The macOS ecosystem has always had fewer apps compared to iOS, mainly due to the vast difference in popularity between the two platforms. However, with the introduction of Apple Silicon, the App Store has been flooded with iOS apps now available for Mac. While these apps are optimized for iPad and offer a decent visual experience, they often fail to fully support macOS’s expected interaction patterns.
Why iOS Apps Fall Short on macOS
Many iOS apps lack proper support for macOS Human Interface Guidelines, and one of the key areas where they struggle is keyboard shortcuts. On a Mac, keyboard navigation is an essential part of a productive workflow. However, most iOS-based TTS apps simply aren’t built with this in mind, making them inconvenient for users who rely on fast, efficient text navigation.
The Importance of Keyboard Shortcuts in TTS Apps
For those who frequently use text-to-speech apps, keyboard shortcuts are a game-changer. Interactive text listening requires quick ways to seek through content, whether by:
- Title
- Bookmark
- Time
- Sentence
- Paragraph
- Page
Without these shortcut options, users are left clicking through menus or using a touch-based interface, which is not ideal for a Mac workflow.
A True macOS Experience with Speech Central
For a TTS app that fully supports the native Mac experience, Speech Central is the solution. Unlike iOS-based apps, Speech Central is designed from the ground up for macOS, ensuring it meets all expectations for keyboard navigation and productivity.
Speech Central allows users to:
- Navigate text using extensive keyboard shortcuts
- Seek forward and backward by various segments (titles, bookmarks, time, sentences, paragraphs, pages)
- Bookmark key points in a text with a single shortcut
- Customize voice switching with keyboard shortcuts, even across different engines (Apple, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI)
This going far above what even most of native macOS competition offers. For example Speechify offers only keyboard shortcuts for seeking by the sentence.
Enhance Your TTS Experience on Mac
Choosing a native macOS TTS app like Speech Central means getting the full benefits of Mac’s productivity-first experience. Whether you need to navigate long documents, switch voices on the fly, or simply enjoy a hands-free reading experience, Speech Central is built for the task.
Get Speech Central today and take your Mac TTS experience to the next level: