Text to speech in Spanish, French and more on iPhone

Narratorr reads books, PDFs and web pages aloud in seven languages with natural AI voices: English (US and UK accents), Spanish, French, Hindi, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Mandarin. Those voices can run on your iPhone with no internet, for free. For any other language, the voices built into iOS cover dozens more.

This guide shows how to pick a voice for a book in another language, what happens with mixed-language text, and where the limits are.

Which voices speak which languages

Narratorr has three voice engines. Two of them speak the same seven languages.

• Offline AI runs natural AI voices on your iPhone or iPad, in all seven languages. It is free, has no time limit and needs no connection once downloaded.
• Online AI has 45+ premium AI voices in the same seven languages, made on our servers. It needs internet and comes with 1 free hour, then $2.99/month or $19.99/year.
• Device voices are the voices that come with iOS, in dozens of languages. They are free and offline.

Mandarin is labelled Beta in the AI voices: it highlights a paragraph at a time rather than word by word. Very long Hindi paragraphs are highlighted the same way. The voice itself reads normally; only the highlighting is coarser.

The full comparison of the three engines is on the Support page.

Set up Offline AI once for all seven

Offline AI is one download, and it covers every language. You do not pick languages to download.

1. Open any book in Narratorr.
2. Tap the waveform button at the left of the playback bar to open Speech Settings.
3. Tap Offline AI. Narratorr shows the size and asks before it downloads anything.

As of November 2026 the download is about 111 MB. Wi-Fi is recommended, and on cellular you can choose to wait for Wi-Fi. Offline AI needs an iPhone or iPad with an A15 or M1 chip or newer (iPhone 13 and later); on older devices the option is not shown, and Online AI and device voices still work.

If you want to know more about listening with no connection, read offline text to speech on iPhone.

Pick a voice for a book in another language

Speech Settings has Language and Voice side by side.

1. Open the book and tap the waveform button to open Speech Settings.
2. Choose an engine: Offline AI, Online AI or device voices.
3. Choose the Language, then a Voice. Voices are grouped by language, and each preview plays in the voice's own language, so you hear how it sounds on real text.

Narratorr remembers your last voice for each language and syncs that choice through iCloud. Switch a Spanish book to your Spanish voice once, and the next Spanish book starts with it too.

You often will not need to do this by hand. When you open a book or a web article, Narratorr works out what language it is in. If that does not match your current narrator, a small banner offers to switch, for example: "This looks like Spanish. Switch the voice to Spanish?" Tap Not now and the banner stays gone for that book.

Books that mix two languages

Plenty of text is not in one language only: a Chinese web novel with English names, an English textbook with Chinese terms, or Hindi written alongside English. Narratorr handles these cases:

• English words inside Chinese text are read in English.
• Chinese inside English text is read in Chinese.
• Hindi mixed with English reads naturally.

For a name that still comes out wrong, the pronunciation dictionary fixes it everywhere. Select the word in the reader, tap Pronounce, and type how it should sound. The web novels guide has the details.

Getting the text in

Narratorr opens EPUB, PDF and TXT files, web pages from its built-in browser, scanned pages and pasted text. A few things matter for other languages:

• Chinese text and older encodings such as GBK import correctly, so TXT files from Chinese sites open as readable text.
• PDFs in Chinese, Hindi and Arabic have their lines joined into paragraphs, so the voice reads sentences, not broken lines.
• Hard-wrapped TXT files flow into paragraphs.

The browser works the same in any language: open a chapter, tap the headphones button at the left of the address bar, and it plays. See Support for every way to bring text in, and the PDF and EPUB guide for files.

Languages outside the seven

For a language the AI voices do not cover, use a device voice. iOS ships voices in dozens of languages, and you can add better ones for free:

1. On your iPhone, open Settings, then Accessibility, then Spoken Content or Read & Speak, then Voices.
2. Download an enhanced or premium voice for your language.
3. It appears in Narratorr's voice picker automatically.

Device voices sound less natural than the AI voices, but they are free, unlimited and work offline. Choose the language in Speech Settings as above, with device voices as the engine.

The app in your language

Beyond the voices, the app itself is available in Spanish, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Simplified Chinese.

Siri understands Narratorr in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Chinese as well as English, in the language Siri is set to. You can ask it to resume reading, play a book by title, or speed up and slow down. The phrases are on the Support page and in the Shortcuts app.

What it can't do

A few honest limits:

• AI voices cover seven languages. Anything else depends on which device voices iOS has.
• Mandarin, and very long Hindi paragraphs, highlight a paragraph at a time instead of word by word.
• Language detection suggests a voice; it does not switch on its own. You stay in control of the narrator.
• Online AI voices can't be exported as audio. To save a book in another language as M4A or M4B files, use Offline AI or a device voice.
• Scanned books with no text layer, and DRM-protected books, can't be read aloud.

What changed in each version, including when the six new languages arrived in v1.11, is on the changelog.

Try it

Pick a book in the language you are learning or the one you grew up with, open Speech Settings, and let Offline AI read the first chapter. It costs nothing. The prices for Online AI, if you want the premium voices, are on the home page.