TalkingTime - talking clock +4

It helps to keep me on track

Minor app updates continue to keep this my favorite timekeeping app.
I am a totally blind person. For years, I relied on the Chime app to tell me the time on the hour and half hour. That app stopped working when I updated to iOS 15. I searched for a replacement and tried many. They all had some kind of quark that I did not want to live with. When I found Talking Time, I really liked it right away. I have been using it ever since. The only issue that I noticed is that the speech volume is not controlled by the ringer volume on my device (iPhone SE 3rd gen). The speech volume is controlled by the general volume setting of the phone. I normally would keep my phone volume pretty low. But since figuring this issue out, I now keep the volume higher, so I can hear the time announcements. For anyone out there missing the old Chime app, this is a great replacement. I hope that the developer keeps supporting it.

Exactly what I was looking for!

First app review I’ve ever written - have been trying to find a good “time announcement” app for awhile and I’ve found this one to have the best functionality and ease of use so far.

I wish there were more voice options but the ones provided work perfectly fine and I wouldn’t want an overly cheerful “costumer service” AI voice anyway, which seems to be the theme for most options on other apps.

As a designer, a part of me wishes the UI/UX was fully fleshed out into some sort of modern minimal/sleek design, but at the same time most apps who attempt this either go overboard trying to make it look good at the cost of experience / accessibility or are perfectly fine but just not my aesthetic… that’s all to say I don’t mind the functional spreadsheet feel, makes it feel more like you are just hacking your phone settings vs. sifting through brand speak and hidden menus to find the one function you need.

Resposta do desenvolvedor ,

Hi BarkusA. Thanks for the kind words. Regarding more voices - you can do that! Download voices in your iPhone's settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices > English. Don't download the Eloquence voices as they are buggy. Try to choose a voice that has (Premium) after the name. I personally prefer Ava as the most realistic voice. Once you've downloaded a voice it will show up in TalkingTime's Voice menu. Regarding the UX, I agree with your assessment, but as the entire app is just settings, I can't afford to spend the time to polish it. Thanks, Mark

Great App. Very useful. You will not be disappointed.

I’ve had an app like this for several years. After I recently upgraded to a new iPhone 12 Pro my old app was unavailable. I decided to give this one a try. To my surprise, this one works much better than my old one.

After I downloaded the app I noticed that I was not getting voice announcements. All I would get is a ding sound at the times I selected for it to function.

I reached out to the developers and got a quick response to my problem. I must say , I did not expect to hear from anyone to resolve my issue. Certainly not as fast as they responded.

Anyway, I received an email from Mark, one of the developers who gave me a list of options to try to correct the issue. Nothing from the list worked.

To make a long story short, Mark and I emailed each other back and forth until the issue was resolved. All in one day. Amazing.

Once the issue was resolved, the app performs as described with no issue. I have enjoyed this app 100%.

I do not wear a watch so this app is very useful for me during the day. Set up is very easy. It has options that you can pick and choose. Schedule your announcements, use voice or tone announce, choose the person who announces the time and has great technical support.

Best app of 2021. Shout out to Mark who cared enough to make an old man happy. I wish there were more people in the world like you.