For iPhone & iPad
Anything you want to read, you can listen to instead: a webpage, a PDF, a book, a printed page, the tabs piling up in your browser. Timber reads it aloud in a voice you choose.
Anything you want to read, you can listen to instead: webpages, PDFs, books, printed pages, your open tabs.
“My son reads better because Timber reads it with him.”
† No account · iOS 18 and later
Hear a free voice in your language
“Timber reads it out loud, and follows along while it does.”
Why it exists
“…I wanted to make sure that everyone had access to a tool to help them explore the Internet while learning how to read quality information.”
Two promises
Who it’s for
Follow along on the page, then cite it in MLA or APA.
Mark passages as you listen. Hand them out as a worksheet or study guide.
A friendlier typeface, a bold first letter on each word, wider spacing and a warm tint.
VoiceOver throughout, and text that grows to the largest sizes. Point your camera at a menu and hear it.
Slow the voice down and follow each word, or translate an article and hear it in your new language.
Every accessibility setting is free, including the full dyslexia mode.
See the accessibility workHow it works
Timber pulls out the full text before it says a word. What you bring in is what you hear, start to finish.
Paste a link, share from Safari, open a PDF, EPUB, Word or PowerPoint file, or point your camera at a printed page.
Play a sample before you download. Once it is on your phone, it works with no connection.
Every word lights up as it is spoken, whether you slow the voice down or speed it up.
Scanned chapters repeat a header on every page. Timber spots it and silences it across the whole document in one tap.
The voices
In every language, each library gives you a free male and a free female voice. Every Apple voice on your device works too, and so does your Apple Personal Voice.
All seven run on your phone
Also inside
Every screen below is the app as it ships, not a mockup.
Trust
Today every voice runs on your phone, so Timber keeps reading on a plane, in a tunnel, anywhere. Nothing you read leaves your phone unless you ask it to.
Timber will never
Most big read-aloud apps send your text to a server and charge a subscription for the good voices. Timber reads on your iPhone. The longer comparisons below say where the others win.
| Timber | The others, typically | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the voice runs | On your iPhone | On their servers |
| Account needed | No | Yes |
| Voices without paying | 300+, in 71 languages | A handful, or a monthly hour cap |
| Works with no signal | Yes | Usually not |
| Reads a photo of a page | Yes | Sometimes, on the paid tier |
| Turns a chapter into a worksheet | Yes | No |
| Android and web | No, Apple only | Usually yes |
The long versions
Timber Pro
Pro opens the rest of the voice catalog, the full speed range and a few extras. It also keeps a free, private reader going for everyone else.
Everything in the free list stays free, with or without Pro.
The collector, on your Mac
✶ Timber Tabs · free for Mac & Windows
Timber Tabs gathers the tabs you keep meaning to read, groups them by site, and pre-selects the ones that read like articles. Keep what you want, then send the list to your iPhone or save it as a .timberlist file.
† On Windows? Use the Chrome, Edge or Firefox extension. No Mac needed. See how →
† …and any other Chromium browser, through the extension. Firefox always needs the extension.
Your tabs are sorted on your Mac, or right in your browser on Windows. Timber Tabs reads only their titles and addresses, never the pages, and sends nothing to a server of ours.
Start listening
Your eyes can be tired, busy, or somewhere else. The reading still gets done.
† Free to download · no account · iOS 18 and later