EchoVision Wish List: Reading Mode

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Reading printed and on-screen text aloud.

Part of the EchoVision Wish List. See also how we decide on ideas.

12 ideas: 1 in testing, 2 in progress, 4 planned, 3 under review and 2 released.

In testing

READ-10: Quick reading for short text

  • Status: In testing. Quick Read (press the AI button 4 times) is in beta testing.
  • What owners asked: Could there be an instant reading mode for short text, like Seeing AI's Short Text?

In progress

READ-01: Save scans as files

  • Status: In progress. You can already copy or share any scan's text from the History tab (since April 2026). Saving to a file is next in line. Formats you asked for: text or PDF saved to Files, one file per multi-page document, and keeping tables and columns.
  • What owners asked: Do you agree with and are you working on implementing a save-to-txt file option for v1.0 … or ever? (If so, perhaps the .txt could be saved to glasses storage, or optionally, sent to a dropbox folder?)
  • Related: APP-03: Share a History entry

READ-03: Warn when a page is blank, upside down or sideways

  • Status: In progress. Reading Mode now warns about blur, low light and small text (since October 2026). Detecting upside-down pages is still in progress. It comes to Reading Mode first, then to scene description and Live AI.
  • What owners asked: If I try to read something that's blank or upside down or rotated 90 degrees to the left or right, can this be announced?
  • Related: READ-04: Spoken hints to fit the whole page in view

Planned

READ-02: Add a business card to my contacts

  • Status: Planned.
  • What owners asked: What about if we read someone's business card, could the details be optionally added to our contacts?

READ-04: Spoken hints to fit the whole page in view

READ-07: Say "next" to read the next page

READ-08: Ask follow-up questions in Reading Mode

  • Status: Planned. Next in line on the reading roadmap.
  • What owners asked: What about being able to ask a follow up question in reading mode, like please repeat that phone #?
  • Related: READ-07: Say "next" to read the next page

Under review

READ-09: Better newspapers, menus and columns

  • Status: Under review. Book layouts are now read in natural order (since June 2026).
  • What owners asked: Could Reading Mode handle newspapers, menus and multi-column pages better, and let me read just one part, like the cooking instructions?

READ-11: Picture books and comics, read and described

  • Status: Under review.
  • What owners asked: For picture books and comics, could the glasses read the text and also describe the pictures, with an on/off option?

READ-12: Skip back further, and skip by sentence or paragraph

Released

READ-05: Turn off "you can lower the document now"

  • Status: Released. Setting added in February 2026: in the companion app, set Settings > Device Management > Verbosity Level to Brief, and Reading Mode no longer says "you can lower the document now"; see Verbosity Level in the user guide. More tuning is ongoing.
  • What owners asked: Does it have to always say, ok you can lower the document now after it's happy with the positioning? I liked it for the first 100 times but not any more!

READ-06: Go back to the previous section while reading

  • Status: Released. Double-tap skips forward and triple-tap skips back, by heading, section or paragraph depending on the document; see Controlling Playback in the user guide. Stepping further back and choosing to move by sentence or paragraph are now a separate idea, READ-12.
  • What owners asked: Are you working on anything where we could either re-read the last page or back up by sentence/paragraph, maybe by pressing the power button?
  • Related: READ-12: Skip back further, and skip by sentence or paragraph