Speechify is primarily a tool that enables users to listen to articles, PDFs, and documents. The company has now enhanced its Chrome extension with new voice recognition capabilities, including voice input and a voice-powered assistant capable of answering questions.
Over the past year, as the overall quality of speech recognition models has improved, the number of voice-enabled tools has surged. Speechify is riding this wave by launching a voice input feature that currently supports English. Like other similar tools, Speechify’s implementation can correct errors and filter out filler words.
During my brief testing period—just over a day—I found that Speechify’s tools still have significant room for improvement. For instance, they worked smoothly on Gmail and Google Docs, but I encountered difficulties activating and using voice input on platforms like WordPress. The company says it’s gradually optimizing the extension for popular websites.
In terms of accuracy, Speechify’s word error rate is higher than that of competing tools such as Wispr Flow, Willow, and Monologue. However, Speechify notes that its model improves with usage, and error rates are expected to decrease over time.
The startup has also introduced a conversational voice assistant that resides in the browser sidebar. Users can ask it questions about the current webpage—for example, “What are the three key points?” or “Explain this in simpler terms.”
While ChatGPT and Gemini offer conversational modes, Speechify argues these are secondary features in those platforms. In contrast, Speechify positions voice interaction as its core experience.
“We believe that when users open ChatGPT or Gemini, chat will always be the default user experience—that’s what their users expect. Voice will remain secondary, often an add-on feature. From years of building Speechify, we’ve learned there’s a large segment of users—including ours—who want voice to be the primary and default mode every time they open an app and interact with AI,” Rohan Pavuluri, Chief Business Officer at Speechify, told TechCrunch via email.
One notable limitation is that Speechify’s assistant currently doesn’t work alongside browsers that already include built-in sidebar assistants, such as OpenAI’s Atlas, Perplexity’s Comet, and Dia. However, the startup isn’t overly concerned, as the extension is primarily designed for Chrome and its massive user base.
Speechify says it plans to gradually roll out both voice input and the voice assistant across all its desktop and mobile applications.
