Review: TWT SMS Reader
Score:
76%
Version Reviewed: 1.32.943
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Very much a niche application and (necessarily) slightly strange in terms of interface, TWT SMS Reader is nevertheless effective, at least in terms of 'doing what it says on the tin'. The aim is to speak incoming texts to you while you're driving and to allow you to post a quick reply with absolute minimal sight of your smartphone's screen.
The utility comes in two parts. The first integrates itself into the Symbian OS messaging system, so that when a new message is received an information message can be popped up and you can choose to process it in the main TWT SMS Reader. One more keypress and the message is displayed on screen and reading then starts in a computer-generated, but surprisingly accessible voice. It managed to get "Litchfield" right, for a start, which impressed me. Replaying the message is only ever another keypress away.
The idea behind this program is good, but there are a few caveats. For people not in your Contacts store, I found the long winded readout of the sender's phone no and time of sending unnecessary and tiresome. After all, you don't already know the person, there's not much point in simply being read a 12 digit string. Also, TWT SMS Reader, despite its fluency with names and words, amazingly can't handle common abbreviations and emoticons, as used a lot in text messages. So ETA and 8-) and l8r are all read literally. Also disappointing was the way you can't get back to re-reading old messages - the program only works while a message's flag is set to 'new'.
I liked the way you can send potential quick replies with a couple of keypresses, with the replies themselves read out aloud should you still not be able to look at the screen. Interestingly, there was a choice of half a dozen 'voices' for the software to use, although I found the default one to be the clearest, even if it did have a slight German accent.
TWT SMS Reader is a great idea and so nearly 'there'. But it fails to go the last mile and this is reflected in the score of 76%
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at