On the App Store since 2010
Flash Reader is back, and better than ever.
It read you one word at a time years before that was a trend. Now we have rebuilt it from scratch, and everything happens on your device.
Paste it, share it, open a PDF, EPUB or Word file, or point the camera at a page, and you're reading. Your streak and your place wait on the Lock Screen.
Designed for iPhone Duo. Open it and the page unfolds beside the words. Close it and carry on.
You are reading one word at a time. Your eyes have not moved since the first one. Every word lands in the same spot, and the red mark under the ticks gives them somewhere to rest.
On a page, your eyes do a lot of quiet work. They jump from word to word, land a little early or late, and slip back to check a line they already passed. Here, the words do the moving. You just read.
Notice the small pauses. A comma holds a word a beat longer, and a full stop longer still. A new paragraph leaves the stage empty for a breath. Little words like "the" and "of" pass quickly, because you hardly need to see them.
Feels slow? Try 350 below. Feels fast? Tap, and the words wait for you.
This is Flash Reader. It has read like this since 2010, and now it is back, better than ever. Paste anything, share anything, point the camera at a page, and let your eyes rest here while the words come to them.
Three ways to read.
Flash
One word, one spot, and the pages fly.
Chunk
A few words at a time, for when you would rather stroll.
Reader
The whole text, for a look back.
Tap to pause. Play picks the sentence back up, so you never lose the thread.
Speed, with receipts.
Plenty of apps promise a thousand words a minute. We would rather you remember what you read. Flash Reader starts you at 250, shows the zone you are in, and counts your pauses in your real speed. Go faster whenever you like. The ruler tells you what it costs.
Read anything. Start anywhere.
- Copy anything, anywhere. One tap in Control Center and it flashes.
- Drop in a link and get the article, with none of the clutter around it.
- Say "Flash my clipboard" or "Resume reading" and Siri does the rest.
iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo.
iPhone for the stolen minutes. iPad for the long sit, with the library beside the reading view and a keyboard that drives both.
One purchase covers iPhone and iPad. The whole app speaks 50 languages.
Everything happens on your device.
No account, no sign in, no servers of ours. Imports, scans and stats all happen on the device in your hand, and nothing you read is sent to us. There is nothing in the app that watches you.
With Pro, your library travels between your devices through your own iCloud. We never see it.
Free to start. Pro when you need it.
Download Flash Reader on the App Store
Free
Everything you paste, copy or share reads free, forever, at full quality: every mode, every speed, every theme, links, TXT and Markdown files, and three documents on the shelf at a time.
Pro
PDF, EPUB, Word, RTF and HTML files, scans and photos, an unlimited shelf, iCloud sync between your devices, and every format that ships later.
- By the year 14 days free, then yearly. $29.99
- Pay once. It's yours. $79.99
- By the month $4.99
US prices. The App Store shows your local price.
No account. No ads. No weekly plans. Annual and monthly Pro renew until cancelled in your Apple Account settings.
Bought Pro inside Flash Reader back in the day? It still counts. Restore purchases brings it back on any device, forever.
Bought the app itself in the paid years, before 2015? Flash Reader 4 recognises that on first launch and offers Pro Lifetime at a returning price.
Questions.
Does speed reading actually work?
Up to a point, and we will tell you where the point is. One word at a fixed spot feels dramatically faster and helps you focus. Understanding holds to about 350 words a minute and drops past 500. The studies are on the method page.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Reading, importing files, scanning and your stats need no connection. iCloud sync catches up when you are back online.
Can it help with ADHD or dyslexia?
A 2025 study found that young adults with ADHD understood more reading one word at a time than from a page, while readers without ADHD did slightly worse. Flash Reader is built with that reader in mind. For dyslexia the evidence is thinner, so we make no claim; the app offers a choice of fonts, OpenDyslexic among them, and an adjustable word size. The studies are on the method page.
Is there a Mac version?
Not yet. Mac follows as a free update, covered by the same purchase.