I’m skeptical of AI writing tools — but Speechify for Windows won me over. Here's why this new voice‑writing app is fast, simple, and weirdly addictive.

Speechify just launched a Windows app that adds real-time text-to-speech and voice typing to PCs.

Windows 11 already has built-in voice typing if you use the touch screen keyboard. That feature works OK but I've had better luck with Speechify in my brief testing.

The Speechify team shared Premium access with me, allowing me to test all the features of the app. I "wrote" the vast majority of this piece with Speechify, though I've had to make some small edits. Speechify uses AI, so it loves to insert em dashes everywhere.

I touch on this more below, but you'll likely notice my writing feels different in this piece. That's because I spoke to write it rather than typing it by hand.

👉RELATED: Why ChatGPT and other AI tools love em dashes

Speechify is a popular tool for text-to-speech. It already had apps on Microsoft Edge, iOS, Android, and the web. Now with the Windows app, you get that same ability on your PC.

The Windows version of Speechify supports text-to-speech and speech-to-text, meaning you can use it to convert PDFs, emails, websites, and documents into audio. You can also use it for voice typing in any text field on your PC.

Speechify ($29 per month for Premium): $29 at apps.microsoft.com

This app adds voice typing and text-to-speech to Windows. It can read PDFs, web pages, or documents and can be used to convert spoken words to text with correct punctuation.

Note that the free version of Speechify is limited to slower listening speeds, fewer voices, and text-to-speech (voice typing requires Premium).

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Voice typing vs. hand typing

Because of how Speechify integrates with Windows, it allows me to speak very naturally, and I don't feel like I'm speaking to a robot. You might remember times where you spoke to your phone and you had to speak one word at a time, or you weren't speaking as yourself, and that's not what's happening here.

In fact, Speechify is so good at transcribing what I'm speaking that I actually feel like it highlights one of the flaws of using voice as a text input: most people don't speak exactly how they type. You have a different cadence, you have different filler words, you have repeated patterns that sound good when spoken but don't look great in text.

In this article, I had to make some small edits to avoid repeated words or out of place phrases that feel natural when you're just conversing with someone, which is how it feels when you use voice to text, but they don't exactly fit in a written piece of work.

One of the main benefits is that voice typing is significantly faster than typing by hand. Speechify highlights this in its press material and on its website. It's completely accurate, and it's unbelievable how many more words you can get out quickly, but you're going to have to train yourself to speak in a way that translates to written text.

Speechify pricing and availability

Speechify is available for free, but if you stick to the free version, you're going to be rather limited. You're capped at speeds of up to 1.5x normal, and you only get 10 robotic sounding voices.

And those are Speechify's own words, calling the voices "robotic", presumably in an attempt to get you to try the 200+ much more natural sounding voices available in the premium version.

Premium costs $29 per month, but you can greatly reduce that cost by paying yearly. Right now, Speechify's website says you can save about 60 percent with an annual subscription ($139 per year).

I'm enjoying Speechify so far, but there's quite a bit of sticker shock when you see $29 per month. If you use this app multiple times a day, every single day, that price is easy to justify.

I'm going to continue to use Speechify to see if it integrates into my workflow, or if the novelty of using voice typing wears off.

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