Offline TTS on iPhone: How On-Device TTS Works
Can text to speech work offline on iPhone, iPad and Mac? What Yomite generates on the device, what still needs a connection, and what stays private.
Yes, text to speech can work offline when the voice is generated on the device, which is how Yomite works. The speech is made on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, so text that is already in your library does not have to travel to a server to be read. What still needs a connection is fetching new content: web pages, feeds, an OPDS library and iCloud sync. Your books are not uploaded, and there is no account.
Related use case: Compare with other apps
Last verified: 2026-10-15 against Yomite 2.1.2 and Apple Support’s Spoken Content page. This page describes how the app is built; it is not a benchmark.
What is the difference between cloud and on-device text to speech?
| Cloud text to speech | On-device text to speech (Yomite) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the audio is made | On a server | On your iPhone, iPad or Mac |
| What leaves the device | The text being read | Nothing from your books |
| Needs a connection to read | Yes | Not for text already in your library |
| Account | Often required | Not required |
This is a comparison of categories, not of named apps.
What does Yomite generate on the device?
Yomite reads 32 content languages. For nine of them (Japanese, English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese) it uses its own on-device voices. For the other 23 it uses Apple’s on-device voices. The 315+ Japanese voices are built into the app, so there is no per-voice download.
For languages that use Apple’s voices, iOS decides what is installed. Apple’s Spoken Content page notes that Enhanced-quality voices are larger downloads that you can add and remove, so check which voice you have installed before you go offline.
What still needs a connection?
- Opening a web page in the Web Reader or an Aozora Bunko page: a page has to be fetched.
- Importing a web novel, and updating RSS feeds, read-later accounts or an OPDS library.
- iCloud sync of your library and reading position (Premium).
Once an article, chapter or book is saved in your library, its text is stored on the device and read from there.
Is my book uploaded anywhere?
No. Books are not uploaded, the app contains no analytics SDK, there are no ads and no account. If you turn on iCloud sync, your library syncs to your own iCloud storage, not to ours. The full policy is on the privacy page.
What does it cost?
Listening is free for up to 20 minutes a day (15 minutes + 5 minutes from the daily check-in), and all on-device voices are free. Premium removes the daily limit; see the free vs Premium guide for what each plan includes and the App Store for prices.
FAQ
Is there an Android version?
Yes. Yomite is on Google Play for Android, and on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac. The Android version has its own voice lineup and pricing: core voices are free and unlocking all voices is a one-time purchase.
How much storage do the voices take?
See the storage guide. Voices are built in, and the main variable is the audio cache and your imported books.
Why build it on the device?
Two reasons. What you read says a lot about you, so we would rather not receive it. And an app that does not depend on a server keeps working if a service is down.
Questions? [email protected]
— Yomite Team