading a text - the voice reader is very good.

Amazing for ADHD

Simply put: It works!

You need this. If you have any sort of ADHD or a class you need to get through, download and use this. It is the only reason I get A's in College.

I use this tool daily, a must have. Sound quality is fantastic and interface is significantly better than other text to speech extensions.

I use this to get extra review of my textbooks in. Following along while the app reads it out loud helps a lot.

Game changer!

It made my day! The sound is natural. Love it.

Support is great!

its amazing very useful use it everyday it helps a lot in listening to stories while doing other stuff rather than reading them i absolutely love it and hope it gets better and better