by Shelly Brisbin
Another app switches to a subscription model, angering its users
Voice Dream Reader, the highly regarded Mac and iOS text-to-speech reading app, is the latest beloved app to adopting a subscription model, angering its loyal user base in the process. (In this case, the community of users skews heavily toward folks who are blind, visually impaired, or have print disabilities like dyslexia.)
The move comes from the app’s new owner, Applause Group, which bought the app in 2023 from original developer Winston Chen. Part of the backlash results from the planned $79 per year price tag (discounted to $59 until at least May 1, when the subscription becomes mandatory), but a bigger issue for longtime users is that Applause Group will effectively disable the older version of the app.
Jonathan Mosen, a well-known voice in the blindness community, says Applause Group has engaged in “trust-building” with the user community of late. However, he writes:
Users who are unwilling or unable to pay a subscription will lose the ability to add new content to their Voice Dream Reader library, thus rendering the app useless once they have read all the current material they have uploaded to the app. To put it clearly, Applause Group wants existing customers to pay a second time to retain functionality they already paid for.
Mosen also accuses Applause Group of violating App Store guidelines that require clarity when a developer changes the business model, since uploading new material to the app’s library was a feature users already had already purchased.