Microsoft is creating a new group focused on native Windows applications. That group needs to take notes in Speechify, which has been launched in the Microsoft Store. Coincidentally, developers can use Speechify to take those notes, as this app is ready to be called.
Speechify is worth covering on its own just because of its text-to-speech and speech-to-text functionality. It works very well, and I am very happy with it in my tests. I focused on that side of the app last week when I put together the launch.
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The Windows operating system Microsoft should emulate
To be clear, there are a ton of great Windows apps that embrace Microsoft’s vision of computing on PCs. But Speechify is new and shiny, so it gives us a great opportunity to focus on the direction Microsoft and other developers need to take.
Speechify isn’t just a web wrapper in a window (looking at Copilot, Clipchamp, and Outlook). Speechify has gone above and beyond to fully embrace the Windows operating system platform. The app is available on AMD, Intel, and Snapdragon X chips, natively, and uses WinUI 3. This is the kind of app Microsoft should have made.
Speechify has worked with Microsoft to create a new Windows app.
Because Speechify is a native app, it works across all apps, it can use real-time text input in any text field, it supports OCR-based text capture on your screen, and it can protect things locally using Windows encryption.
Speechify can take advantage of the NPU inside the Copilot+ PC, or run with GPU acceleration. You can also set it up to run in the cloud or run on your PC locally.
Arguably, the most seamless integration is how it works with everything in Windows. You can enter text by simply holding down the Alt key, it sounds like I’m recording a voice memo, and it just types my words directly into whatever text field I want.
Listening to text is equally smooth. The default is to hold Alt and A to start reading the selected text with your preset voice. If you’re on the web, the Speechify extension is a great text-to-speech add-on, but you can also use the Speechify app.
As good as it is, Speechify isn’t perfect. It has other features, such as its lack of ability to change the size of the window, you can use it as its default size or double-click the title bar to enter full screen.
Microsoft needs to emulate Speechify come closer in building Windows applications, such as supporting all chip architectures at launch, installing an application in the Microsoft Store, using WinUI 3 to create a native application rather than wrapping it through the web.
Fortunately, Huyn is well versed in native app development. This time next year, I predict that I will be writing similar articles about new or improved applications made by Microsoft Windows 11.
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