App Name: ShoutOUT Text-to-Speech by Promptu Systems Corporation
Price: Free
Description: ShoutOut is a full-features messaging app that includes voice addressing and dictation. Speak your message and see the results in seconds.
How it works: First time you use this app you have to set it up so it can understand your voice and tone pronunciation. The developers call this feature ´Voice Enrollment´, and say it is meant to ´train ShoutOUT to your voice.´ To ´train´ the app the user must repeat five phrases given by the app. After this initial setup you are good to go. This app is very simple to use. Just open, select a contact to message, press the Hold+Talk button to ´Shout´ your message and wait for the magic to happen. I must say that of all the times I’ve tried the app I’ve only had like 2 or 3 errors (I bet my Latin accent has something to do with those errors.) (Note: Even though ´Shouting´ is the main characteristic of the app, you can also type your messages.) Pressing the Menu button will give the user the options to Write a New Message, access Contacts, a list of the most Recent messages, an Edit button (used to delete conversations), access Settings and a ´More´ button which has Tips, About info and Legal info of the app. The New Message button is self explanatory, it will allow you to write a new message. The contacts button will access your phone’s contacts from within the app so you can easily text them. The Recents button will show a list of most recent messages. Edit, as I said before, allows the user to delete the conversations. And ´last but not least´, the Settings button allows the user to:
- Re-train your ShoutOUT to understand your voice.
- Reset all the values.
- Personalize ShoutOUT notifications.
- Personalize the Text-to-Speech playback settings
- Adjust the messages font size (Normal or Large.)
**This app can be selected as default messaging app the first time you receive a message with the app installed.**
Opinion: This is a very responsive app which amazes with its text-to-speech accuracy. It is so accurate it’s almost scary. Settings and Options are okay although it wouldn’t hurt anyone if the UI could be more customizable.
Ratings :
- Speed (5/5) – Never had any lag with this app. It worked awesomely fast and recognized speech very fast too.
- Features (5/5) – Does what it says perfectly. With a little more options this could be a serious threat for Google (those guys are really into voice commands, aren’t they?)
- Theme (3.5/5) – It has a very nice UI but should be customizable. That’s a standard for any messaging app, ain’t it?
- Overall (4.5/5) – Brilliant app for people who like to talk to their phones. The voice recognition is amazing and fast.
Pro: Very fast and responsive. Recognizes voice flawlessly. Almost no errors in transcriptions.
Cons: Lack of UI customization. More languages would be good (Spanish, anyone?)
Conclusion: This app does what it says in a brilliant and fast way. It should be consider one of the best, if not the best, in its field. Although it needs to give the user the option to customize the UI, it is a very responsive app that has the essential options.