Speechify has mainly been a tool for listening to articles, PDFs, and documents. Now, the company is introducing new voice detection features to its Chrome extension, adding voice typing and a voice assistant that can answer your questions.
In the past year, the rise of voice detection tools has surged, driven by improvements in speech recognition technology. Speechify is jumping on this trend and launching its own dictation tool that supports English. Similar to other tools, Speechify’s voice typing corrects errors and eliminates filler words.
In my brief test lasting just over a day, I noticed a lot of potential for improvement in Speechify’s tool. While it works well with Gmail and Google Docs, I had trouble activating voice dictation on platforms like WordPress. The company mentioned that it is gradually optimizing the tool for popular sites.
Image Credits: Speechify
Regarding accuracy, the word error rate was higher compared to other tools like Wispr Flow, Willow, and Monologue. Speechify indicated that its model learns faster the more you use it, so the error rate should decline over time.
The startup is also launching a conversational voice assistant that will appear in the sidebar of your browser. You can ask it questions about the website, such as “What are the three key ideas?” or “Can you explain this in simpler terms?”
While ChatGPT and Gemini have conversational features, Speechify believes these tools treat voice functionalities as an afterthought. According to Rohan Pavuluri, the company’s chief business officer, Speechify aims to prioritize voice as the main form of interaction every time users engage with their AI.
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One notable issue is that Speechify’s assistant doesn’t currently work with browsers that have built-in sidebar assistants like OpenAI’s Atlas, Perplexity’s Coment, and Dia. However, the startup isn’t overly concerned, as the extension primarily targets Chrome and its vast user base.
Speechify plans to gradually incorporate both voice typing and the voice assistant across all its apps for both desktop and mobile devices.
The startup also envisions developing agents capable of completing tasks on your behalf. While they haven’t disclosed their full roadmap, they did provide an example: making calls for appointments or waiting on hold with customer support. Other companies like Truecaller and Cloacked are pursuing similar objectives.
