Forty-page paper due Friday. A novel that's been on the nightstand since before you can remember. Inhale Words gets through both — one word, or one small chunk, at a time.
No subscriptions. No library. No algorithm. Just your reading list, read faster.
— George R. R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
Two truths
For the academic
The average PhD student is assigned 200–300 pages a week. At a standard 200 words per minute, that's roughly 0 hours of reading, before you've written a word of your own work. The math doesn't forgive you for having a life.
For everyone else
Your toddler drew on page 12 in what appears to be permanent marker. Your phone, meanwhile, has been in your hand this entire time — for texts, for scrolling, for absolutely anything except the book you actually wanted to finish.
The science
Reading speed isn't limited by how fast you can think. It's limited by how your eyes and inner voice process a page. Change what they have to do, and the ceiling moves.
Most readers are bottlenecked by subvocalization — quietly "hearing" every word as they read it. Removing eye movements from the equation reliably raises speed over ordinary page reading without giving up comprehension. Reading at 300 words a minute starts to feel like reading at 200.
Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E. J., Potter, M. C., & Treiman, R. (2016). So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(1), 4–34.
Readers don't fixate on the middle of a word — they land slightly left of centre. Bold that exact letter in every word you flash, and the brain locks onto it before the word even finishes registering. That's the whole idea behind focal mode.
Benedetto, S., Carbone, A., Pedrotti, M., Le Fevre, K., Bey, L. A. Q., & Baccino, T. (2015). Rapid serial visual presentation in reading: The case of Spritz. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 352–358.
Regressions — glancing back a few words — aren't a bad habit. They're part of how comprehension gets built. Serial presentation removes them by design, which is exactly why per-book speed control matters more than chasing a bigger number.
Schotter, E. R., Tran, R., & Rayner, K. (2014). Don't believe what you read (only once): Comprehension is supported by regressions during reading. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1218–1226.
Adults spend on the order of four to five hours a day on their phones, and a fraction of one hour reading for pleasure. The bottleneck was never time. It was what the time defaulted to.
data.ai. (2023). State of Mobile 2023. data.ai (formerly App Annie).
Who it's for
Keep up with seminar readings without losing your mind.
Power through your literature review — preview a chapter before you commit to reading the whole thing.
Stay current in your field without burning out.
40 tabs open. 40 papers unread. Not anymore.
Books don't survive little hands. Your phone does.
You're already on your phone. Open it, hit play, stop when your stop comes — it picks up exactly where you left off.
How it works
EPUB, PDF, a URL, or text you paste straight in. If it's words, it goes in.
Run the built-in calibration passage once and we'll suggest your comfortable top speed. Every book keeps its own after that — dense paper at 320 WPM, easy novel at 550.
Focal mode: one word at a time, its optimal recognition point bolded. Chunk mode: two to four words per flash. Drop into a normal scrolling view any time you want a break from RSVP.
Mark the sentence you'll need for your lit review, or the line you'll want to read aloud later. Every highlight becomes a flashcard automatically.
A chapter summary waiting when you resurface, an AI quiz to check what stuck, and search across every highlight by meaning, not just keyword — all processed on your device, never sent to a server.
Suggested from your calibration passage
The results indicate a significant reduction in fixation duration when text is presented serially rather than in continuous prose.
What does the author cite as the primary bottleneck in reading speed?
Features
EPUB, PDF, a web article, or text you paste straight in. If it's words, it goes in.
A short calibration passage finds your comfortable top speed before you start — no guessing.
Dense nonfiction and light fiction don't move at the same pace. Neither should you.
Hold on a word to start a passage, release when it ends. Stays attached to the source.
Page numbers, edition, and source URL stay attached to every highlight, ready for when you need to cite it.
Every highlight becomes a flashcard, ready to flip through and reinforce what stuck.
Full chapter navigation for any EPUB that ships with one.
Position, percentage complete, and time remaining — always in view, never intrusive.
A daily streak and session history. As much or as little as you want to see.
AI quiz scores sit right alongside your reading stats, book by book — so speed and understanding stay in view together, not just one of them.
True dark, sepia, and more — considered themes, not just an inverted colour.
Several typefaces, including dyslexia-friendly options.
A traditional scrolling view sits right alongside RSVP. Switch mid-session, no penalty.
Open the app and start reading. Nothing stored by us — your OS handles backup to iCloud or Google, under your own terms.
AI, on-device
Every AI feature in Inhale Words runs locally, using Apple Intelligence on iOS or Gemini Nano on Android. Your text is generated into a response and then it's gone — never sent to a server, ours or anyone else's.
Tap a chapter in the table of contents and get a short overview — a few sentences on the main argument or narrative, then the key concepts as bullet points. Preview before you commit, or recap what you just read.
Open your highlights and tap AI Quiz. Three multiple-choice questions, generated from what you actually saved, to check whether the ideas stuck — not a generic reading test.
Search your library by meaning, not just keyword. Ask what an author says about motivation, and find the passage even if it never uses that word.
AI features need a device that can run them — iOS 26 or later with Apple Intelligence enabled, or a Gemini Nano-compatible Android device (Pixel 6 and later, select Samsung models). On older hardware, the rest of the app works exactly the same; these three features are simply unavailable.
What makes it different
| Inhale Words | Kindle | Readwise Reader | Spreeder | Outread | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSVP reading | Basic | ||||
| Import your own EPUB/PDF | Limited | ||||
| On-device AI (private) | |||||
| No account required | |||||
| One flat price, no tiers | |||||
| Highlights + flashcards | Basic | ||||
| Citations preserved | |||||
| Comprehension tracking |
$3.99/year, with a free trial before you're charged. No tiers, no ads, no upsells. Beta testers keep $1.99/year for life.
Privacy
Your reading list is nobody's business but yours. Not ours, not an advertiser's, not a data broker three steps removed. Even the AI features run entirely on your device — nothing you read is ever sent to a server. Everything lives on your phone. That's not a feature — it's the whole point.
Worth knowing
You're already on your phone
That's the average time people spend on their phones daily. It's also, roughly, enough time to finish a book a week — if a book was what showed up when you unlocked the screen. Inhale Words doesn't ask you to put the phone down. It just makes what's on it count for something.
Get notified
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Pricing
Less than a coffee. Keeps the app running, the developer fed, and your reading list shrinking.
Free trial at launch, cancel anytime. No tiers. No paywalls. No feature gates. One honest price.
Already testing the beta? You're grandfathered in at $1.99/year, for life — no action needed.